SPS
OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/REPRESSION/APPEAL
The families of the Saharawi human rights activists detained by
Moroccan forces of repression
23.07.05
El Aaiun (occupied territories),
23/07/2005 (SPS) The families of the Saharawi human rights activists,
detained by Moroccan forces of repression, launched Wednesday an appeal
asking all persons concerned about peace and justice to intervene help
them release their husbands and sons detained in Moroccan cells for
having participated in peaceful demonstrations.
Here is the complete text of the appeal SPS received:
" Appeal of the families of the Saharawi
activists detained by the Moroccan forces of repression
Besides the degradation of the human rights’ situation in Western
Sahara and the persistence of the campaigns of violent repression,
accompanied with brutal abuses against the Saharawi population,
Saharawi human rights activists were targeted in particular by this
violent policy,
We the families of the Saharawi human rights activists, affected for
years by intimidations, harassments and systematic threats form the
Moroccan forces of occupation, for the simple reason of their
attachment to the defence of human rights.
Despite of the denunciations and appeals launched by international
organisations as well as some Moroccan organisations (the Forum Truth
and Justice, the Moroccan Association for Human rights among others),
Moroccan authorities pursued their practices which contradict all the
attitudes a State of law has to respect.
Thus, and instead of awarding them for their peaceful actions for the
promotion and the defence of human rights, Moroccan authorities of
occupation are committing serious and flagrant violations of human
rights against women, men and even children were not saved, since the
starting of the Intifada of Independence last May the 21. Torture,
ill-treatment and even sexual abuses against women and men became a
repeated practice.
We would like to recall the most recent events:
In the early morning of the 20 of July 2005, at 6.00 GMT Moroccan
police agent broke into the house of Saharawi human rights activist,
Mohamed Elmoutawakil in Casablanca and abducted him as well as his
friend, another Saharawi human rights activist, Mohamed Fadel El
Gaoudi. Mohamed Elmoutawakil is a former political prisoner (1992),
member of the executive bureau of the Forum Truth and Justice. Born in
1966, he is married and father of 3 children. Mohamed Fadel El Gaoudi
is also an ex-political prisoner (1979), member of the National Council
of the Forum Truth and Justice. He is married and father of 3 children;
he was illegally dismissed of his post as Director of a Bank agency in
the year 2000.
At 10.00 GMT of the same day, Moroccan forces of security broke into
the house of the Saharawi human rights activist Fatma Ayach in El Aaiun
and proceeded to the abduction of Saharawi human rights activists: El
Houssein Lidri, Brahim Noumria and Laarbi Massoud. El Houssein Lidri is
a member of the executive burea of the Forum Truth and Justice. He was
injured, with Aminatou Haidar, during the violent intervention against
a peaceful demonstration last June the 17th in El Aaiun. Brahim
Noumria, ex-‘disappeared’ in the secret detention camps of Agdz and
Kalaat M'Gouna, member of the Forum Truth and Justice which was
dissolved in 2003. He was victim to torture and restrictions of the
right of expression and movement. Laarbi Massaoud, ex-political
detainee in 1999 and was victim to many harassment because of his
engagement in favor of the defense of human rights.
These waves of violence, accompanied with many cases of abduction and
‘disappearance’, especially against Saharawi human rights activists,
intervenes after the brutal repression perpetrated against the Saharawi
population, whose only crime was to demonstrate peacefully in El Aaiun,
Dakhla and Assa, last Monday and Tuesday to claim for the respect of
human rights, the implementation of the UN’s resolutions regarding
Western Sahara, especially Saharawi people rights’ to
self-determination.
These actions of repression, flagrant and systematic violations of
human rights can but be identified as crimes against humanity that we
energetically condemn and we further draw the attention of the
international community to the dangerous results they may engender. We
live in a real atmosphere of terror and have to daily suffer the
presence of the persons accountable for the torture and sexual abuse of
our sons and daughters. This humiliation and these practices that
contradict the principles of the international Conventions of human
rights may have serious consequences.
It is a heavy responsibilities Moroccan authorities assume in the
moment when the entire world is facing terrorism that we energetically
condemn. We express, thus, our solidarity with the victims of these
cowards’ actions wherever they occur, including the violations
committed by the Moroccan Kingdom. This regime, and instead of adopting
the paths of democracy and liberties, adopts the methods of war of the
coward terrorism. What is the difference between those who put a bomb
in the metros and buses of the peaceful city of London and those who
terrorise an entire people submitting it to a permanent state of siege,
depriving it from claiming in peaceful ways its rights to
self-determination and independence, universally recognised, each
Saharawi been controlled by more than two agents of secret police or
soldiers? What is the difference between those who kill innocent
passengers in stations and those who kill innocent victims in Moroccan
prisons after torturing and raping them?
We are here in front of the same criminals, who must be fought back
with the same firmness and severity. We consider that Moroccan
torturers are as guilty criminals as the killers who blow bombs in
London, Casablanca or Madrid.
We, mothers, sisters, wives and brothers of all human rights defenders,
we fear for the lives of our sons and implore you to react before it is
too late. We are now at the borders of despair and we launch an urgent
appeal to the international community and to international human
rights’ organisations to immediately intervene for the immediate and
unconditional release of Saharawi human rights activists and the
prisoners of opinion such as: Aminatou Haidar, Ali Salem Tamek, Mohamed
El moutawakil, Mohamed Fdaili Gawdi, Lidri Houcine, Brahim
Noumria, El Arbi Massoud and all Saharawi political prisoners.
Signed by: -
The family of Aminetou HAIDAR -
The family of TAMEK Ali Salem -
The family of Mohamed ELMOUTAOIKIL -
The family of Fdaili GAWDI -
The family of Brahim NOUMRIA -
The family of LIDARI Lhoucine -
The family of Laarbi MASOUD
SPS
TERRITORIOS
OCCUPADOS/INTIFADA/HUNGER STRIKE
Saharawi political prisoners organise a hunger strike
<> El Aaiun (occupied territories), 23/07/2005
(SPS) Saharawi political prisoners started a 24 hours hunger strike,
this Saturday, to denounce the "systematic human rights violations in
Western Sahara", claming for their "immediate and unconditional
release", reported a press release publicised Saturday in El Aaiun, by
Saharawi human rights activists.
The victims, recently arrested, also claimed for "withdrawal of the
Moroccan forces of occupation that seal all the streets and
neighbourhoods of the city, as well as the stopping of the campaign of
arrests, torture and iniquitous trials".
On another hand, 4 Saharawi human rights activists, arrested within the
framework of the Moroccan campaign of terror and repression, Mohamed El
Moutawakil, Brahim Noumria, El Houssein Lidri et Laarbi Massoud, were
presented to the attorney of the Moroccan colonial forces in El Aaiun,
to "prepare for them one of these iniquitous trials like the
precedents, as if there is justice in Morocco", the text added.
It should be mentioned that sporadic and spontaneous demonstrations
were organised Friday here and there in the popular neighbourhoods of
"Hay Mattalla" in El Aaiun at about midnight. Moroccan Group of Urban
Security (GUS) quickly intervened to disperse the demonstrations and
strengthen the siege around the neighbourhood, indicated the
correspondent of SPS. (SPS)
SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE