Moroccan police injure protesters in Western Sahara, detain human rights activist to prevent trial observation

01/09/2009 | Newsletter

Salha Boutngaiza

A Sahraoui young girl aged 24 was injured last night at the hands of the Moroccan forces during a peaceful demonstration.

Ms. Salha Boutngaiza was among the participants in the peaceful demonstration which took place on Monday, August 31, 2009 in Zemla district in El-Aaiun, Western Sahara.

The organizers and protesters were shouting slogans calling for independence of the occupied territory.

The Moroccan police intervened violently to disperse the demonstrators.

Ms. Salha confirmed that many officers wore civilian clothes. They were directed by the officer Abdel-Aziz Anouch (Touhima) and Khaled Barakat.

Also, a human rights activist was kidnapped the same day in El-Aaiun before being taken outside the city where he was interrogated and tortured.

El-Gasmi Lahbib

On August 26, 2009, Mr. El-Gasmi Lahbib, former political prisoner, was trying to enter to the town of Tan Tan in southern Morocco where he wanted to attend the trial of the Human Rights activist Naama Asfari. He was arrested with 11 other Sahrawi human rights activists.

The detention lasted 9 hours and prevented the activists from attending the trial.

Note: The number of Sahrawi victims of violations of human rights committed by the Moroccan authorities are increasing in Western Sahara. The thousands of complaints over the last four years before Moroccan courts have not been filed or processed for the main reason of the lack of evidence. However, no investigation has ever been made nor conducted to search evidence or to verify the nature of complaints.