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Amnesty calls for expanded UN mission to protect Western Saharan rights

17 / 12 / 2009 | Solidarity-Support

A Sahrawi human rights activist, on hunger strike in Lanzarote airport since she was expelled from Western Sahara by the Moroccan authorities, was admitted to hospital on Thursday morning as her health had deteriorated. Aminatou Haidar, who is currently in intensive care, refuses to be fed through a tube and is determined to continue her hunger strike. She started her hunger strike on 15 November in protest at her expulsion and to demand that she be allowed to return home. She was taken to Lanzarote General Hospital at about 1am. Amnesty International said it was ‘deeply regrettable’ that the Moroccan authorities have not yet allowed Aminatou Haidar to return to her home and her children in Laayoune.

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German Parliamentarians expresses solidarity with Aminatou Haidar, call on German government to act

17 / 12 / 2009 | Solidarity-Support

‘The Parliamentary Group of the Bundestag DIE LINKE calls on the Federal Government to take action towards Morocco for Aminatou Haidar’s immediate return and the protection of her life. We demand the return of the passport as well as the facilitation of re-entry into the West Sahara.’

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US Congressman Donald Payne gravely concerned about Aminatou Haidar

17 / 12 / 2009 | Solidarity-Support

‘I am gravely concerned that Ms. Haidar’s health is rapidly deteriorating towards the point of no return. Let her sacrifice be an urgent call to His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco , the Moroccan Government, and to the international community highlighting the urgent need for a resolution of the crisis of the Western Sahara through negotiations mediated by United Nations Special Envoy Christopher Ross and, ultimately, self-determination for the Sahrawi people. I urgently call upon the Moroccan authorities to take immediate and necessary measures to permit Ms. Haidar’s safe return to her home and family in Western Sahara.’

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Moroccan prison guards and staff attack seven Western Saharan prisoners in Salé

15 / 12 / 2009 | Newsletter, Political Prisoners

During the routine inspection campaign, the seven Sahrawi human rights defenders detained in the Moroccan prison of Salé were subjected today, Tuesday, to a violent attacks by prison staff, who were chanted the national anthem of Morocco and other slogans. The guards struck Saleh Labihi in his testicals. The staff said that they thank God for the King’s recent speech, which raised their morale against the nation’s enemies.

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Watch: RFK Center interviews Aminatou Haidar on day 30 of hunger strike

15 / 12 / 2009 | Images and Video

Today marks the 30th day of Aminatou Haidar’s hunger strike. The 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Laureate has still not been returned to her home in Western Sahara to reunite with her family after being forced on a plane against her will and sent to the Canary Islands.

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Over 300 women ask Michelle Obama to intervene for Aminatou Haidar’s life

15 / 12 / 2009 | Solidarity-Support

This letter was sent to the White House today urging Michelle Obama to help save the life of Aminatou Haidar. The text of the letter was unanimously approved by the over three hundred participants at the International Conference of the Twin Cities and the Cities in Solidarity with the Western Sahara Cities. It was signed by the women delegates from many African and European countries and the United States.

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Watch: Al Jazeera English on Aminatou Haidar

15 / 12 / 2009 | Images and Video

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Morocco releases Western Saharan political prisoner Ennaâma Asfari

14 / 12 / 2009 | Statements

Today Moroccan authorities released Ennaâma Asfari, the Sahrawi human rights activist and co-chair of CORELSO, after serving his sentence of four months in prison in the prisons of Tan Tan and Tiznit in southern Morocco. He had been sentenced because he had not obeyed a Moroccan police officer’s order to throw away his key chain, which included a flag of the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic. Mr Asfari is awaiting an appeal hearing on the 19th of this month in the Court of Appeals of Tiznit. ASVDH calls upon all international observers to come and attend this trial.

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Society for the Protection of Peoples calls on EU to protect human rights in Morocco occupied Western Sahara

14 / 12 / 2009 | Solidarity-Support

In great concern for the life of the human rights worker Aminatou Haidar from West Sahara, whose citizenship was withdrawn by Morocco in November 2009, the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) has asked the European Union EU to speak out on behalf of the 43-year old woman. In protest against the withdrawal of her citizenship the human rights worker began a hunger strike 19 days ago on the Spanish island of Lanzarote . ‘Ms. Haidar is now very weak since she only takes sweetened water’, reported the STP Africa consultant, Ulrich Delius, on Friday and warned: ‘If the worst came to the worst the whole peace process for West Sahara would be in acute danger.’

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Morocco disrupts meeting between ASVDH and Spanish party leader bearing message for Aminatou Haidar’s children

13 / 12 / 2009 | Newsletter

Early this evening Moroccan authorities halted a meeting between Ms. Djimi El-Ghalia, Vice President of ASVDH, and Rosa Díez, leader of Spain’s Union, Progress and Democracy party (Unión Progreso y Democracia, UPyD), in the company of two other activists. Ms. Djimi El-Ghalia said that 20 minutes after the arrival of three visitors, over 20 men, representing various Moroccan security services, came to her house to inform Ms. Rosa Díez that the meeting had been prohibited by their superiors. Ms. Díez came to El Aaiun, Western Sahara, to carry a message from Ms. Aminatou Haidar, who is in her 28th day of hunger strike, to her children, saying that she has not forgotten them.

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