Minority Rights Group International
State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2010
Western Sahara

The struggle for self-determination of Western Sahara continued in 2009 despite Morocco’s hardening position. In 2007, the UN attempt to break the deadlock over Western Sahara brought Polisario and Moroccan authorities together for the first time in ten years. But two years on, this spirit of open dialogue seems to have dissipated. UN Security Council Resolution 1754 in April 2007 called for the two parties to hold unconditional talks to achieve ‘a mutually acceptable political solution providing for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara’. However, Security Council Resolution 1871 of April 2009 effectively downgraded the previous resolution and urged the parties ‘to hold small, informal talks in preparation for a fifth round of negotiations’.

The apathy of the international community towards Western Saharan demands appears unchanged, particularly after the European Union (EU), in May 2009, launched fresh negotiations with Morocco, reviving agreements which had previously been cancelled. These focused on the fisheries sector; while Moroccan waters are relatively rich in fishery resources, the most abundant fisheries are found off the coast of Western Sahara. The Representative for Europe of Western Sahara’s Polisario exiled government claimed in a letter in to the EU Commissioner on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs in May 2009 that, ‘Morocco’s key tactic to illegally maintain its occupation of Western Sahara is to include the Western Sahara waters within its fishing areas under Moroccan control in order to involve European interests in its military illegal occupation and the permanent violation of international law.’

A European-wide coalition of pro-Sahrawi activists, united in the ‘Fish elsewhere campaign’ under the leadership of AI, has underlined that the EU-Morocco fisheries deal in its current form is contrary to international law and the UN peace process.

In order to clamp down on civil society demands for self-determination, Morocco has had recourse to its nationality law. Aminatou Haidar, a vocal human rights defender was in 2009 refused the right of entry into Western Sahara by Moroccan authorities. Following a hunger strike of 34 days, she was allowed to return.

http://www.minorityrights.org

Western Sahara

Population: 511,000
Ten-Year Ratings Timeline for Year under Review
Year Under Review : Rating (Political Rights, Civil Liberties, Status)
2000 : 7,6,NF [NF=Not Free]
2001 : 7,6,NF
2002 : 7,6,NF
2003 : 7,6,NF
2004 : 7,6,NF
2005 : 7,6,NF
2006 : 7,6,NF
2007 : 7,6,NF
2008 : 7,6,NF
2009 : 7,6,NF

2009 Key Developments: Talks between the Moroccan government and the pro-independence Polisario Front continued in 2009, but the two sides remained at odds over whether to allow a referendum on independence. Pro-independence activists continued to be detained and harassed, and the conditions on the ground for most Sahrawis remained poor.

Political Rights: As the occupying force in Western Sahara, Morocco controls local elections and works to ensure that independence-minded leaders are excluded from both the local political process and the Moroccan Parliament. Corruption is believed to be at least as much of a problem in Western Sahara as it is in Morocco.

Civil Liberties: According to the Moroccan constitution, the press is free, but this is not the case in practice. There is little in the way of independent Sahrawi media. Moroccan authorities are sensitive to any reporting that is not in line with the state’s official position on Western Sahara, and they continue to expel or detain Sahrawi, Moroccan, and foreign reporters who write critically on the issue. Online media and independent satellite broadcasts are largely unavailable to the impoverished population. Nearly all Sahrawis are Sunni Muslims, and Moroccan authorities generally do not interfere with their freedom of worship. Sahrawis are not permitted to form independent political or nongovernmental organizations, and their freedom of assembly is severely restricted. As in previous years, activists supporting independence and their suspected foreign sympathizers were subject to harassment in 2009. Sahrawis are technically subject to Moroccan labor laws, but there is little organized labor activity in the resource-rich but poverty-stricken territory. Morocco and the Polisario both restrict free movement in potential conflict areas.

Morocco has been accused of using force and financial incentives to alter the composition of Western Sahara’s population. Sahrawi women face much of the same cultural and legal discrimination as Moroccan women. Conditions are generally worse for women living in rural areas, where poverty and illiteracy rates are higher.

See the report:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/WoW/2010/WorstOfTheWorst2010.pdf

Abduction of Mr Dihani Mohamed

ASVDH has received a request for assistance from the family of Mr. Mohammad Dihani (24 years old). Their son, a well known activist for Western Saharan self-determination, has been missing since April 28. The family accuses the Moroccan intelligence services of being responsible for the kidnapping of their son following a party given to celebrate the release of his cousin, the Sahrawi political prisoner Abdullah Dihani.

Mohammed’s father noted that his son, an Italian speaker, was assaulted by Moroccan police in January after the return of Aminatou Haidar to El Aaiun and after guiding Italian journalists and providing translations for them.

Mohammed’s father thinks that the abduction is an act of retaliation, linked to the political views of Mohammad on the Western Sahara conflict.

Arrest of Jamal Babait

On May 5, 2010, 16:00 gmt, Moroccan police arrested the Sahrawi citizen Jamal Babait (20 years old) on Boukraa Avenue in El Aaiun, Western Sahara.

After more than two hours being held by one of the security services, he was transferred to the Wilaya (Provincial) security. The Moroccan authorities accuse him of having participated in an attack against a young man and a woman.

This incident was not confirmed and Jamal Babait was provisionally released around 01:00 gmt on the morning of May 6. The investigation should resume Monday, May 10.

Mr. Jamal has been arrested several times for his participation in demonstrations in favor of self-determination for Western Sahara. In April 2006, Moroccan police threatened to accuse him of drug trafficking.

Sahrawi human rights activists returning under tight security blockade

On May 3, 2010, at the airport of El Aaiun, ten Sahrawi human rights activists returned after a visit to the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria. Their return was watched under the supervision of Moroccan police and intelligence elements. The attitudes of official security forces were provocative and oppressive. Dozens of people armed with cameras, ostensibly filming activists at distances, did not respect the individuals’ private space.

Their bags were delivered two days after their arrival after clearly being searched, yet nothing seemed to be missing.

The reception given in honor of the return of these activists took place in the house of the activist Mohamed Mayara. A group of police were stationed permanently in front of the house, discouraging youth to enter. After the reception, the Saharawi citizen Khadjatou Douihi was detained and assaulted by a security patrol led by Corporal Abdul Ali (aka El-Azou).

Harassment of Mr. Ahmed Aghla Menhoum

Ms. Fadah Aghla Menhoum took part in a recent visit to the Saharawi refugee camps near Tindouf. She is a member of the Executive Office of ASVDH. According to her, since her return, Moroccan authorities have been putting pressure on her brother, a 40 year old employee in the Ministry of Education in Boujdour, Western Sahara, responsible for Sports and Health Education. The harassment and threats, and calls to the office of senior officials, are intended to impose a cessation of activities of his sister.

Moroccan police attack demonstrator with razor

On May 7, Moroccan police intervened against Sahrawi citizens who were demonstrating in the district of Ma’atalah, El-Aiun, to claim respect for the right to self-determination. The police intervened brutally. Mm Dagna Moussaoui and her two sons, Jamal and Alyen Housaini were injured. According to Jamal, the police attacked him with a double edged shaving razor.

Aggression against a delegation of activists near Dakhla

On May 9, a delegation of Sahrawi human rights defenders returned from the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf and left the city of El-Aaiun to make a visit to Dakhla. They were stopped, checked and inspected nine times by Moroccan security agents. Upon their arrival near Dakhla, the last check point, the activist Kamal Traih (age 28) was beaten by police. His colleagues received insults and death threats. They all went to city court to complain against this treatment by the Moroccan authorities.

Yahdih Etarouzi

Ahmed Nassiri

Ali Salem Tamek

In Tiznit, 19 Sahrawi political prisoners began an unlimited hunger strike 21, 22 and 23 March. The blood pressure is abnormal and disturbing. According to sources inside the prison, the Sahrawi political prisoner Fadli Binaho fainted this morning, and refused to be transferred to hospital in emergency. The Sahrawi political prisoner Mustafa Abdel-Dayem suffers from hypertension, complications due to his diabetes, severe pain in the gallbladder. In general: signs of pallor and fatigue on the rest of the Sahrawi political prisoners.

The Sahrawi political prisoners published their intention to enter an indefinite hunger strike tomorrow April 7 in protest against their conditions of detention, disrespect for basic rights and in solidarity with their striking colleagues.

Reminder:
Nine Saharawi political prisoners joined Monday, April 5th the movement of the indefinite hunger strike.
Prison of Salé: Saleh Labihi
Black Prison (Carcel Negra): Bachri Bentaleb, Berkan Mohamed, Amidan Chaikh
Prison of Taroudant: El Wali Amidan, Khallad Hasan
Prison of Kenitra : Lasiri Salek, Amidan Saleh
Prison of Ben-Sliman: Hasan Abdalla

Brahim Dahane

Rachid Sghaer

Ahmed Nassiri

Yahdih Etarouzi

Health status of five Saharawi political prisoners incarcerated in the prison of Salé, north of Rabat, Morocco, on hunger strike since March 18:

General deterioration: chronic lethargy, dehydration, dizziness, back pain, arthritis pain and falling blood pressure.

At about 15:00 GMT , Brahim Dahane, President of the ASVDH, lost consciousness due to severe stomach pain, consequences of his ulcer.

Ahmed Nassiri, secretary general of the Committee for Human Rights in Smara, complains of severe pain in the heart, and acceleration in the number of pulses. His blood pressure is 9 / 11

Ali Salem Tamek, Vice-President of CODESA, suffers from shortness of breath, asthma attacks and acute vomiting.

Yahdih Ettarouzi human right activist, suffers from severe pain in heart and intestine..

Rachid Sghaer a member of the Committee against Torture, complains of severe pain in joints. His blood pressure is low, 7/11.

Prison of Tiznit

In the prison of Tiznit in southern Morocco, 19 Sahrawi political prisoners on hunger strike since March 20-22, continue despite the intimidation of the prison administration. The administration has threatened to separate and transfer them to other prisons if they continue their strike. The strikers are experiencing significant health complications.

The Sahrawi political prisoner Mustafa Abdel-Dayem suffers from a high blood pressure of 16/10.

M. Brahim Khali Mghaimima, Mahmoud Aboulkacem, Mahmoud Berkaoui et Ismaili Bachir suffer complications of inflammations of the gallbladder and renal insufficiency, consequences of previous hunger strikes.

The political prisoner Takkiou Fakou Allah Allah suffers from tachycardia and was transferred to the prison infirmary

Black Prison, El Aaiun

In the black prison (Carcel Negra) in El-Aaiun, Western Sahara, five Sahrawi political prisoners entering a hunger strike for 48 hours to protest against their detention conditions.

Prison Boulmharez in Marrakech

3 Sahrawi political prisoners in that prison entered a hunger strike for 72 hours in solidarity with the hunger strikers in the prisons of Salé and Tiznit.

Hunger Strike Monitoring Committee
ASVDH

The activists joined other Sahrawis for briefings on their rights and situation of their families in the refugee camps.

The Moroccan police were directed by the Commissioner Kamour Mustafa, head of the division of Tan Tan. This man is known for his involvement in numerous violations against Saharawi citizens in El Aaiun, Western Sahara, while he held police responsibilities there.

A large crowd of Moroccan citizens had gathered at the checkpoint north of the city, waving Moroccan flags and shouted slogans accusing the activists of spying for Algeria and criticizing the Saharawi identity.

The Sahrawi activists responded with slogans stressing the need to respect the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

According to the Sahrawi political activist and human rights defender Neaama Asfari, contacted by telephone by ASVDH, on arrival at the checkpoint to support his colleagues, he was faced with dozens of Moroccan citizens, including policemen in civilian clothes.

He added that the group went to the Court of the City to file a complaint to the Royal Prosecutor.

A number of activists, including Aminatou Amidan, Javier Copina and Hassanna Alaya were violently assaulted by Moroccan police, who prevented them from accessing the court.

The Royal Prosecutor, met with and Mr. Asfari and Mr. Koudad Boughdadi, head of the Tan Tan section of the Moroccan Assocition for Human Rights (AMDH), but refused to receive the complaints raised on behalf of the group.

He claimed that it was not within his jurisdiction, and he added that the police did their job of maintaining security.

The Spanish lawyer Cristina Martinez, who accompanied the activists, reported by telephone that she had been surrounded by Moroccan citizens, including policemen, who stopped and violently slapped her.

This evening, and around 18.00, and during the writing of this report, the Moroccan authorities have mobilized more than two hundred people to protest against the activities of Sahrawi human rights defenders.

The Moroccan authorities had begun the campaign on Wednesday night at the checkpoint north of Tan Tan, during the return of human rights activists Aminatou Amidan, Neaama Asfari, Hassana Aalya and Ahmed Sbaai from El-Qssabi, a suburban area of Gulimim in southern Morocco.

Dozens of plainclothes men, citizens and police were mobilized to provoke the delegation.

ASVDH expresses its deep concern about the paradoxical evolution of the Moroccan state, which disguises Moroccan prostitutes, policemen and settlers in traditional Sahrawi clothes, and organizes well publicized demonstrations, during which slogans were shouted for the king and against the Sahrawis, with the complicity of the local television in El Aaiun.

Report
ASVDH
El-Aiun Western Sahara
18.03.2010

US Department of State
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
2009 Human Rights Report: Western Sahara
2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
March 11, 2010

Morocco claims the Western Sahara territory and administers Moroccan law through Moroccan institutions in the estimated 85 percent of the territory it controls. However, Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario), an organization that has sought independence for the formerly Spanish territory since 1973, disputes Morocco’s sovereignty. The population of the territory was approximately 405,000, an estimated 100,000 of whom were attributable to Moroccan in-migration.

The Moroccan government sent troops and settlers into the northern two provinces after Spain withdrew in 1975 and extended its administration over the third province after Mauritania renounced its claim in 1979. Moroccan and Polisario forces fought intermittently from 1975 until a 1991 ceasefire and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping contingent, the UN Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), whose mandate does not include human rights monitoring.

Sahrawis, literally ‘people of the desert’ in Arabic, live in the south of internationally recognized Morocco, in the territory controlled by Morocco (‘Western Sahara’), in Algeria, and to a lesser extent in Mauritania. In the late 1980s, Morocco constructed a 1,250-mile stone and sand wall known as the ‘berm’ that marks the effective limit of Moroccan administrative control.

In 1988 Morocco and the Polisario agreed to settle the dispute over sovereignty by referendum. The parties did not resolve disagreements over voter eligibility and which options for self-determination (integration, independence, or something in between) should be on the ballot; consequently, a referendum never took place.

Over the years there have been several attempts to broker a solution. In 2007 the first face-to-face negotiations between representatives of the Moroccan government and the Polisario began under UN auspices. Morocco proposed autonomy for the territory within the kingdom; the Polisario proposed a referendum in which full independence would be an option. On April 30, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1871 extending MINURSO’s mandate until April 2010. The resolution also called on member states to consider voluntary contributions to confidence building measures carried out under the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that allowed increased contact between family members separated by the dispute. After four meetings in 2007 and 2008 produced little progress, both sides participated in an informal August 10 and 11 meeting under the auspices of Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara Christopher Ross and agreed to reinvigorate negotiations.

Morocco considers the part of the territory that it administers to be an integral part of the kingdom with the same laws and structures conditioning the exercise of civil liberties and political rights. Accordingly, ultimate authority rests, de facto, with King Mohammed VI, and human rights conditions in the territory tended to converge with those in the kingdom.

There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings or politically motivated disappearances.

On December 1, the Moroccan authorities reported that an investigation had shown that the killing of the two illegal Senegalese migrants in 2007 had been the result of a confrontation with gendarmes and the case had been referred to a military court. The military court determined the officers’ actions were in self-defense and closed the case. The court ordered that gendarmes receive extra training on the use of deadly force.

The government inquiry into an alleged mass gravesite discovered in May 2008 at a former military barracks in Smara, undertaken by the Laayoune Court of Appeal, found no human remains. Media reports and the governmental Consultative Council for Human Rights (CCDH) confirmed this finding and expressed satisfaction with closing the case.

At year’s end the government, in cooperation with the CCDH, continued to investigate an alleged mass gravesite discovered at the Laayoune Prison in 2007.

As it has done since 2000, the CCDH paid reparations during the year to Sahrawis or family members of those Sahrawis who had disappeared or been detained during the 1970s and 1980s. By year’s end the government had settled most individual reparation claims, and the CCDH shifted its focus to community reparation projects.

There were credible reports that security forces sometimes engaged in torture, beatings, and other mistreatment of detainees. Although the CCDH reported that security forces engaged in serious abuses such as these less frequently than in previous years, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI) and local NGOs continued to report abuse, especially of Sahrawi independence advocates.

For example, on February 23, the unrecognized nongovernmental organization (NGO) Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights (ASVDH) reported that two police officers detained, beat, and sodomized a female independence activist and interrogated her about her political activities and those of her family members. The activist filed a complaint. Although officials at the Ministry of Interior (MOI) denied that the officers beat and raped the activist, the Ministry of Justice opened an investigation that was ongoing at year’s end.

On August 27, human rights advocates reported that police officers detained a well-known human rights activist in Laayoune. The victim alleged that police stripped her while questioning her about her political views and threatened to post a video of the proceedings on the video-sharing Web site YouTube if she continued her political activities. They also allegedly threatened her with death. After interrogating her for five hours, police left her naked on the outskirts of Laayoune. According to ASVDH, the victim filed a complaint. Authorities had not begun an investigation at year’s end.

On September 2, according to ASVDH, two police officers detained human rights and proindependence activist Chamad Marzouk. The officers allegedly blindfolded Marzouk, stripped him, handcuffed him, and beat him before releasing him later that night. The officers reportedly questioned Marzouk about his relationship with certain human rights activists and about the details of his planned trip to the United Kingdom. Marzouk filed a complaint on September 24; however, authorities had not begun an investigation by year’s end.

On May 15, the appeal court in Agadir upheld a 15-year prison sentence given to Sahrawi activist Yahya Mohamed El Hafed, convicted of killing a security officer in a 2008 trial. The court also sentenced seven other activists to as long as eight years in prison. According to AI, all of the defendants claimed security officials tortured them to extract confessions that the court later used as evidence at trial. The activists claimed that prison officials beat them, hung them by their legs, and subjected them to sleep deprivation.

Police impunity remained a problem. According to local NGOs such as ASVDH and the Sahwari Collective of Human Rights Defenders (CODESA), the number of complaints against police filed by persons who claimed to be victims of human rights abuses declined during the year compared to 2008. However, NGOs alleged that a number of complaints cited the same police officers for abuses more than once. According to HRW and ASVDH, authorities dismissed nearly all complaints without collecting evidence beyond the police version of events.

There was no report at year’s end that the government began an investigation into the May 2008 case of Hamoud Iguilid, who had filed a complaint with judicial authorities claiming that police detained and verbally abused him.

According to NGO reports, there was no investigation into the June 2008 use of police force to disperse gatherings celebrating the release of human rights activist Brahim Sabbar from prison.

The government took some steps during the year to reduce police impunity. It provided training, including a human rights component, to security personnel in the territory. The government also reported that it prosecuted 282 security officials in Morocco and the territory for various crimes ranging from petty bribery to ‘assault and battery leading to death.’ The government reported that some of these prosecutions involved officers who committed crimes in the territory; however, the exact number was uncertain because the government did not disaggregate the data by region. Past practice has often left alleged abusers in leadership positions or transferred them.

A delegation of EU parliamentarians visited Laayoune from January 27 to 28 and Tindouf from February 23 to 26. The government allowed the delegation to meet with all the organizations and individuals they requested, but maintained obvious police surveillance. Activists reported that police harassed them in Laayoune on the way to and from sessions with the delegation as well as days before and after the meetings. The police arrested and detained one person, beat another, and seized activists’ electronic equipment.

During the year, allegations of abuse and substandard prison conditions persisted. Government policy permits NGOs that provide social or religious services to prisoners to enter prison facilities, but does not permit NGOs that solely have a human rights mission to do so except when authorized, and no authorization was given during the year. The Moroccan Observatory of Prisons (OMP) and members of the CCDH made at least 11 prison visits and filed complaints with government authorities of substandard conditions or abuses of detainees.

The OMP stated that overcrowding in prisons remained a problem. Some human rights activists and NGOs charged that the government had reduced overcrowding by transferring politically active prisoners to facilities in Morocco as a punishment for activism. The government stated that while some transfers to Morocco took place, the transfers were for administrative reasons and the purpose was to improve conditions.

Human rights and proindependence activists claimed that authorities arrested them for their political activities but charged them with drug or other criminal offenses. They also claimed that in cases where torture was alleged, courts often refused to order medical examinations or to take into account the results of such examinations, despite laws requiring investigation into such allegations of abuse for any individual facing prosecution who requests it. The government reported that the public prosecutor ordered six medical examinations and judges ordered 21 medical examinations, in accordance with the law.

Students supporting independence were reportedly detained and mistreated. Activists stated that authorities regularly took them into custody, beat them, and released them within 24 hours without formal arrest or charge.

In September, according to the unregistered NGOs ASVDH and CODESA, police intervened with excessive force in a few unauthorized demonstrations in Laayoune, Smara and Dakhla. During a demonstration in Laayoune, the NGOs accused police of throwing demonstrator Mohamed Berkan from a window. The government charged Berkan with throwing Molotov cocktails at police and participating in an unauthorized demonstration. A court sentenced him to one year in prison and a 200 dirham ($25) fine.

The government maintained the right, under the constitution, to restrict freedom of speech and press in cases involving the monarchy, Islam, or the territorial integrity of Morocco (see country report on Morocco). During the year there were credible reports that government authorities prevented some foreign journalists from meeting with proindependence activists. There were no cases of government attempts to repress journalists or bloggers. The media engaged in self-censorship, and no views appeared in the media supporting either independence or a referendum that included independence as an option.

Moroccan and international media, as well as satellite television, were available in the territory. According to the OpenNet Initiative, Internet access in the territory was generally open and unrestricted. A small number of blogs and ‘anonymizers’ were blocked.

ASVDH and CODESA stated that in recent years they have applied less frequently for legal permits to engage in sit-ins and demonstrations because police rarely granted the permits. In addition to these limitations, the organizations reported that holding organized demonstrations became more difficult because police increasingly harassed them following the king’s November 6 speech, in which he announced a policy of decreased tolerance for individuals who held proindependence views.

Numerous spontaneous demonstrations erupted on December 18, when CODESA president and prominent proindependence and human rights activist Aminatou Haidar returned from 34 days of exile in Spain. The demonstrations took place peacefully and security forces did not attempt to limit them. Authorities began to place limitations on gatherings the following week, especially after some demonstrators arrived at Haidar’s home carrying Polisario flags.

The government enforced strict procedures governing the ability of NGOs and activists to meet with journalists. Although foreign journalists needed prior official approval before meeting with proindependence NGOs, authorities did not always enforce the requirement prior to the king’s November 6 speech.

As in previous years, the government did not allow CODESA or ASVDH to register as official NGOs, limiting their ability to raise funds domestically and internationally and to secure space for public meetings. At year’s end, CODESA reported that local authorities had not acknowledged its most recent application, which it submitted in 2008 by registered mail. The leadership of ASVDH reported that in 2005 an Agadir administrative court had found in its favor and ordered the government to register it, but by year’s end the government had not done so.

The Moroccan government and the Polisario continued to accuse one another of withholding information regarding approximately 150 Algerians and Polisario supporters (including 58 soldiers) and 213 Moroccans, who remained missing because of the war from 1975 to 1991. Both sides denied that any former combatants remained in detention.

Corruption by security forces and judicial officials was a problem.

The laws and restrictions regarding religious organizations and religious freedom in the territory are the same as those in Morocco. The constitution provides that Islam is the state religion, and that the state provides the freedom to practice one’s religion.

HRW and ASVDH reported instances of authorities preventing foreign persons from meeting with proindependence activists.

For example, on November 12, Luis Mangrané Cuevas, a lawyer representing the General Council of the Spanish Bar Associations, attempted to visit Sultana Khaya, vice president of the Forum for the Future of Sahrawi Women, at her home in Boujdour. Mangrané had gone to the region to observe the trial of Sahrawi activist Hassana Alouate. Police intercepted him near Khaya’s house and notified him that he would not be permitted to enter.

The government restricted the freedom to travel abroad and return of some Sahrawi activists and others opposed to the government’s Sahara policy.

On August 5, authorities prevented six Sahrawis from leaving the country to attend a two-week workshop in the United Kingdom regarding the future of Western Sahara. The police stopped the six from boarding their flight in Agadir and took them to Laayoune, where authorities questioned and released them without charge, according to NGO reports.

On October 8, authorities detained seven Sahrawi activists: Ahmed Alansari, Brahim Dahane, Yahdih Ettarouzi, Saleh Labihi, Dakja Lashgar, Rachid Sghir, and Ali Salem Tamek. The group, which included representatives of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, ASVDH and CODESA, visited Algiers and the refugee camps near Tindouf from September 26 to October 8 to observe conditions, according to human rights NGOs. Moroccan officials charged the seven with ‘intelligence cooperation with a foreign entity’ and sent the case to a military tribunal in Salé in accordance with a Moroccan law that requires that a military court hear cases involving intelligence charges. Human rights NGOs claimed the charges were politically motivated. The detainees’ family members also reported to ASVDH that prison officials initially limited the detainees’ access to attorneys and family members and placed Lashgar in solitary confinement. However, by late December, families reported that the government allowed them increased access to the detainees. The detainees awaited trial at year’s end.

On November 13, Moroccan authorities refused to allow prominent Sahrawi independence and human rights activist Aminatou Haidar entry at the Laayoune International Airport, claiming she stated her nationality as ‘Sahrawi’ and her country of residence as ‘Western Sahara.’ Authorities confiscated her passport after she initiated the process of renouncing Moroccan citizenship and instructed the airline to return her to the Canary Islands. For 34 days, the government refused to allow Haidar to return to the territory, despite repeated requests from the Spanish government and international pressure prompted in part by Haidar’s decision to engage in a hunger strike. Government officials repeatedly stated in public that the government would return Haidar’s passport and allow her to enter the country only if she met certain conditions, including a formal apology and a public declaration acknowledging her Moroccan citizenship. After Haidar’s health worsened, the government allowed her to return on December 18 without meeting these conditions.

Since 1977 the inhabitants of the Western Saharan provinces of Laayoune, Smara, Awsard and Boujdour and, since 1983, Oued Ed-Dahab have participated in Moroccan national and regional elections. In the June 12 communal elections, only Sahrawis with pro-Moroccan political views were candidates. Turnout exceeded 70 percent of registered voters. Domestic observers leveled accusations of corruption, principally vote buying, in some races.

Relatively little information was available on discrimination in the territory. In traditional tribal Sahrawi society, women participated more actively in political and economic activities than was common among some other North African ethnic groups. Most Sahrawis in the territory lived in urban or semi-urban environments, and discrimination in those circumstances paralleled the situation in Morocco proper. In the June 12 communal elections, women won 13 percent of seats due partly to the implementation of the same new quota system used in the internationally recognized part of Morocco, which required all political parties to include at least 12 percent women on their party slates.

The Moroccan penal code is in effect and provides for the imposition of stiff fines and prison terms for individuals involved in or failing to prevent trafficking in persons. The territory was a transit region for traffickers of persons.

The labor code applied in the Moroccan-controlled areas of the territory. Moroccan unions were present in those areas but were not active. The largest trade confederations are nominally represented in Laayoune and Dhakla. These include the Moroccan Union of Labor, the Democratic Confederation of Labor, and the National Union of Moroccan Workers.

There were no known strikes, other job actions, or collective bargaining agreements during the year. Most union members were employees of the Moroccan government or state-owned organizations. Unions were also active in the phosphate and fishing industries. Wage-sector workers in the territory typically earned as much as 85 percent more than their counterparts in Morocco as an inducement to relocate to the territory. The government exempted workers from income and value-added taxes.

The labor code prohibited forced or bonded labor, and there were no reports that such practices occurred.

Regulations on the minimum age of employment were the same as in Morocco. There were no substantiated reports regarding child labor in the formal wage sector. There were anecdotal reports of children working in family-owned businesses or the agricultural sector.

The minimum wage and maximum hours of work in the territory were identical to those in Morocco. In practice, during peak periods workers in fish processing plants worked as many as 12 hours per day, six days per week during peak periods. Occupational health and safety standards were the same in Morocco and enforcement was rudimentary, except for a prohibition on the employment of women in dangerous occupations.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/nea/136076.htm

Human Rights Watch
World Report 2010
Morocco / Western Sahara
Events of 2009

Human rights conditions deteriorated overall in 2009 in Morocco, although the country continued to have a lively civil society and independent press. The government, aided by complaisant courts, used repressive legislation to punish and imprison peaceful opponents, especially those who violate taboos against criticizing the king or the monarchy, questioning the ‘Moroccanness’ of Western Sahara, or ‘denigrating’ Islam.

Restrictions on rights are particularly tight in the restive Western Sahara region, which Morocco claims sovereignty over and administers as if it were part of its national territory. A pro-independence movement known as the Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguía al-Hamra and Río de Oro) demands a referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi people. The Polisario rejected an April 2007 Moroccan proposal for enhanced autonomy for the region, mainly because it nowhere mentions a referendum in which independence would be an option. Numerous Sahrawis were charged or imprisoned because of their peaceful advocacy of self-determination for the contested Western Sahara. Politically motivated restrictions on the right to travel increased.

Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Hundreds of suspected Islamist extremists arrested in the aftermath of the Casablanca bombings of May 2003 continue to serve prison terms. Many were convicted in unfair trials after being held that year in secret detention for days or weeks, and subjected to mistreatment and sometimes torture while under interrogation. Some were sentenced to death, a punishment that Morocco has not abolished even though it has not carried it out since 1993. Since August 2006 police have arrested hundreds more suspected Islamist militants, many of whom were convicted and imprisoned for belonging to ‘a criminal gang’ or preparing to join ‘the jihad’ in Iraq.

Intelligence agencies continued to interrogate terrorism suspects at an unacknowledged detention center at Temara, near Rabat, according to numerous reports from detainees. Many suspects alleged that police tortured them under interrogation, while holding them in pre-charge custody for longer than the 12-day maximum the law provides for terrorism cases. For example, several of the defendants in the so-called Belliraj mass trial (see below) contended that the police abducted them and held them incommunicado for between two and four weeks before presenting them to a judge. Some of these contended at trial that police at Temara tortured them in order to extract false confessions.

Confronting Past Abuses

Following the pioneering work completed in 2005 by Morocco’s Equity and Reconciliation Commission (ERC), the state acknowledged responsibility for ‘disappearances’ and other grave abuses in the past, and compensated some 16,000 victims or their survivors. However, no Moroccan officials or security force members are known to have been prosecuted for violations committed during the period from 1956 to 1999 that the ERC investigated, and the government has yet to implement most of the institutional reforms recommended by the ERC to safeguard against future abuses. In addition, as of October, the families of the ‘disappeared’ persons whose cases were handled by the ERC and, afterwards by the Advisory Council on Human Rights, had not received a full account of the ERC’s findings concerning the ‘disappearance’ of their relatives.

Police Conduct and the Criminal Justice System

Police are rarely held accountable for violating human rights. In cases with political overtones, courts seldom provide fair trials; judges routinely ignore requests for medical examinations lodged by defendants who claim to have been tortured, refuse to summon exculpatory witnesses, and convict defendants on the basis of apparently coerced confessions. On July 28 the Rabat Court of Appeals convicted all 35 defendants in the ‘Belliraj’ case of forming a terrorist network, sentencing them to terms of up to life in prison. The defendants included the heads of two parties and four other well-known political figures. The court based the guilty verdicts almost entirely on the statements attributed to the defendants by the police, even though most defendants had repudiated those statements before the investigating judge and all repudiated the statements at trial. The court refused to investigate allegations of torture, falsified statements, and statements written in Arabic for defendants unable to read that language. The appeals hearing was due to begin in December 2009.

Police arrested seven non-violent Sahrawi activists on October 8 upon their return from openly visiting the Polisario-run refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria. A Casablanca judge referred their case to a military court on the grounds that the alleged offenses included harming ‘external state security,’ by ‘causing harm to Morocco’s territorial integrity.’ The referral of civilians to a military court, where the procedural rights of defendants are abridged, was a rare and ominous development.

Freedom of Association, Assembly, and Movement

Morocco boasts thousands of independent associations. However, government officials arbitrarily impede the legalization of some organizations, undermining their freedom to operate. Groups affected include those defending the rights of Sahrawis, Amazighs (Berbers), sub-Saharan immigrants, and unemployed university graduates, as well as charitable, and cultural and education associations whose leadership includes members of Justice and Spirituality, one of the country’s largest Islamist movements.

The government generally tolerates the work of the many human rights organizations active in Rabat and Casablanca. In northern Morocco, authorities on February 17, 2009 arrested Chekib el-Khayari, president of the Association for Human Rights in the Rif, after he accused certain Moroccan officials of complicity in narcotics trafficking. On June 24 a Casablanca court convicted el-Khayari of ‘gravely insulting state institutions’ and minor currency violations, and sentenced him to three years in prison and a heavy fine. He was still in jail awaiting his appeal as of November.

Authorities generally do not hamper foreign human rights groups visiting Morocco, although the security forces sometimes question Moroccans who have had contact with them. Beginning in October the police enforced new restrictions on groups visiting the homes of Sahrawi activists, breaking up at least seven such visits on the grounds that visitors would henceforth require clearance for such meetings. Most types of outdoor gatherings require authorization from the Interior Ministry, which can refuse permission if it deems them liable to ‘disturb the public order.’ Although many of the frequent public protests run their course undisturbed, baton-wielding police have brutally broken up others.

The government prevented Sahrawi activists from traveling abroad more often than in recent years. On August 5, authorities prevented six Sahrawi students from departing from Agadir airport to travel to the United Kingdom to participate in a program of cross-cultural dialogue. On October 6, Moroccan authorities detained and turned back five well-known Sahrawi activists who were on their way to Mauritania via the land border crossing. They confiscated the men’s passports and had not returned them as of early November. Authorities declined to issue a passport to Brahim Sabbar, secretary-general of a Sahrawi human rights organization.

Media Freedom

Press freedom declined in 2009.The press law provides prison terms for ‘maliciously’ spreading ‘false information’ likely to disturb the public order or for speech that is defamatory, offensive to members of the royal family, or that undermines ‘Islam, the institution of the monarchy, or [Morocco's] territorial integrity.’ After the Arabic daily Akhbar al-Youm published on September 26 a cartoon about a cousin of King Mohammed VI, authorities froze its bank account and sent police to shut down its editorial offices – actions that have no basis in Moroccan law. A court on October 30 ordered the closure of Akhbar al-Youm’s offices and sentenced the cartoonist and director of publication to fines and suspended prison terms. Driss Chahtane, editor of al-Mish’al weekly, went to prison on October 15, the day a court of first instance sentenced him to a one-year term for maliciously publishing ‘false news’ about the king’s health. On August 1 the minister of the interior ordered the seizure of the new issues of TelQuel and Nichan because the two weeklies had published the result of a public opinion poll on King Mohammed VI, even though the results were favorable. Disregarding the applicable law, the authorities then destroyed copies of the issues before the publisher could appeal the seizure in court.

Key International Actors

Morocco is the biggest beneficiary of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, with €654 million in aid earmarked for 2007-2010, including grants to many independent Moroccan human rights organizations. In 2008 the European Union voted to give the kingdom ‘advanced status,’ placing it a notch above other members of the EU’s ‘neighbourhood policy.’

A European parliamentary delegation conducted a fact-finding mission to Morocco and Western Sahara in January 2009 that Morocco had blocked for three years. The delegation said it was able to conduct its visit without obstacles. Among its recommendations was that Morocco ‘ensure that the clauses relating to territorial integrity do not apply to the mere expression of opinions, including those in support of independence, provided that they respect the principle of non-violence.’

While supporting autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, US diplomats traveled to Western Sahara, where they met with Sahrawi human rights activists.

In the first visit to North Africa by a senior official of the Obama administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Morocco with King Mohammed VI on November 2. In her public rermarks the next day, Clinton saluted the reforms that have enabled Moroccan women to ‘bring their considerable talents to strengthening democratic institutions, accelerating economic growth and broadening the work of civil society.’

France is Morocco’s leading trade partner and the leading source of public development aid and private investment. France gave Morocco €460 million in Overseas Development Assistance in 2007-2009, making it the leading recipient of such assistance. France rarely criticized publicly Morocco’s human rights practices.

The United Nations Security Council in April 2009 renewed for one year the MINURSO peacekeeping force in Western Sahara but once again declined to extend its mandate to include human rights observation and protection. Morocco opposes giving MINURSO such a mandate, whereas the Polisario says it supports it.

Morocco ratified the International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities on April 9. King Mohammed VI announced on December 10, 2008 that Morocco would lift its reservations to the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women but that had yet to happen as of November 2009. Morocco hosted a visit in June by the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, the first by the group in an Arab or African country. The group praised the ERC but expressed concern that its mandate, which excluded the prosecution of perpetrators, could promote impunity.

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87731

Part I: Situation of political prisoner Dagja Lachgar, solitary confinement, Zaki prison, Salé, Morocco

L to R: Brahim Dahanne, Dagje Lachgar, Ali Salem Tamek, Ahmed Nassiri, Saleh Labihi, Rachid Sghaer, Yahdih Ettarouzi

She was arrested with six human rights defenders after her return from a visit to the Sahrawi refugees’ camps and she is the only woman among the group.

According to the testimony of the detainees themselves, they were detained on the airplane ramp in the Mohammed V airport in Casablanca on Thursday October 8, 2009. They were blindfolded and placed into three civil cars amidst tight security guard inside and outside the airport before taken them to an unknown location where they were subjected to questioning for eight days in solitary confinements. They were then brought before the permanent military court in Rabat on charges of high treason and spying to foreign hostile party, to be referred to the central prison of Salé, north of Rabat.

The following day, the General Delegate of the Prison Administration, Hafiz Ben-Hachem, visited them and recommended to tightening restrictions on the group and isolating them from the outside world.

Curriculum Vitae of Ms Dagja Lachgar

Dagja Lachgar

Date of birth: 1957 in El-Aaiun, Western Sahara

Member of the executive office of the ASVDH

Member of CODAPSO

Subjected to enforced ‘disappearance’ between 22 December 1980 and 22 June 1991 in the following secret detention centers:
- Barracks of the Rapid Intervention PECI CIMI (8 months)
- Derb Moulay Chrif in Casablanca (6 months)
- Agdez, southern Morocco (one year)
- Qalaat Mgouna ( 8 years and 8 months )

As a result, she suffers from several physical ailments, as complications of her enforced disappearance, including arthritis, stomach problems and headaches. She also suffers psychological trauma due to the loss of her husband and her inability to bear children as a result of her prolonged disappearence.

Situation inside the prison

She was arrested on 8 October 2009 in the Casablanca Airport.

She is currently held in solitary confinement in the prison of Zaki in Salé, Morocco, under arrest No. 50016.

According to information compiled by ASVDH, the location and conditions of the detention of Ms Dagja Lachgar in the heavily guarded prison does not meet requirements set forth for the minimum standard rules for the Treatment of Prisoners in the texts of international covenants on human rights, as well as the provisions under Moroccan laws governing the prisons (98.32), which would ensure the maintenance of the lives of inmates and their human dignity. These conditions violate her rights and pose a grave danger to the life and physical integrity of Ms Dagja Lachgar.

Cell

Ms Dagja Lachgar lives in solitary confinement in isolation from other detainees as well as the outside world. These rooms are usually allocated to punish prisoners and so lack to the most basic living conditions; it is very dirty, it lacks ventilation inside, in addition to the scarcity of sunlight.

The cell is dirty and has a foul oder; it is infested with fungus and insects.

The prison administration, imposing a heavily guard on Ms Lachgar, incites common prisoners to scream and kick the door while she is sleeping, provoking her, which prompts her to respond in hysterical manner. The guards also physically and psychologially attack her during their breaks.

She has been told false information about her family, such as her sister being imprisoned (as actually happened to the sister of Mr. Brahim Dahane).

She is also prohibited from contacting the outside world and has no radio; she is barred from access to newspapers and books.

She is not allowed to interact with other prisoners as well, so that her isolation from the outside world is almost total.

The right of nutrition

The Paragraph 20 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners provides that:

‘Every prisoner shall be provided by the administration at the usual hours with food of nutritional value adequate for health and strength, of wholesome quality and well prepared and served.’

Mrs. Lachgar has been unable to eat what her family brings her, including food and drink, as result of confiscation and theft.

The prison administration has not provided her even a single meal since her arrest with her six companions.

The right to health care

‘Every human being has the right to be in the best health without distinction of race, religion, political belief’

Ms Lachgar suffers from several diseases from her enforced disappearance, made worse because of the dire living conditions in her solitary confinement cell in the Zaki prison of Salé.

She is currently suffering from severe pain in her head, her psychological state is very degraded due to inhuman, cruel treatment from the prison administration in a systematic and racist manner.

The administration has also prevented her from exercising her right to treatment and to visit a doctor.

Isolation from the outside world

Ensuring the right of prisoners and other detainees to receive visits and communication with the outside world is an important and necessary principle, as prisoners and detainees in general will return to the community once again. Therefore it must rehabilitate them socially as ordinary citizens. Therefore visits and contacts with the outside world is a necessary part of the rehabilitation process.

In contrast to the above, Ms Lachgar suffers from almost complete isolation from the outside world. She is forbidden to use the phones and does not have a radio, TV, newspapers and books.

The right to visits

The prison administration allows Ms Lachgar’s family only visit one a week but in a very difficult circumstances, as the family lives in El-Aaiun, Western Sahara, more than 1200 km away. The cost of travel alone, nearly 5000 dirhams, not to mention housing and other needs, has forced her family to travel only once a month.

Visits require her family to start at the permanent military court in Rabat, to obtain permission to visit from the investigating judge. Then they go to the prison where they must wait before the gate of the prison for long hours until the prison administration finishes with the families of common prisoners, and before the end of the allotted time for the visit. The prison administration often deals with them in a racist manner, subjecting them to strict inspection, accompanied by harassment.

Also, her family is afraid of fabricated charges and being subjected to fines and imprisonment, as happened to the sister of Brahim Dahan, one of the detained among the seven .

The family not allowed to meet Ms Lachgar except for several minutes; she is always accompanied by three guards and were separated by two windows.

According to family testimonies, one of the guards who accompany them monitors their conversations in order to scare and intimidate them.

Testimony of a member of her family

On Monday 23 November 2009, we reached the headquarters of the permanent military court in Rabat, and we followed the rule established by the coroner’s request to permit us visiting our daughter from the investigating judge of the Court.

Recommendations

On this basis ASVDH express its deep concern about the dire situation whitch a member of the executive office is facing .

ASVDH demands…

the lifting of the isolation imposed on Ms. Lachgar and to enable her to have a radio, a television and a Quran;

the taking of necessary actions and measures to improve her living conditions inside the prison;

the stopping of her exposure to ill-treatment and inhumane treatment by the guards and some prisoners directed by the administration;

the ensuring of her right to health and to a visit with a specialist doctor and to allow her to visit her family directly without harassment, as well as to make her way to connect with the outside world and use the phone dedicated to prisoners;

the enabling of her a sufficient time to contact with other prisoners under normal procedures.

Reminder

Hafiz Ben-Hachem, who is currently is the Delegate General in charge of Penitentiary Administration and Reintegration, is responsible for many secret prisons during the years of Hassan II’s reign, especially Agdez, Qalaat M’gouna and the barracks of the Rapid Intervention in El-Aaiun .

He was also personally accompanied by Abdel-Aziz Alabouch to question the former Sahrawi abductees, known as the Group of the 1987 UN Mission, before he became the general director of security.

Morocco/Western Sahara: Reverse New Rule on Sahrawi Activists’ Contacts
Police Use Demand for Prior Permission to Break Up Visits by Foreigners
November 16, 2009

‘A country that prides itself on openness is now telling some citizens that they can’t decide who may visit them…This is an unacceptable restriction on the right of association and the right to privacy.’ — Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director

(New York) – Morocco is taking another regressive step on human rights by blocking « unauthorized » visits by foreigners to the homes of Sahrawi activists in Western Sahara, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since October 19, 2009, police have interrupted five such visits by Spanish journalists and human rights lawyers, telling them in each case that these visits they require prior clearance from the authorities.

This practice, which has no apparent basis in Moroccan law, represents a new restriction on the rights of Sahrawis and of visitors to the region. Previously, plainclothes police generally did not interfere when foreigners entered the homes of known Sahrawi activists, although they often openly monitored such visits from a distance.

« A country that prides itself on openness is now telling some citizens that they can’t decide who may visit them, » said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. « This is an unacceptable restriction on the right of association and the right to privacy. »

Restrictions on visits to the homes of Sahrawi activists coincide with a visibly tougher posture by Moroccan authorities toward those who advocate self-determination for the contested Western Sahara. Morocco has exercised de facto rule over the former Spanish colony since 1975 and considers it an integral part of Morocco. Other states have not formally recognized this claim.

Seven Sahrawis have been in detention since returning October 8 from a visit to the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria that are administered by the Polisario Front. The Polisario is a pro-independence movement that contests Moroccan sovereignty and demands a referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. Moroccan authorities accused the detainees of harming « external state security » and referred their cases to a military court, a rare and ominous development for civilian defendants.

King Mohammed VI himself has signaled the new tone toward Sahrawis who favor a vote on self-determination and who, effectively, question Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over Western Sahara.

« One is either a patriot, or a traitor, » the king declared on November 6, the 34th anniversary of Morocco’s « Green March » to take control of the region. « Is there a country that would tolerate a handful of lawless people exploiting democracy and human rights in order to conspire with the enemy against its sovereignty, unity and vital interests? »

The foreign visitors who were forced to leave the homes of Sahrawis in the recent incidents were Spanish journalists and lawyers who traveled to Western Sahara to observe the trials of Sahrawis and to collect human rights information.

In the most recent incident, on November 12, Luis Mangrané Cuevas, a lawyer representing the General Council of the Spanish Bar Associations (Consejo General de la Abogacía Española, CGAE) tried to visit Sultana Khaya, vice president of the Forum for the Future of Sahrawi Women, at her home in Boujdour. Mangrané had come to the region in order to observe the trial of Sahrawi activist Hassana Alouate.

Police intercepted him near Khaya’s house and said he would need authorization to enter. At the police station they told him he could meet with Khaya instead in a café. But when the two sat down in a café to talk, policemen arrived, ordered Mangrané to leave Boujdour and escorted him to a taxi station, where he boarded a taxi to El-Ayoun.

The details of the four previous incidents are as follows:

On November 10, at about 7:30 p.m., Mangrané and Dolores Travieso Darias, another Spanish lawyer sent by the GCAE to observe a trial, visited Hassan Duihi at his home in El-Ayoun. About 30 minutes later, plainclothes police came to the door and told Duihi, a member of the Sahrawi Associaton of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations (ASVDH) who frequently receives foreign visitors, to ask the two lawyers to leave his home and return to their hotel. The police told Duihi that he must obtain prior clearance from the police for any foreigners he wants to have visit him at home.

On November 3, at about 9:10 p.m., six plainclothes policemen came to the home of El-Ghalia Djimi, vice-president of the ASVDH, in El-Ayoun, during a visit by two Spanish lawyers. The lawyers, Ines Miranda and Araceli Fernàndez de Córdoba Cantizano, were in town to observe the trial of Sahrawi activist Cheikh Amidane, on behalf of the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara, which is based in Spain. The police told the lawyers they had to get permission to visit homes from the Communications Ministry and ordered them to leave the house. Djimi had been receiving for years at her home foreign visitors interested in human rights without first notifying the authorities. Officials have now told her that she must get permission from them in advance when she wishes to have foreign visitors.

On October 22, plainclothes police told two Spanish journalists, Beatriz Mesa of Radio Cope and El Periodico and Erena Calvo of Ser Radio and El Mundo daily, to leave the home of Sidi Mohamed Daddache, president of the Committee to Support Self-Determination in Western Sahara (CODAPSO), in El-Ayoun. Both reporters are based in Morocco and accredited by Moroccan authorities.

On October 19, plainclothes police came to the El-Ayoun home of Hmad Hammad, vice president of CODAPSO, and ordered Ruth Sebastien Garcia and Simplico del Rosario Garcia to leave. The two Spanish lawyers had come to El-Ayoun in order to attend the trial earlier that day of Sahrawi student activist Mohamed Berkane.

On three research missions between 2005 and 2007, representatives of Human Rights Watch visited many private homes in El-Ayoun and Smara, including those of Sahrawi activists. While plainclothes police frequently were visible observing the homes from a distance, they did not interrupt these visits.

« Human rights activists, like everyone else, should be free to receive and visit whom they wish, without getting permission, » said Stork. « Authorities who restrict that right look like they are trying to cut off the flow of information about their own practices. »