El-Ayoune - Western Sahara
Thursday, 3 October 2008
The international campaign for the release of all Sahrawi political detainees called to intensify efforts and support its online petition to pressure the Moroccan state to expedite the release of Sahrawi political detainees. The plea by the international campaign comes just days after the events of Smara/Western Sahara, which left many victims, not to mention the raid on several houses and arrested dozens of people who stayed for several hours inside the city's police stations before they were released.
The city has witnessed a siege on the homes of some human rights activists, including the secretary general of the Sahrawi Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Smara/Western Sahara, Mr. Hammadi Nasseri and the human rights activist Nguia Boukhars...
In parallel with the events in Smara, El-Ayoune and Boujdour witnessed security forces interference against Sahrawi Jobless who were organizing demonstrations and sit-in to claim their right to work, while the city of Al-Ayoune lived under a campaign of arrests which reached visitors of Internet cafes as in the case of Mr. Kara Abdati, 34 year-old, who the ASVDH has previously published his testimony together with the testimony of the former political detainee Mr. Mohamed Bachiri, 22 years. The Assembly also learned that Moroccan authorities still continues its intimidation against some of the Sahrawi citizens, and lerned also that some young men were arrested because they refused to disclose their identities for fear of reprisals against them, while others were bargained or threatened
The events in the city of Smara coincided with the meeting of the ASVDH and the Irish Organization, Front Line, which focused on the subject of human rights violations and harassment of human rights defenders
The Sahrawi Association for the victims of human rights grave violations committed by the Moroccan State, while declaring its solidarity with the victims of violations recorded recently, announces to the public its strong condemnation of such practices
* Requires the Morocco State to desist these practices and investigate on the recent events in the city of Smara and arrests in the city of El-Ayoune.
* Announces its support to the initiatives of the international campaign for the release of all Sahrawi political prisoners and declares its unconditional solidarity with them
* Declares its condemnation of the attacks to which were subjected the two political prisoners, Mr. Elgasmi Lehbib and Mr. Mohamed Tahlil (Member of the ASVDH), the last was their prevention from family visits
* Calls on the United Nations for expanding the powers of its mission to Western Sahara to include human rights monitoring in the Territory.
