report thawra july 2010. occupied territories of the western sahara

8/8/2019 Report Thawra July 2010. Occupied Territories of the Western Sahara

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

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VISITED DESTINATIONS

Agadir, Guelmin, Tantn, Laayoune, Boujdour, Dakhla

VISITS IN THE TERRITORY

Associations:

- AFAPREDESA.- Saharawi Committee against Torture.- CSPRON.- CODESA (Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders).- AMDH (Moroccan Association for Human Rights).- Association for Medical Assistance to Forgotten Victims of Western Sahara.- CODAPSO (Committee for the Defense of the Right to Self Determination of

Western Sahara).- Association of Mothers of the 15 prisoners (formed by the mothers of the fifteenyoungsters abducted by the Moroccan authorities in December 2005 in

Laayoune, theyre still missing).

- Committee for the Preservation of the Saharawi Memory.- Former employees from FosBucraa

Indivuduals

Thawra the group, havent just met various associations in the occupied Western

Sahara, but have also been able to collect testimonies from different people, whoat an individual level, wanted to tell their personal experience, demanding

explicitly to make it public.

Committee for the Preservation of the Saharawi Memory


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CODESA - Laa oune

CSPRON & AFAPREDESA

CODESA - Tantn

CODAPSO Former em lo ees of FosBucraa

Assoc. for Medical Assistance to Forgotten Victims of W.S.


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GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

- The need to ensure the presence of international human rights observers in theoccupied territory remains a priority, being essential, moreover, that the authorities

could see and feel that Saharawi people are supported. Many Saharawi people have

gained some protection because of being known internationally, but the majority of

the population cannot access that kind of protection. Its important that the Saharawi

feel their voices are heard and their cause is supported, it also increases their

motivation and reinforces them to continue in their struggle.

- We believe, the trips and compilation of evidences and testimonies remainnecessary, but other type of trips are also important, such as accompanyingSaharawi human rights activists who come from having visited their families at the

refugee camps in Algeria, as when the activists return to Laayoune, in many cases

there have been clashes with Moroccan police. I order to prevent what happened

last October of 2009 with the group of 7 activists, imprisoned by this fact, it is

extremely necessary the presence of international observers. We also believe that

the accompaniments represent a peaceful resistance activity and not just observing

the strong Moroccan repression. Hence, the importance of reflecting and making

visible what Morocco wants to hide at all costs. It is significant that, when the

human rights observers have seen violence infringed by the police on the Saharawi

people, the audiovisual material about these situations have been seized, this

reflects the fear Moroccan authorities feel if the situation and their attitude against

the Saharawi people is made public..

- We think that the visits to different Saharawi associations working at the occupiedterritories are very important, to ascertain their concrete aims objectives and

methods of actuation. But still not forgetting how important are the visits to

individuals who not belong to any particular association, but can give valuable

information. The Saharawi people open the doors of their homes and their own

experience, to anyone who wants to listen. Its deeply important to establish a

commitment to disseminate their testimonies so their voices will be heard,

addressing the impediments that the Sahrawi population suffers daily in relation totheir freedom of expression.

- Regarding to future visits and its usefulness, we note, in the Saharawi own request,the need for specialists in different professional fields be part of the human rights

observers delegation traveling to the occupied territories. For example: nursing,

computing, communication, audiovisual and so forth. Similarly, Saharawi people

also demand the materials needed to develop these activities: medicines,

computers, cameras, storage media, audiovisual materials and so forth.


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- In the moment you go through the arches of the capital of Western Sahara,Laayoune, you feel the presence of police, as well as an exaggerated number of

Moroccan flags, which drawns attention significantly, also taking into account the

tens of billboards with King Mohammed VIs face you can see all around the city. Ifwe compare this vision of Laayoune with the rest of the Moroccan cities visited, we

can conclude that there is a greater presence of these Moroccan national symbols in

the occupied territories of Western Sahara. We have also found the manipulation

and wrong use ofinformation in media as propaganda of the Moroccan regime and

discredit of Polisario Front.

Billboards with the image of Mohammed VI spread around different parts of Laayoune

Port entrance of Laa oune and its Beach

Misinformation about AbdelazizDakhlas Beach


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- According to the attitude of the human rights observers towards the police, itsnecessary to remain calm and peaceful at all times. The Moroccan authorities areseeking to destabilize the work carried out, through continuous monitoring, taking

pictures of our activities shamelessly and making extensive and frequent

interrogations. All with the goal of exciting the observers and thus affect the

development of their task.

e observers are followed closel b the secret olice in Dakhla.

More moments of the follow-up in Dakhla


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- The presence of MINURSO forces (the UN Mission for the Referendum in WesternSahara) is large, especially in Laayoune. We deeply recommend contacting the offices

of the organization getting the opinion of workers and staff, as we believe their point ofview and job in the occupied territories should be very interesting..

Person in charge of controls and monitoring tourists in Laayoune

MINURSOSS Headquarters entry


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- Education of Saharawi people is a main problem that should be addressed insuccessive trips, especially taking into account the manipulated viewpoint of history.

Several schools in Laayoune have drawn on the wall a representation of the Green

March or Marcha Verde. There is at least one school, which has an entrance for

children and another one for soldiers and army since there are military headquarters

inside the school. For Sahrawi students, to enter university, there are several setbacks,

for instance, the nearest university a Saharawi student living in Laayoune can apply for

is 1300 km away, in Casablanca. It gets worse we talk about students living in the

southern regions of occupied Western Sahara, like Dakhla, which is 1600 km away

from the Moroccan capital city, Marrakech. Moreover, they have a specific bid of

studies, simply because there are careers that Saharawi students cannot apply for, such

as Politic Sciences. This exclusion and other kind of repression is a reality for Saharawi

students at University..

MINURSOS staff and workers hotel (Hotel Nagjir)

Laayoune schools with Green March representations


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- Public health does not exist in the whole occupied territory of Western Sahara. Inaddition, if some kind of medical attention is required due to an encounter with the

police defending and supporting the Saharawi cause the people will not receive any

care or treatment. In these cases, people makes up excuses in order to receive thenecessary medical attention, such as, a domestic problem, an accident or a fight. In

fact, during the Intifada protests and demonstrations during 2005, the ambulances

picked up the wounded by police charges and brutality taking them directly to

prison.

- In regard to the Saharawi culture conservation, we observed a strong attempt ofMoroccans as if it had always belonged or been a part of Morocco. For instance, a

popular party was celebrated in Guelmin, where several Saharawi traditions were

exhibited as if it were Moroccan traditions, or the fact that the use of Melfas and

Darrs (traditional Saharawi clothing and a characteristic symbol of Saharawi

culture), its widely spreading among the Moroccan population living in the occupied

territories, as if it was a symbol of their culture. Closely linked to this goal of

assimilating Saharawi culture as their own culture, is the continuous effort of

normalizing the occupation, and so, we can see at the National country house hotelor Parador, a large photography exhibition about the Green March.

Dih El Ghalia. Wounded in a demonstration (July 2010)

in Bucraa Avenue. (Laayoune) Medical Certificate of Dih El Ghalia


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- Another important issue we must take into account the plundering of naturalresources such as phosphates and other explorations of the area, the environmental

hazard posed by the overexploitation of Saharawi fishing banks. We recall in this

regard, the report of the European Parliament's legal service, which dictates that theexploitation of resources in the territory is illegal; still, many European companies are

participating on that exploitation. Morocco uses different methods to legitimize this

illegal exploitation, transporting the fish caught in Laayoune to Tan- Tan (A city

located in the south of the legal national Moroccan territory), to export it to Europe.

We have also carefully verified that the indigenous people of Western Sahara does not

receive any benefits from the exploitation of its own resources, not even having access

to that fish for daily consumption, also lacking the possibility to work in those

plundering companies which are violating the opinion of Hans Corell issued in 2005.

Checkpoint in the Port of Laayoune Laayounes port Factories

Port of Laayoune Avenue with white trucks exporting

plundered fisheries

Fishing boat in Laayounes port


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Dakhlas port. Trawl fisheries

Phosphates conveyor belt in Laayounes port

Phosphates conveyor belt in Laayounes outskirts


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- For future trips, Thawra considers essential that the figure of the internationalobserver does not pass unnoticed for Moroccan authorities. There may be

doubt whether the consequences of these trips have a positive outcome for the

Saharawi peoples own interests. It can be expected that, after European citizens

visit the occupied territories, there may be some kind of retaliation against thoseSaharawis receiving observers. However, even being so, we have found that

Saharawi people requests and needs the foreign presence in the occupied

territories, even living with them in their own homes, so the situation does not

last forever.

- We want to take advantage of this report to denounce the recent attackscarried out by Moroccan police against dozens of Saharawi citizens and foreign

citizens in the occupied territories. During an accompaniment of Sahrawi

human rights activists returning from the refugee camps in Tindouf, after

visiting their families 18th July 2010, the Moroccan police attacked our Spanish

colleague, Javier Sopea, along with dozens of Saharawi people. Anotherexample happened the 22nd of August 2010, another accompaniment of

Saharawi human rights activists returning from Argel after an international

congress for Human Rights, again, Antonio Velzquez, a Mexican colleague

and Isabel Terraza Spanish, along with dozens of Saharawi people were beaten

up by Moroccan policemen. Finally, the 28th of August 2010, a peaceful

demonstration including 14 Spanish citizens ended up with 11 detentions and 3

forced retentions, this time the police brutality and their aggressions left

Carmen Roger, Sara Mesa and Pablo Monederos, very badly injured. These

events are another example of Moroccan brutality and impunity with which

they act in the occupied territory.

It should be emphasized, during these events no member of the Spanishgovernment nor Foreign Ministry nor the Spanish Embassy or Consulate, has

been in contact with Spanish citizens, only Mariano Collado, responsible for the

Spanish heritage in the Western Sahara.

- Because of the things weve seen and weve learned along with the Saharawipeople and Saharawi associations, thawra understood the imperative need to

coordinate and take urgent action. Pressing the Moroccan regime implies a

physical action in the international arena. This means that, disseminating the

situation in Europe or the USA, we could somehow, get support to pressure

internationally the constant violation of human rights done by the Moroccan

Kingdom, which, on the other hand, has a privileged relationship countries like,

Spain, France or USA. The media is certainly a pending subject. We should

work to develop methods to claim the attention of international media.

Weaving a single solid network its also a hard work. For all that, we should not

withdraw and we must never give up on the idea of joining forces will let us

work harder, its obvious. Lets do it!.

Thawra: Complaint and Human Rights in the occupied Western Sahara.

www.saharathawra.com

report thawra july 2010. occupied territories of the western sahara

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