The Occupation of Western Sahara

[dolphin1 5]

On 31 October 1975, Morocco and Mauritania invaded Western Sahara as Spain (the former colonial power) looked on. The Saharawi people were expelled from their homes by force, including the use of napalm. Most fled to the Algerian desert.

Mauritania withdrew its claim to Western Sahara in 1979 and left. But Morocco stayed. The Saharawi people declared their own Republic in exile, which is now recognised by 60 other states. Yet the world still refuses to uphold international law and bring the Occupation to an end.

The Saharawi liberation movement, known as the Polisario Front, fought the Moroccan army for 16 years, reclaiming a small section of their country. In response Morocco built a 1,000-mile long wall, heavily fortified and mined, which divides the Saharawi refugees from those who still live in the Occupied Territories.

Tens of thousands of Saharawi people still live under Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara. Although Saharawis have ruled out terrorism as a political tactic, their lives and activities are severely constricted by a harsh security state.

The Saharawi flag is banned and speaking out for an independent state is illegal. Merely calling for human rights is enough to get organisations closed down and their leaders imprisoned. Yet Saharawis continue to speak out.

Over 500 Saharawi are still ‘disappeared’ in Moroccan custody, possibly surviving as political prisoners. Many have not been heard from for nearly 30 years. Relatives have been imprisoned and tortured for campaigning to know the truth about their fate.

Saharawi workers face greater exploitation than Moroccan settlers. Those who campaign for independent trade unions have been violently mistreated.

A peaceful demonstration in May 2005 led to harsh repression and an uprising in the Occupied Territories. Demonstrators were arrested in large numbers, some receiving over 10-year prison sentences.

Inside the Western Sahara

From the 64th Assembly of the UNITED NATIONS about the Western Sahara

Saharaouis imprisoned for visiting Western Sahara refugee Camps

Western Sahara activists beaten by Moroccan police on return to Morocco

Shame on you, without Morocco. Algeria wouldnt get its independence, Your president was born in Morocco, half of your generals are Moroccans, half of your country were of Morocco till the french came and took parts of our country to add it to algeria as they were planning to make Algeria a colony forever. Mauritania, historicaly was a part of Morocco. Now Algerians and those polisario thieves are starting theirs dirty job. They are using some poor people and force them to live in a camp in the middle of nowhere, getting money and food from the UN and some europeans countries, those money end up in the gang of polisario pockets and the food is sold inside Algeria and Mali and so on... By the way the so called western sahara is Moroccan and will still, people gave theirs lives for it and they are and they will, i will go back when a dirty war begins by the Algerian gov and its ###### the polisario gang. I dont have problems with algerians, but their gov and people like you. la3anaka allah waja3ala chororakom fi nohorekom.

[dolphin1 5]

By the way, have you heard about western sahara or even algeria in the history? i dont think so, but you would find a lot about the kingdom of morocco, which was a great empire. Sorry guys, you would say the same if someone attack and says BS the States.

[oldahmed 38]

By the way, have you heard about western sahara or even algeria in the history? i dont think so, but you would find a lot about the kingdom of morocco, which was a great empire. Sorry guys, you would say the same if someone attack and says BS the States.

If you didn't hear about Algerian history that doesn't mean Algeria didn't exist. It means you just have some history to learn.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

Shame on you, without Morocco. Algeria wouldnt get its independence, Your president was born in Morocco, half of your generals are Moroccans, half of your country were of Morocco till the french came and took parts of our country to add it to algeria as they were planning to make Algeria a colony forever. Mauritania, historicaly was a part of Morocco. Now Algerians and those polisario thieves are starting theirs dirty job. They are using some poor people and force them to live in a camp in the middle of nowhere, getting money and food from the UN and some europeans countries, those money end up in the gang of polisario pockets and the food is sold inside Algeria and Mali and so on... By the way the so called western sahara is Moroccan and will still, people gave theirs lives for it and they are and they will, i will go back when a dirty war begins by the Algerian gov and its ###### the polisario gang. I dont have problems with algerians, but their gov and people like you. la3anaka allah waja3ala chororakom fi nohorekom.

Algeria has been very important in many ways to American history

Emir Abdelkader was awarded several things by Abraham Lincoln for saving the lives of thousands of christians during muslim led riots in Syria in the 1850s. He was a muslim statesman and a great sufi leader.

The history of Algeria? The sufis of Algeria have an amazing history and in fact Tlemcen was not only one of the biggest centers of both Jewish and sufi culture but is also the site of Unescos Tower of Mansour. Algeria is home to several UNESCO sites such as the roman ruins of Timgad and Djemila. It is also home to the oldest known paleolithic site in Africa and there are thousands of cave paintings and oasis's throughout the sahara.

Who are exactly the "no ones" that don't know about Algeria and its contribution to the world? Maybe Moroccans raised in controlled education that dont even quite know about the real reasons behind the illegal invasion of a sovereign country in violation of over a 100 UN addendums. But any real scholar of the magreb is very well aware of Algiers and its magnificent naval history and the barbaries, St Augustine which is now Annaba and the birth place of St Augustine, the roman campains, the numidians, the berbers, the kabilyes , the lunar landscape of the marvelous sahara. The reason that DATES ever got to the USA is because in 1911 through 1913, the United States led agricultural expeditions and brought salt resistant alfalfa and deglet noor dates back to the west and planted them to see them thrive into Californias date palms.

Algeria's contribution to art? Monet, Renoir, Bridgeman and hundreds of other painters have painted Algeria's marvelous apple groves, orange groves, mountains and ravines, deserts and oasis. Algeria has a history that is epic and beautiful. Its people survived 130 years of civil war and are a people that suffered the french burnging them alive, torturing them . But they never surrendered and although pained, they have endured and have brilliant thinkers and writers and artists.

Morocco may want to be in some way the only voice of the magreb but Algeria is the mother, the white silent giant who's oil reserves dont lead it to pander to outsiders.

And shame on me, 3.5 million dollar in lobbying doesnt brain wash me into believing that the Western Sahara doesnt belong to the people who lived there. I can read a UN resolution and I have met families of the disappeared.

I have also spent alot of time in Algeria and studied it and its history extensively. Its an epic and marvelous place..you know nothing about Algeria apparently if you couldnt see its history.

By the way, have you heard about western sahara or even algeria in the history? i dont think so, but you would find a lot about the kingdom of morocco, which was a great empire. Sorry guys, you would say the same if someone attack and says BS the States.

Algeria has been very important in many ways to American history

Emir Abdelkader was awarded several things by Abraham Lincoln for saving the lives of thousands of christians during muslim led riots in Syria in the 1850s. He was a muslim statesman and a great sufi leader.

The history of Algeria? The sufis of Algeria have an amazing history and in fact Tlemcen was not only one of the biggest centers of both Jewish and sufi culture but is also the site of Unescos Tower of Mansour. Algeria is home to several UNESCO sites such as the roman ruins of Timgad and Djemila. It is also home to the oldest known paleolithic site in Africa and there are thousands of cave paintings and oasis's throughout the sahara.

Who are exactly the "no ones" that don't know about Algeria and its contribution to the world? Maybe Moroccans raised in controlled education that dont even quite know about the real reasons behind the illegal invasion of a sovereign country in violation of over a 100 UN addendums. But any real scholar of the magreb is very well aware of Algiers and its magnificent naval history and the barbaries, St Augustine which is now Annaba and the birth place of St Augustine, the roman campains, the numidians, the berbers, the kabilyes , the lunar landscape of the marvelous sahara. The reason that DATES ever got to the USA is because in 1911 through 1913, the United States led agricultural expeditions and brought salt resistant alfalfa and deglet noor dates back to the west and planted them to see them thrive into Californias date palms.

Algeria's contribution to art? Monet, Renoir, Bridgeman and hundreds of other painters have painted Algeria's marvelous apple groves, orange groves, mountains and ravines, deserts and oasis. Algeria has a history that is epic and beautiful. Its people survived 130 years of civil war and are a people that suffered the french burnging them alive, torturing them . But they never surrendered and although pained, they have endured and have brilliant thinkers and writers and artists.

Morocco may want to be in some way the only voice of the magreb but Algeria is the mother, the white silent giant who's oil reserves dont lead it to pander to outsiders.

And shame on me, 3.5 million dollar in lobbying doesnt brain wash me into believing that the Western Sahara doesnt belong to the people who lived there. I can read a UN resolution and I have met families of the disappeared.

I have also spent alot of time in Algeria and studied it and its history extensively. Its an epic and marvelous place..you know nothing about Algeria apparently if you couldnt see its history.

[dolphin1 5]

Algeria has been very important in many ways to American history

Emir Abdelkader was awarded several things by Abraham Lincoln for saving the lives of thousands of christians during muslim led riots in Syria in the 1850s. He was a muslim statesman and a great sufi leader.

The history of Algeria? The sufis of Algeria have an amazing history and in fact Tlemcen was not only one of the biggest centers of both Jewish and sufi culture but is also the site of Unescos Tower of Mansour. Algeria is home to several UNESCO sites such as the roman ruins of Timgad and Djemila. It is also home to the oldest known paleolithic site in Africa and there are thousands of cave paintings and oasis's throughout the sahara.

Who are exactly the "no ones" that don't know about Algeria and its contribution to the world? Maybe Moroccans raised in controlled education that dont even quite know about the real reasons behind the illegal invasion of a sovereign country in violation of over a 100 UN addendums. But any real scholar of the magreb is very well aware of Algiers and its magnificent naval history and the barbaries, St Augustine which is now Annaba and the birth place of St Augustine, the roman campains, the numidians, the berbers, the kabilyes , the lunar landscape of the marvelous sahara. The reason that DATES ever got to the USA is because in 1911 through 1913, the United States led agricultural expeditions and brought salt resistant alfalfa and deglet noor dates back to the west and planted them to see them thrive into Californias date palms.

Algeria's contribution to art? Monet, Renoir, Bridgeman and hundreds of other painters have painted Algeria's marvelous apple groves, orange groves, mountains and ravines, deserts and oasis. Algeria has a history that is epic and beautiful. Its people survived 130 years of civil war and are a people that suffered the french burnging them alive, torturing them . But they never surrendered and although pained, they have endured and have brilliant thinkers and writers and artists.

Morocco may want to be in some way the only voice of the magreb but Algeria is the mother, the white silent giant who's oil reserves dont lead it to pander to outsiders.

And shame on me, 3.5 million dollar in lobbying doesnt brain wash me into believing that the Western Sahara doesnt belong to the people who lived there. I can read a UN resolution and I have met families of the disappeared.

I have also spent alot of time in Algeria and studied it and its history extensively. Its an epic and marvelous place..you know nothing about Algeria apparently if you couldnt see its history.

Algeria has been very important in many ways to American history

Emir Abdelkader was awarded several things by Abraham Lincoln for saving the lives of thousands of christians during muslim led riots in Syria in the 1850s. He was a muslim statesman and a great sufi leader.

The history of Algeria? The sufis of Algeria have an amazing history and in fact Tlemcen was not only one of the biggest centers of both Jewish and sufi culture but is also the site of Unescos Tower of Mansour. Algeria is home to several UNESCO sites such as the roman ruins of Timgad and Djemila. It is also home to the oldest known paleolithic site in Africa and there are thousands of cave paintings and oasis's throughout the sahara.

Who are exactly the "no ones" that don't know about Algeria and its contribution to the world? Maybe Moroccans raised in controlled education that dont even quite know about the real reasons behind the illegal invasion of a sovereign country in violation of over a 100 UN addendums. But any real scholar of the magreb is very well aware of Algiers and its magnificent naval history and the barbaries, St Augustine which is now Annaba and the birth place of St Augustine, the roman campains, the numidians, the berbers, the kabilyes , the lunar landscape of the marvelous sahara. The reason that DATES ever got to the USA is because in 1911 through 1913, the United States led agricultural expeditions and brought salt resistant alfalfa and deglet noor dates back to the west and planted them to see them thrive into Californias date palms.

Algeria's contribution to art? Monet, Renoir, Bridgeman and hundreds of other painters have painted Algeria's marvelous apple groves, orange groves, mountains and ravines, deserts and oasis. Algeria has a history that is epic and beautiful. Its people survived 130 years of civil war and are a people that suffered the french burnging them alive, torturing them . But they never surrendered and although pained, they have endured and have brilliant thinkers and writers and artists.

Morocco may want to be in some way the only voice of the magreb but Algeria is the mother, the white silent giant who's oil reserves dont lead it to pander to outsiders.

And shame on me, 3.5 million dollar in lobbying doesnt brain wash me into believing that the Western Sahara doesnt belong to the people who lived there. I can read a UN resolution and I have met families of the disappeared.

I have also spent alot of time in Algeria and studied it and its history extensively. Its an epic and marvelous place..you know nothing about Algeria apparently if you couldnt see its history.

Ok. so your history started on 1800s, Morocco supported Abdelkader: 1822-1859 Reign of Moulay Abderrahmane (start of the French occupation of Algeria). Morocco strongly supported the Algerian resistance movement led by Emir Abdelkader

Yes you have oil, but how that help your country? you still live in poverty, Morocco advanced and going thru many changes, while your government, gang of polisario, Spain, are trying hard to put rocks infront of Morocco.

The othman empire invaded all arabic countries from Syria to Algeria, and they couldnt step in Morocco. Morocco was the first country to recognize the USA,''Relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States date back to the earliest days of U.S. history. On December 20, 1777, Morocco formally recognized the colonies as a unified sovereign nation''.

The oldest university in the world is in Fes, Morocco. Your president who was born and studied and got help IN MOROCCO, was trying to build a bigger mosque like mosque Hassan 2 in Casablanca, who is trying to follow who? dude we helped you to be free, King Hassan 2 didnt want to negociate with the French about the parts they took from Morocco and added to their wannabe forever colony Algeria. He told them i would negociate with Algerian not you and that was his mistake, because as soon as you got the independence your new President at that time, betrayed us. We fought with the palestinians and there are many places in jerusalem show the presence of moroccans.

Your Algeria spent and spend so much money that come from the oil on its dirty agenda and lie, which is helping the polisario to take the sahara and the algeria can have a piece in the atlantic ocean. If they want to help others, why they dont help the Palestinians? who plays the lobby game? Algeria.

By the way, why Algeria wont give independence to the people of Kabili, the berbers of the north west? why they dont give it to the Twareg in the south?

I dont know why i started commenting here about bullshit and about some country that betrayed us and was not known at all.

Just google the history and who is Morocco( the sharifian empire) and you will see, dude.

[dolphin1 5]

This forum is not a dirty political propaganda blog, this guy has a dirty intention. you know, goes around comes around, give the freedom to the Kabilis and the Twareg before touching the unit of our great Morocco.

[dolphin1 5]

If you didn't hear about Algerian history that doesn't mean Algeria didn't exist. It means you just have some history to learn.

i read the history, they are trying to take a piece of my country , doing whatever they can, historically, half of theirs country is moroccan, the bad thing is we helped them in many ways, and they stabbed us from the back. They are enforcing people to live like animals in a camp on Algerian land, using them to get a piece of our desert saying it belongs to those people. Lots of those people escaped to morocco, some of them were killed trying to escape that camp. The polisario gang leaders, live in Spain, Algeria, have the nationality and plenty of bank account using the money they get from donations.

[dolphin1 5]

I shouldnt have cared about this subject he started, as i believe in letting the dogs bark when my caravan is moving, i know who we are and who they are and how low they are, they will be paid, and God will turn over their dirty plans against them in the near future.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

I shouldnt have cared about this subject he started, as i believe in letting the dogs bark when my caravan is moving, i know who we are and who they are and how low they are, they will be paid, and God will turn over their dirty plans against them in the near future.

I think you are stretching it calling Algeria low. As far as them having dirty plans, it cant be worse than making people literally disappear because they want to protest openly.

Saying the western sahara should be free is not an assault against the moroccan people nor is it in anyway advocating for Algeria. The people of the western sahara have over 100 un mandates asking for this as well as a european boycott of licensing their resources going on. How is that Algeria's fault? Whats so wrong with letting them be self determining?

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

i read the history, they are trying to take a piece of my country , doing whatever they can, historically, half of theirs country is moroccan, the bad thing is we helped them in many ways, and they stabbed us from the back. They are enforcing people to live like animals in a camp on Algerian land, using them to get a piece of our desert saying it belongs to those people. Lots of those people escaped to morocco, some of them were killed trying to escape that camp. The polisario gang leaders, live in Spain, Algeria, have the nationality and plenty of bank account using the money they get from donations.

What in the world are you talking about? Half of Algeria was never Morocco. Perhaps the north west frontier had Moroccan influences such as Oran and Tlemcen but Oran has been historically spanish, not Moroccan and the center and east of Algeria have absolutely no ties language wise or history wise with Morocco. The west and south are almost unihabitable except in small areas so I cant see your point of how Morocco somehow owned Algeria too. If you thought you could invade Algeria and pretend it was yours like you did the western sahara, I am sure you would have too but the French put too many mines between you too and the berbers who live close to the border arent too fond of half the stuff the fessis and rabatis have been doing to begin with , especially denying them to name their children berber names and surpressing their culture as well.

Algerian history beginning in the 1800s? There were people in Algeria before the kings of Morocco ever started their reign.. as evidenced in Tassili N Ajjer which is considered by many the birth place of mankind.

Id love to see you tell a group of Algerians that Algeria wasnt a country. All over some land grab the king did in 1975 to throw the attention off of assasination attempts by his own army generals and food riots. Lets get everyones mind off of whats really going on and invade a sovereign country and to hell with the United Nations

[rachbel 2]

Dolphin,Do not reply or answer this lady , her intention is to make trouble between neighbours, do not fall into her trap, she knows nothing of north africa,it`s clear from the way she is talking. nobody denies Algeria as a great nation and if anyone knows that in the world it`s Morocco because we shared it with them and we lived it with them.Sahara is a political problem , will be solved soon or later.

This topic should have been closed by the moderator of this forum, i do not know why he/she didnt do.

we love Algeria and its people and history, they love us too,and if someone has any sympathy for the Polizario he/she better go and hang-in-there with them.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

Dolphin,Do not reply or answer this lady , her intention is to make trouble between neighbours, do not fall into her trap, she knows nothing of north africa,it`s clear from the way she is talking. nobody denies Algeria as a great nation and if anyone knows that in the world it`s Morocco because we shared it with them and we lived it with them.Sahara is a political problem , will be solved soon or later.

This topic should have been closed by the moderator of this forum, i do not know why he/she didnt do.

we love Algeria and its people and history, they love us too,and if someone has any sympathy for the Polizario he/she better go and hang-in-there with them.

The reason this topic is not closed is because its not violating any rules . I am glad its open and whats scary to me is how many Americans are completley unaware of what happened to the people of the western sahara and continues to happen. In the last few weeks a saharawi child was killed as well as 7 this week by Moroccan Security Forces

Article from the Montreal Gazette, November 8th 2010

MADRID - Spain on Friday joined growing international concern over a Moroccan police raid on a Western Sahara camp settlement that led to deadly clashes, while Rabat stopped journalists from travelling to the territory.

"Spain believes the circumstances of these events should be clarified urgently, and this is what we relayed to the Moroccan government," Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told reporters in Madrid, referring to clashes that erupted Monday in the camp outside the Western Saharan town of Laayoune.

Jimenez's remarks came as both the Polisario Front independence movement and Moroccan authorities raised their casualty estimates from the violence that broke out when Moroccan authorities dismantled a squatter camp housing thousands of Sahrawis.

The Polisario claimed Friday that Moroccan forces killed dozens, wounded some 4,500 and arrested more than 2,000 people — up from its previous estimate of 11 dead and 723 injured. It said at least some of the victims were civilians.

Moroccan security forces burn Saharawi tent villiage 11 7 2010From euronews, Moroccan police kill tent inhabitants

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Western Sahara city reported calm after riots

Associated Press, 11.09.10, 07:56 AM EST

RABAT, Morocco -- A human rights activist says Moroccan soldiers and police are patrolling the streets of the main city in the Western Sahara after unrest that officials said left seven people dead.

Galia Djimi tells The Associated Press the city is largely calm after riots Monday triggered by a police raid to dismantle a huge tent camp set up by local Saharawis pressing for better living conditions in the vast desert territory claimed by Morocco.

Djimi told AP most Saharawis were staying in their homes Tuesday because of the heavy military and police presence in the capital, Laayoune.

Morocco's official news agency MAP says five members of the Moroccan security forces were killed Monday. The pro-independence Polisario Front says two demonstrators died in Laayoune.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press

14 year old boy killed by Moroccan security forces As reported by the US EMBASSY

This week the United States Embassy in Rabat confirmed Associated Press reports that a 14 year-old Sahrawi boy was killed by Moroccan security forces on Sunday. The forces reportedly fired at a vehicle occupied by the

young man and several others as it entered a protest camp outside the city of Laayoune in the occupied territory of Western Sahara – the last remaining colony in Africa. Thousands of people are protesting at the camp site to demand better housing,

jobs and other improvements for Western Sahara, which Morocco illegally annexed after Spain withdrew in 1975. Morocco is reportedly preventing international humanitarian organizations and journalists from entering the protest camp to report

on the situation and assess the needs of the protesters.

Congressman Donald M. Payne, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, released the following statement:

“I am deeply saddened by the death of Al-Nagem Al-Qarhi, a young Sahrawi teenager who sought nothing but to join other Sahrawis in a peaceful demonstration calling for better living conditions for himself and the people of Western Sahara. My condolences go out to his family and the other passengers of the vehicle who were also shot at and beaten by Moroccan forces in the attack, and to the many Sahrawi protesters. Their voices will not be silenced by the threat of violence nor will the injustices perpetrated against their people by the Moroccan authorities forever go unpunished.

“I urge a full investigation of Al-Nagem’s murder. I also urge the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to monitor the human rights situation in Western Sahara and report these incidents to the United Nations Security Council. Morocco must know that the international community will not

accept the killing and repression of peaceful demonstrators. The people of Western Sahara deserve freedom, peace, and self-determination.”

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

The reason this topic is not closed is because its not violating any rules . I am glad its open and whats scary to me is how many Americans are completley unaware of what happened to the people of the western sahara and continues to happen. In the last few weeks a saharawi child was killed as well as 7 this week by Moroccan Security Forces

Article from the Montreal Gazette, November 8th 2010

MADRID - Spain on Friday joined growing international concern over a Moroccan police raid on a Western Sahara camp settlement that led to deadly clashes, while Rabat stopped journalists from travelling to the territory.

"Spain believes the circumstances of these events should be clarified urgently, and this is what we relayed to the Moroccan government," Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told reporters in Madrid, referring to clashes that erupted Monday in the camp outside the Western Saharan town of Laayoune.

Jimenez's remarks came as both the Polisario Front independence movement and Moroccan authorities raised their casualty estimates from the violence that broke out when Moroccan authorities dismantled a squatter camp housing thousands of Sahrawis.

The Polisario claimed Friday that Moroccan forces killed dozens, wounded some 4,500 and arrested more than 2,000 people — up from its previous estimate of 11 dead and 723 injured. It said at least some of the victims were civilians.

Moroccan security forces burn Saharawi tent villiage 11 7 2010From euronews, Moroccan police kill tent inhabitants

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Western Sahara city reported calm after riots

Associated Press, 11.09.10, 07:56 AM EST

RABAT, Morocco -- A human rights activist says Moroccan soldiers and police are patrolling the streets of the main city in the Western Sahara after unrest that officials said left seven people dead.

Galia Djimi tells The Associated Press the city is largely calm after riots Monday triggered by a police raid to dismantle a huge tent camp set up by local Saharawis pressing for better living conditions in the vast desert territory claimed by Morocco.

Djimi told AP most Saharawis were staying in their homes Tuesday because of the heavy military and police presence in the capital, Laayoune.

Morocco's official news agency MAP says five members of the Moroccan security forces were killed Monday. The pro-independence Polisario Front says two demonstrators died in Laayoune.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press

14 year old boy killed by Moroccan security forces As reported by the US EMBASSY

This week the United States Embassy in Rabat confirmed Associated Press reports that a 14 year-old Sahrawi boy was killed by Moroccan security forces on Sunday. The forces reportedly fired at a vehicle occupied by the

young man and several others as it entered a protest camp outside the city of Laayoune in the occupied territory of Western Sahara – the last remaining colony in Africa. Thousands of people are protesting at the camp site to demand better housing,

jobs and other improvements for Western Sahara, which Morocco illegally annexed after Spain withdrew in 1975. Morocco is reportedly preventing international humanitarian organizations and journalists from entering the protest camp to report

on the situation and assess the needs of the protesters.

Congressman Donald M. Payne, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, released the following statement:

“I am deeply saddened by the death of Al-Nagem Al-Qarhi, a young Sahrawi teenager who sought nothing but to join other Sahrawis in a peaceful demonstration calling for better living conditions for himself and the people of Western Sahara. My condolences go out to his family and the other passengers of the vehicle who were also shot at and beaten by Moroccan forces in the attack, and to the many Sahrawi protesters. Their voices will not be silenced by the threat of violence nor will the injustices perpetrated against their people by the Moroccan authorities forever go unpunished.

“I urge a full investigation of Al-Nagem’s murder. I also urge the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to monitor the human rights situation in Western Sahara and report these incidents to the United Nations Security Council. Morocco must know that the international community will not

accept the killing and repression of peaceful demonstrators. The people of Western Sahara deserve freedom, peace, and self-determination.”

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Morocco urged to investigate deaths in Western Sahara protest camp

11 November 2010

The Moroccan authorities must open an independent investigation into events that led to a number of deaths and injuries at Gadaym Izik, a protest camp near Laayoune, Western Sahara, Amnesty International said today.

The government says nine people were killed during Monday's operation and in its aftermath, including eight members of the security forces.

Local human rights activists have told Amnesty International that 11 camp residents were seen lying injured on the ground, some of whom were bleeding while others had been burnt.

According to reports, thousands of Sahrawis were also forcibly removed from the protest camp by Moroccan security forces.

"This was clearly a very serious incident and one that threatens to fuel further tension in Western Sahara," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa programme.

"The Moroccan authorities must launch an immediate, independent inquiry and get to the bottom of what occurred and consider asking the UN to assist.

"We need to know what sparked the security forces' action and whether the force they used was reasonable and proportionate or excessive. If excessive force was used, those responsible must be held to account."

According to accounts received by Amnesty International, the first residents knew of the impending security forces' action was at about 6am on Monday when a helicopter flew over the camp ordering the residents to leave.

Minutes later, the security forces are said to have forced their way into the camp, beating residents and using tear gas and cannons firing hot water to force them out of their tents which were then burnt or bulldozed.

The Moroccan authorities say that the operation was necessary to free camp residents who were being held there against their will. They say too that the security forces encountered serious resistance.

Morocco's official news agency has reported that five police or other security officials were killed and three others died on Tuesday from injuries they had sustained, and that one Sahrawi man was accidentally killed by a speeding police car in Laayoune. His death is being investigated, according to the authorities.

Little information has yet emerged directly from residents who were removed from the camp and the site itself has been effectively sealed off by Moroccan security forces.

In Laayoune itself, a few kilometres west of the camp, demonstrators are reported to have attacked and damaged public buildings, banks, shops and other properties in the aftermath of the security force operation.

The Gadaym Izik camp, an informal settlement of tents and makeshift dwellings containing thousands of people, was established last month by Sahrawis angered by what they say is their marginalization by the Moroccan authorities and in support of their demand for jobs and adequate housing.

The Sahrawis say that though they are indigenous to Western Sahara, they do not receive a fair share of the benefits from the region's natural resources and land, and that the local authorities have failed to respond to their demands for better socio-economic conditions.

Monday's violence coincided with the start of new informal talks about the future of Western Sahara between the Moroccan authorities and the Polisario Front, a group which calls for the independence of Western Sahara and runs a self-declared government in exile - the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The talks were convened in New York at the behest of the UN's special envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross.

"This latest incident highlights once again the urgent need to include a human rights monitoring component in the Mandate of MINURSO, the UN body which monitors the cease-fire agreement between Morocco and the Polisario Front reached almost 20 years ago in 1991," said Malcolm Smart.

"The absence of a specific human rights monitoring component has undermined MINURSO's effectiveness and allowed human rights abuses to pass without adequate investigation."

[msheesha 548]

Wonder if some of the posters on this topic are getting their information from the same sources who identified Gaza victims from 4 years ago as Polisario victims of Moroccan authorities.......nice

Spanish News Agency EFE Admits Publishing 4-year-old Gaza Photos from Pro-Polisario Source that Falsely Identified Victims as Coming from W. Sahara

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Saturday condemned Spanish news agency EFE's "unacceptable and unfounded" publication last week of 4-year-old photos of Palestinian infants injured in Gaza which were falsely identified as photos of victims of Monday's unrest in Laayoune, in Moroccan Sahara. The false photos (see example below) were printed in the major Spanish newspapers El Pais and El Mundo prior to a pro-Polisario demonstration this past weekend in Madrid.

"I saw the EFE's pictures; they well and truly come from the Gaza Strip and not Laayoune," said Erekat, who denounced the photos as "disinformation" to mislead international public opinion and distort Morocco's record. He reaffirmed Palestinian support for Morocco's efforts to settle the Western Sahara conflict through dialogue and peaceful means, and condemned EFE's failure to respect journalistic ethics.

EFE admitted the error on Friday, saying it purchased the photos from activists at a pro-Polisario website. The photos showed the Gaza infants with their heads bandaged in a hospital. The caption in El Pais said: "Two injured Saharan children are treated at a hospital in Laayoune."

The Polisario Front and its supporters have made a number of unsubstantiated allegations over the past week to cover up serious violence committed by their backers in Laayoune.

Last Monday, Moroccan authorities attempted to peacefully disperse a protest in Laayoune that began legitimately but was taken over by pro-Polisario militants. 70 Moroccan police were injured and 10 police killed when they moved in with non-lethal gear, no weapons, and were attacked by militants with knives, bottled gas canisters, and Molotov cocktails.

This account was supported by independent eyewitnesses. After examining the protest site, the UN Secretary-General's representative Hany Abdel-Aziz, head of MINURSO, the UN presence in Western Sahara, told French daily Le Monde, "I saw no trace of bullet cartridges." Instead, he was "amazed by the number of butane gas bottles" which militants used to set fires.

Most of the demonstrators left the camps when authorities asked and escaped serious harm. Abdel-Aziz commented that the truth was far from the thousands of civilian casualties the Polisario claimed.

[sandinista! 1,816]

and have yet to condemn the savage murder of (at last count that i've read) ten moroccan police officers, along with the mutilation and desecration of some of their corpses.

so far, nothing but crickets.

Edited November 19, 2010 by sandinista!