Rabab Amidane wins Student's Peace Prize

Rabab Amidane, the sister of imprisoned Sahrawi activist El-Ouali Amidane and an advocate for the rights of Sahrawis in her own right, has won the Student's Peace Prize for her work on Western Sahara:

Amidane travels abroad to tell the rest of the world about the conditions of the Sahrawis in Western Sahara. When she visited Norway in 2007, Amidane met the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and she asked the Norwegian state to support Western Sahara's demands for independence. By meeting political leaders and people with a lot of resources, Amidane could make the world recognize the conflict in Western Sahara. In cooperation with Norwegian youth's political parties and the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, Amidane has been able to make the present conflict in Western Sahara relevant in Norway.

One of the members of the committee that awarded the prize used to be on the Nobel committee. I think this, and Aminatou Haidar's RFK Award, signal that the human rights community is moving towards awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to a Sahrawi.

Photo by Wikdmessenger

Sahrawi students under attack in Marrakesh

The irrepressible Rabab Amidane, whose brother El Ouali is serving time in a Moroccan jail for his independence work, has two videos of harassment of Sahrawi students at Marrakesh University. This month Sahrawi students have been assaulted for their activism on behalf of self-determination by roving gangs, according to CODESA.



In the first video, Rabab interviews some Sahrawi students who have moved into a central building to protect themselves from further attacks. Perversely, seeing them eat in this redoubt made me really want some Sahrawi food.

It looks like the younger generation has learned human rights lessons well from --in the video, a group of students record who was attacked and how for future complaints. They'll need the information, because it looks like the attacks have been serious. Assaulted student Letif Lahbib just lies on a stretcher moaning in the video, while his friends outside demonstrate by waving his bloody shirt.

In the second video, Sahrawis angry at the attacks march through the university. People walking by seemed pretty blase about the march, which I take to be a good sign. All the best to those in Marrakesh.