What happened?

Moroccan army fort in Guerguerat

During my embarrassing absence, a lot of Western Sahara-related things happened:

• In December, Morocco began reinforcing its position on the Berm, a violation of the ceasefire. Polisario complained to the UN.
  
• Human Rights Watch released its annual Western Sahara report. The report focuses on the abuses the Moroccan government inflicts on pro-independence Sahrawis. Here's a description of the torture of a Sahrawi activist named Asfari:

  After two, two and-a-half-hours, [the police] said, “Let’s try something else.” While I was still seated, they lifted my feet onto a second chair in front of me and hit the soles of my feet with what felt like hard plastic batons, for two, three minutes…One of them burned me with cigarettes on my wrists.

• Two Sahrawi students, Mustapha Abd Daiem and Laktif el-Houssin, were crushed by a bus in a sit-in at a Marrakesh bus stop.
  

That last one is the one I'm saddest about effectively ignoring. It's a huge story, and the kind that shows how unpleasant life in Morocco can get if you're on the government's bad side. Interestingly, the incident also shows how good the Western Sahara conflict is, compared to other conflicts. An unjust death in DR Congo or Palestine would garner much less attention, considering the violence in those areas.

I know as well as anyone that a lot of stories on blogs are treated like a big deal, but then . If you want more coverage of one of these events or one I didn't name, say so in the comments. I'll do follow up reporting, and maybe post an interview with someone involved. It'll be a way to make up for the coverage these issues missed when I stopped blogging.

Photo from Flickr user Zongo769 used under a Creative Commons license.

Morocco Board fumes over Haidar RFK award

Today, a bunch of good people and I will attend a ceremony in Congress where Aminatou Haidar will receive the RFK Human Rights award she won in September. It's thrilling that she's getting such prestigious recognition for her work, and the support the RFK Center will give her in the future is even better. Plus, whenever Western Sahara people get together there's fun to be had.

But not everyone is so thrilled! Morocco Board, for example, is downright grumpy:

Several Moroccan-American grassroots organizations such as the Moroccan American Coalition (MAC) and the Moroccan Congress of USA (MCU) have expressed their displeasure with this decision and have urged those who have made it to consider that Ms. Haidar enjoys the freedom of travel in and out of morocco and has recently accepted a large amount of money from the Moroccan government as restitution and compensation but she still has not renounced violence and continues to incite violent acts

Later, Morocco Board complains that choosing this wild-eyed terrorist will embolden Polisario and sabotage the next round of Manhasset talks. That's absurd in two ways: everyone who knows her story realizes Haidar is about as non-violent as activists come, and Manhasset is dead in the water, RFK award or no.

More coverage later today of the ceremony and reception.

Aminatou Haidar wins Robert Kennedy award?

Maybe. UPES is saying (translated) Haidar, the Sahrawi human rights activist, won the RFK Memorial Human Rights Award. I called Saranah Holmes at the RFK Memorial, and she said they can't talk about whether Haidar won until a press release coming later this week.

I expect she did win, though, and UPES is just acting on inside information. If they weren't sure, why would they put Sahrawis and Haidar at risk for embarassment? Haidar would be a great choice, anyway. From the Memorial's description of the award:

The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was established in 1984 by his eldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, to honor courageous and innovative individuals striving for social justice throughout the world. Each year, the Memorial awards an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy’s vision and legacy. The Human Rights Award winners or "Laureates" have made significant contributions to their countries through years of dedicated work....The Memorial offers not only a monetary contribution to their cause, but a partnership, through RFK Center, in the fight against human rights violations.

Emphasis mine. Winning would mean not only better attention for Haidar and Sahrawi human rights, but another third party interested in protecting Haidar from Moroccan attacks.

Via anonymous commenter

Ichi Aboulhasssan out of Western Sahara: no country for this old man

The cheese stands alone

Ichi Aboulhassan, one of Morocco's chief torturers, has been moved out of Western Sahara. The information comes from a Western Saharan human rights activist. This transfer is great news for Sahrawis but bad news for the Moroccan people. Before I tell you why, here are some of Ichi's greatest hits (literally):

• Commanding the Urban Security Group (GUS), a leading instrument in the occupation
• Dragging Aminatou Haidar from her emergency room bed
• Torturing Sahrawi political prisoners in September 2005
• Leading a GUS force that threw Sahrawi Sidi Mohammed Ould Taleb from the roof of a building.
  

Aboulhassan has been transferred to Bensliman, near Casablanca. It's good that such a vicious man can no longer reach the Sahrawis. Still, his material gains he earned with his Western Saharan brutality--he came poor and left wealthy, his new post is closer to power--means torture in Morocco, as in my own country, has become a lucrative career path.

Moroccan court stops publication of Ould Rachid testimony

A Moroccan court has ordered Al-Jarida Al-Oula to stop publishing testimonies from a Moroccan human rights panel, including the testimony from CORCAS chief Khalihenna Ould Rachid that Morocco committed war crimes in Western Sahara. Al-Jarida's owner Ali Anouzla isn't happy:

"The verdict shows that press freedom has moved backwards," he told AFP.

"It is in flagrant contradiction with the spirit of the IER [human rights panel] because it takes away the possibility for citizens to be informed about the leaden years, while the IER wanted precisely the opposite to enable the page to be turned."

Meanwhile, the head of the Consulative Council on Human Rights, which wanted publication to stop, was pleased with the verdict. He said the publications would leave the testimonies for examination by historians, not journalists hustling for scoops. If you forgot your government-stooge to English translator at home, he means that he wants to hide the testimony until everyone accused in it is dead.

I hope Al-Jarida Al-Oula, if it decides the risk of continuing to publish the testimony isn't worth it, is able to give or sell the documents to a foreign paper (I think Spain would be best). That's not an ideal solution, though, because it makes the information more difficult for Moroccans to reach.

The Councill's censorious action seem like a continuation of the schizophrenia in a lot of Moroccan human rights work--the Council's recommendations on the Years of Lead (ending torture, for example) make it sound like it's made up of reasonable people, but their reaction to the publication of Ould Rachid's testimony suggests it's willing to trash Sahrawis to achieve their own goals.

It reminds me of the commission set up to examine human rights after the Years of Lead that was only too eager to disavow Sahrawi concerns and abandon its Sahara Section. I understand the motivation in both cases--specifically, being able to turn to more conservative Moroccans and say, "Sure, we're liberal on these issues, but at least we're not troublemaking Sahrawis"--but that kind of attitude needs to be ditched if human rights are to be respected in either country.

Obviously a lot of reformers like Ali Lmrabet are honest about Western Sahara. There just aren't enough of them.

Via Laroussi

Sahrawi human rights worker released for no given reason

Asfari being led away by police

Ennaâma Asfari, founder of the Sahrawi human rights organization CORELSO and until recently a political prisoner, was released from jail this morning only three days before his trial. There's no official reason for his release, but attention from Amnesty didn't hurt. I did a bad job covering Asfari's case, but ASVDH has a lot of information about it.

Asfari's far from done with the Moroccan "justice" system, of course--rare is the politically active Sahrawi who can stay away from it for long. He might have to go back to jail anyway to get his belongings, which weren't returned to him when he was released. Getting out of jail and not getting mugged by police? These Sahrawis keep getting more demanding.

Flickr photo from Saharauiak used under a Creative Commons license

Leave old Sahrawis alone!

Geez, late middle-aged Sahrawis can't catch a break from Morocco. First it was the guy in the wheelchair, now two brothers and their sister, all in their 50's and 60's, were interrogated for six hours by Moroccan security forces for visiting Mauritania and meeting with other Sahrawis there. Not the best way to run an occupation.

More on the Sahrawi in a wheelchair turned away by Morocco

The indispensable Norwegian Committee for Western Sahara has more information and pictures of the wheelchair-bound Sahrawi visiting his family in the occupied territories who was only allowed to visit them for 4 minutes. According to the Committee, Yarba Mahfud Mohamed's visit was cut short because he refuses to renounce Western Saharan independence:

On arrival in El Aauin, I was stopped because I had not signed a declaration that the Moroccan authorities had given me, and which they said was required to obtain permission to enter the country: “I am a Sahrawi who is returning home in order to beg the king’s forgiveness,” it said. After checking the general situation, with plainclothes policemen, and on the basis of the degrading manner in which they treated me, I understood that I only had one alternative: to return to Spain. The worst part was to see my loved ones there behind a dirty glass wall, without being able to being able to do anything.

He says at one point they took his wheelchair away so he couldn't even move. Mohamed makes exactly the point Morocco is missing--treating Sahrawis like this only gives them more reason to find the status quo untenable.

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.

Human Rights Watch on Morocco

Human Rights Watch released its report on human rights in Morocco earlier this month. Their conclusion: Morocco's not so hot, especially for a supposedly liberalizing friend of the West.

The report mentions abuses against Sahrawis, saying that police are harsher with Sahrawi human rights activists and mentioning repression of Sahrawi student protests.

Morocco's press freedom's also pitiful, according to the report. It talks about the Nichane/Tel Quel travesty we know well, as well as the imprisonment of another newspaper's editor who published a classified document related to terrorism. He was charged with concealing information related to a crime. Can you think a better way to not conceal something than publishing it in a major paper?

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user Patotenere.

Polisario officials write opinion pieces, but where are the occupied Sahrawi voices?

Emhamed Khadad isn't someone I've heard of before, but he's described as Polisario's coordinator with the UN (I guess that means he's the MINURSO liaison, because I thought Boukhari's the UN representative). He recently wrote two pieces for European audiences: one in the European Wall Street Journal argues that MINURSO needs a human rights component, while another in European Voice complains that the French idea of a European-Mediterranean trade sphere including Morocco strengthens the occupation.

I'm left to wonder, though, why we aren't seeing anything similarly from human rights activists inside Western Sahara like Ali Salem Tamek, Mohammed Daddach, Aminatou Haidar, or Brahim Sabbar. I can see some problems: activists might not know as many languages or be as educated as Polisario leaders, they could face repercussions from Moroccan authorities, or they don't have the connections that Polisario has to get a piece in a major paper. They also can't be as open about support for independence as a Polisario Front representative, certainly.

Still, they're more effective images for readers, and they can comment on Western Saharan issues without overtly opposing Moroccan sovereignty. Even an integrationist could want a human rights component for MINURSO, for example. Polisario should use the contacts it doubtless has with dissidents inside the territory and media elites in Europe and the United States to get articles by Sahrawi activists under the occupation published.

Mohammed VI pardons people who dared speak freely

Abdelaziz might rule SADR like a king, but as this article makes clear, at least he isn't a real king. King Mohammed VI recently pardoned 8 Moroccans who were in prison for insulting the king. Sweet of Mohammed to pardon them, but it just exposes the ridiculousness of lèse majesté laws:

Amine said one young man had been jailed after unwittingly ripping up a magazine that contained a picture of the king. A woman seeking a divorce was imprisoned last year for saying her husband sat around at home all day doing nothing "like a king", said Amine.

Worst of all, the article talks about a 95 year-old man in a wheelchair, Ahmed Nacer, who said something to his bus driver that "harmed Morocco's sacred values." He was sentenced in September and died in prison in February. And people wonder why the Sahrawis want out.

Abderrahim Lemsaoud and Mustapha Rochdi, Hamdi Lembarki's killers, released 8 years early

Hamdi Lembarki (pictured) was beaten to death by Moroccan security forces during the 2005 intifada. His killers, Abderrahim Lemsaoud and Mustapha Rochdi, were sentenced to 10 years in prison but only served 2 after being released early last month. Pretty outrageous stuff, and just one example of the flippant attitude the Moroccan government takes toward human rights in Western Sahara.

I'm pretty behind the times on this, but it's too depressing not to mention. Giving his killers a little negative Google juice, even in their transliterated names, is a little justice but not near as much as Lembarki deserves.

More on gender equality in Morocco

Continuing with yesterday's post about divorce in Western Sahara, here's the 2008 report on gender equality from Social Watch. Morocco is ranked only slightly higher than Pakistan, and is several notches down from Saudi Arabia. But then, how could a modernizing democracy like Morocco possibly compete with Saudi Arabia on women's rights? They're so enlightened there.

Like in many reports like this, Western Sahara's not included, probably because of the difficulty of separating trends in Morocco and the occupied territory.

Inky Fingers: Algeria's government and a free press

The Algerian government might not be so different from Morocco's, after all--at least in the area of press freedom. While the Moroccan government was busy trying to assassinate Ali Lmrabet, the Algerian government got control of all the country's ink, as well as its papers and main printing presses.

I knew the Algerian government didn't exactly support a free press, but that's ridiculous. Like everyone else I appreciate Algeria's support for Western Sahara, but there's no excuse for that gross a violation of freedom of the press.

Speaking of Algeria, has anyone seen or read Bab el-Oued? I'm reading it for my Middle East class and so far it's terribly written, at least in translation.

Flickr photo from Filtran.

Book on non-violent resistance has tactics for Sahrawis

Non-violence is trendy in Western Saharan resistance. In the spirit of keeping things both effective and pacifist, Sahrawis and their allies should check out this extensive e-book about non-violent resistance. Produced by the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies, the book discusses tactics used across the world, using protests against Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia as a model. If their ideas helped stopped Milosevic, I'm sure they can be employed effectively in El Aiun.

Weirdly, I wasn't able to find it in any other languages. If translations aren't available yet, I'm sure they will be soon--for Western Saharan purposes I'd like to see one in Spanish and Arabic.

Via the HAMSA Crime Report, which also tipped me off about Algeria's machinations.

Children of the Clouds released on Youtube

Filmmaker Carlos Gonzalez has put a new version of his Western Sahara documentary, Children of the Clouds, on Youtube. Gonzalez snuck into Western Sahara and got dynamite images of abuse until Morocco kicked him out and accused him of being a spy. If Morocco's so afraid of this guy that they had to accuse him of being a Venezuelan spy, you know he's good.

When I mentioned Children last time I reserved judgment on its veracity since only one guy was interviewed, but now it's stuffed with interviews with activists (a feast of Amidanes!), demonstration footage, and bruises from Moroccan torture. Here's Part 1. Part 2's here.

• One student says Moroccan secret agents infiltrate schools, even using teenagers to spy. It's a Moroccan 21 Jump Street!
• Brahim Numria says the reason Morocco is so brutal to teenagers and even young children is that it doesn't want them to "grow in the struggle" like Palestinians. That sort of makes sense, but surely Morocco knows beating people up for what they believe doesn't dissuade them from believing it.
• I'm fond of Brahim Amidane, possibly a cousin of the other Amidanes. He and his friends shout "No alternative but self-determination" at Moroccan cops. I wish I had known that much international law when I was his age.
  

We should all be glad that Carlos decided to release this on the internet. I've been dabbling in Swaziland activism lately, and we're having a difficult time getting a new movie, Without the King, about repression in Swaziland. It hasn't been released yet, but it's ready to go. The filmmaker's being a jerk about it and wouldn't even send a copy for a film festival. All the more bully for Carlos!

Monday Fun and Shames: Black Prison edition

Tarruzi Yehdih, a former Sahrawi political prisoner and member of CODESA, recently got out of the Black Jail of El Aauin. His description of jail life is horrifying, and a must-read for people interested in human rights in Western Sahara.

For today, though, I'll focus on a list of names Yehdih provides. He says these men abuse Sahrawis inside the prison. I have no corroboration that these men are torturers or otherwise violate human rights, but I hope the dissemination of this list will expose those who are.

List of the torturers and the main outstanding “lords” of the “Black Jail” of El Aaiún:

1- Abd-Lilah Az-zunfri: Director of the jail.
2- Mohamed Al-mansuri: President of the detention centre.
3- Mohamed Al-buhzizi: Vice-president of the detention centre.
4- Abd Al-ali Al-buhnani: Vice-president of the detention centre.
5- Abdelkader Ait Sus: Responsible for general works.
6- Abderrahim Al-harruchi: Responsible for construction and general work in the jail.
7- Abderrazag Mugtasam: Responsible for the visits and the searching of possessions.
8- Jamal Beiruk: President of the Section or the centre.
9-Abdelhag Wahbi: Searching.
10- Ahmed Alharrag: President of the judiciary office of the jail(director of the third level).
11- Yusef Al-manur: President of the judiciary office(director of the third level).
12- Ismail Bachari: President of a sector.
13- Idris Butib: Nurse.
14- Mustafa Al-azizi: Nurse.
15- Yusef Butiglidin: Nurse.
16- Abdelhag Fartamis: He was transferred to “Ramani Jail”.
17- Abdelhakim: He was transferred to the central prison of Al-kinetra.

I'm not sure what he means by "lords," or whether the last two who are listed as transferred are guards or prisoners. It'd also be interesting to know how many are Moroccans and how many are Sahrawis.

Human Rights Watch quiet on Western Sahara

I'm a nominal member of Amnesty International, which means I get all the emails and occasionally respond to action alerts but I don't pay the dues like I should. Yesterday, I was asked to take a survey about Amnesty's future priorities.

Part of the survey asked about how I felt about other humanitarian organizations like Human Rights Watch, the ONE Campaign, and Oxfam. I rated the latter two favorably, but said I view HRW poorly.

Now, I love human rights ruckus-making as much as the next person, but Human Rights Watch's silence on abuses in the Western Sahara has turned me against them. Look at HRW's page on Morocco/Western Sahara--the last Western Sahara-related complaint was written in December 2005.

Since then, a Sahrawi has died from poor medical care in prison, the head of a human rights organization has been sentenced to two years in prison for doing his job, and pro-independence Sahrawis have been beaten. Not one word from Human Rights Watch.

If you doubt the veracity of some of these outrages, that's your right--but we deserve to have human rights NGO's telling us whether they're true or not. Human Rights Watch does itself, its members, and most of all the Sahrawis an injustice by ignoring the repression in Western Sahara.

Hassan II: not really embarassed about being a bad guy

When I was reading Western Sahara Online for this post, I noticed this quote from the man most responsible for the current occupation and human rights abuses in Western Sahara, King Hassan II:

"I have always said that, in this country, the rights of man stopped at the question of the Sahara. Anyone who said that the Sahara was not Moroccan could not benefit from the rights of man."

He really didn't make any bones up for the torture, huh? Anyway, I thought maybe this was a bad translation or some Sahrawi propaganda, but it's also quoted here, in the book Morocco Since 1830: A History.

Is it any wonder a man who thought there was nothing shameful in that statement produced a son who solves his problems like this?