AFAPREDESA
The Association for the Families of Saharawi Prisoners and the Disappeared
Summary of the latest events in the occupied territories of Western Sahara
From 18 to 21st of May 2006
CITY OF “EL AAIÚN”
The situation in the streets of the occupied city of El Aaiún, has become explosive. National saharawi flags have waved next to slogans in all peaceful demonstrations, in which the saharawi citizens have taken advantage of the presence of the delegation of the United Nations - High Commissioner, which has come to certify the violation of the Human Rights of the saharawi people committed by the occupation forces, and thus to demand the celebration of a free and transparent referendum under the auspices of United Nations.
This desire to inform the international representatives about the repression and the submission the saharawi people have to live with and the constant violation of their most basic rights, has untied the wrath and intensified the unfolding of uniformed and civilian Moroccan soldiers, as well as other groups of Moroccan intervention force units like G.U.S. and Auxiliary Forces. All of them have attacked the saharawi citizens in a ferocious and criminal manner, either for the reason of merely peacefully demonstrating, wearing traditional saharawi clothing or for any other unjust and arbitrary reason.
The young saharawi students were kept under control in their classrooms of their educational centres with the purpose of not letting them unite nor demonstrate after class. The punishment for those who managed to get out was detention, torture and accusative interrogation.
The cases of detentions and imprisonments of children smaller than twelve
years old are outrageous. For instance, a 7 year old boy whose mother was
tortured by the Moroccan forces of oppression was detained.
The cells of the infamous “Black jail” in El Aaiún, are
full of saharawi kids whose parents have also been tortured and detained.
No saharawi can feel home nor safe. The Moroccan police keeps violently bursting into the houses destroying everything they find on their way and evacuating its proprietors, who have the chance of being immediately beaten up “on the spot” or detained and taken to the police station.
Altogether, between the 17th and 18th of May, the number of wounded ascends to over one hundred people, the prisoners taken and the wrecked houses are counted by the dozens.
Between the prisoners taken on the 19th of May, we acknowledge:
- YENHAUI LEKHLIFA
- HAMADI ELKARCHA
- TAUBALI HAFED
- MAHMOUD HADAD
- TAGLABUT AMHED
- NAYEM ABDELAHI BABAIT
- BRAHIM ZARRUK
- EMBAREK CHARAF EDIN
- RAY FADALI CHEIJ HASANNA
In spite of the wall implanted around the place where the U.N. Delegation
stayed, the Hotel Inn, the different representatives from saharawi groups
and associations of defence of the Human rights, managed to meet with them.
Among others we can mention the following:
- Saharawi Association of Victims of Human Rights Violations.
- Saharawi Collective of Human rights Defenders.
- Saharawi Committee for a Referendum of Self-determination.
- Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared.
- Committee of Relatives of the Killed in Moroccan Jails.
- Saharawi Committee Against Torture.
- Committee of Defence of the Prisoners in the Black jail of El AAaiún.
- Group of political prisoners who recently were freed from prison.
- Delegation composed by defenders of Human rights and victims of the repression
in the city of Smara.
All have managed to meet with the representatives of the High Commissioner and have given them documental and photographic evidence of the repression of the Moroccan regime during the thirty years of occupation.
Right after the Delegation of the U.N. High Commissioner left the Occupied Territories, the Moroccan authorities returned to retaliate against the saharawi population that demonstrated the previous days. The arbitrary detentions, daunting harassment of the defenceless and other common techniques the Moroccan polices uses continued to happen. The prisoners were then lead to several police stations in order to be questioned, mistreated, martyred and expelled to the street.
On the 20th of May the following were detained:
- SAID ELOUMADI
- TEKBER ALIMOUSA
- OTHER WOMEN.
Among them were two female students, who were stopped by the simple fact of wearing traditional saharawi clothing.
The girl, Hayat Elcasimi is a student of the Nash School in El Aaiún and daughter of the well known Human Rights activist and freed political-prisoner Aminetou Haidar. She was mistreated by the headmaster and accused of painting flags and slogans and of inciting other students to do the same. Hayat has been threatened with being expelled. All these practices are nothing but a direct revenge against her mother and family, due to her mothers human rights campaigning in the territory. This cruel performance against the saharawi population, shows the level of repression and cruelty that even the most innocent suffer as they belong to the saharawi community that believes in its independence.
Today, 21st of May, several women have been attacked in the street of Smara
by the urban police or GUS, by the simple fact of wearing traditional saharawi
clothing in commemoration of 33º anniversary of the POLISARIO Front
and first anniversary of the beginning of the “Intifada” (Saharawi
peaceful uprising) These women have been repeatedly slapped in the face
by the Moroccan police, which seriously threatened and insulted them. The
following witnesses were molested:
- AYDABA DLEIMI
- TEKBER ALIMOUSA
- LAREICH SALAM
- FARAK ALI
- KHADIYA BOURIAL
- NANATA BRAHIM SUFI
Zergu Mohamed Lamin was imprisoned today, while at half past twelve Ahl Burial´s house was broken into. His sons Hassana B. and Bousaula Mohamed were beaten up by the authorities. The house of the freed political prisoner M.Mohamed Salem received the same treatment. His house was wrecked by a group of urban police, under orders from the bloodthirsty Ich Abu Hassan. All assets were destroyed in absence of the family.
With the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the constitution of the POLISARIO Front, on the 20th of May, the saharawi population in all the occupied cities south of Morocco as well as in the Moroccan universities, have commemorated such important date by publicly demonstrating with flags and slogans against the Moroccan occupation.
CITY OF SMARA
In the last 48 hours several demonstrations took place in the suburbs of
Secna and Tan So, where the saharawi citizens carried flags, and demanded
the free self-determination of the saharawi people and the ending of the
Moroccan repression. These demonstrations were brutally repressed and the
following were detained:
- SIDAHMED ELMOUSSAOUI
- MAHAMOUD ELMOUSSAOUI
- CHERIF
As a result of a police chase against saharawi demonstrators yesterday afternoon, several homes were broken into. In one of the houses, the police entered kicking all the family members, one of whom was Mariam Sidi Chabbar, who lost her baby due to the hits she received in her belly, therefore forcing her to abortion. Mariam and her husband, Hamudi Mahayub Tueg, happen to be part of the group within the framework of the visits organized by the High Commissioner of the UN for the Refugees who arrived last Friday from the refugee camps.
CITY OF BOJADOR
Several student demonstrations have taken place in the city of Bojador.
The students were backed by their mothers, who protested against the aggressions
their children are being subject to when they leave school. Two of the mothers,
AMAHA ELMOUSSAOUI and MAHYOUBI MABROUKA were ran over by a police car and
immediately taken to hospital in a critical state.
MOHAMED RACHID AMHED ENDOUR and TARFAOUI FATAH were detained.
Others were beaten as well, including:
- MOUSSAOUI HASSANNA
- ELAZZA BABAIT
- ABNATTA FOUNICH
- TOUMANNA ELFATER
CITY OF DAJLA
All the districts of the city of Dajla, are in a continuous state of repression. Concentrations of young people demonstrated against the Moroccan occupation raising national sahrawi flags and sung in favour of the self-determination and the cease of the repression. In the districts of Um Tunsi and Leghbaibat the demonstrations ended up with the imprisonment of the youngster, Halet Brahim Hamadi.
SAHARAWI STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITIES
Throughout the last three days, the sahrawi university students in the cities of Agadir, Marrakech and Rabat, have pronounced themselves in solidarity with the victims in El Aaiun, as a sign of protest of the atrocities carried out by the Moroccan regime, as it has militarised the occupied cities. The students were victims of a brutal aggression in their university residences and private houses of the urban districts of the cities of Agadir and Marrakech, where the student rooms were sacked. Later some were detained as well.
In commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of the start of the armed struggle for the liberation of the Sahara, the saharawi students hung national saharawi flags and emblems in the university residences, mainly, in Suisi 1 and Suisi 2 in the city of Rabat.
THIS REPORT WAS ONLY A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE EVENTS OCCURRED