Révolte des Sahraouis - Revolt of the Saharawis - Revuelta de los Saharauis

Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara

 Statement

We inform international public opinion that two Saharawi human rights defenders, NOUMRI BRAHIM and LIDRI ELHOUCINE, abducted by the Moroccan authorities in Laâyoune in the occupied territories of Western Sahara on 20/07/2005, have been tortured and treated badly with the aim of extracting confessions from them in the secret gaols of the PC of CMI in Laâyoune for many hours of interrogation supervised by the senior staff of the Moroccan police in Laâyoune. The two Saharawi human rights defenders, suffering from the effects of barbarous corporal punishment, have lost consciousness several times, necessitating their transfer Laâyoune hospital for resuscitation.

 We wish also to inform international public opinion that another Saharawi human rights defender ELMOUTAOIKIL MOHAMMED, arrested in Casablanca and transferred to Laâyoune, has been subjected to interrogation at the headquarters of the national brigade of the Moroccan criminal investigation police by the Director General of Moroccan National Security, General HAMIDOU LAANIGRI, who continually, during the interrogation in question, issued threats against Saharawi human rights defenders and made racist remarks against the Saharawi people. 

These practices come at a time when the UN Committee against Torture is still waiting for the official commitment of Morocco to respect the international convention against torture after hearings in the last two years, by this same Committee on the implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Torture and other punishment or cruel or degrading treatment. In the course of these hearings, the torture of Saharawis in the occupied territories of Western Sahara was one of the subjects for which Morocco had been asked to offer clarification. [see below]

In reaction to these repeated practices of the Moroccan authorities, the Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara communicates to international public opinion the following:

• it strongly condemns the Moroccan authorities' recourse to torture against Saharawi human rights defenders;
• it calls on the UN Committee against Torture to seize Morocco on these cases of the practice of torture and to take the necessary measures which arise from it;
• it asks for the intervention of the World Organisation against Torture and all international human rights organisations to react and take it up with Morocco so that these practices of torture stop;
• it calls on the International Bureau for the protection of human rights defenders and Mrs HINA JILANI, the UN Secretary General's representative for human rights defenders, to intervene with the Moroccan authorities in order to require them to protect Saharawi human rights defenders;
• it calls on the Moroccan state to release unconditionally all Saharawi human rights defenders and all Saharawi political detainees;
• it launches a solemn appeal to all Moroccan democrats to express their support for the arrested Saharawi human rights defenders and to denounce the barbarous acts of torture practised against them;
• it launches a solemn appeal to all the active forces everywhere in the world, to become mobilised and launch campaigns of support and solidarity for the Saharawi human rights defenders in the occupied territories of Western Sahara;
• it renews its commitment in principle to continue its fight to demand respect for human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara;
• it renews its appeal to the UN for the appointment of a special representative on the situation of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and the constitution of an international commission charged with establishing the truth on the serious human rights abuses committed by Morocco against the Saharawi civil population.

                                        delivered in Laâyoune on 23/07/2005

• Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture : Morocco. 05/02/2004. CAT/C/CR/31/2. (Concluding Observations/Comments)

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