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

An Open Letter to the Swedish Government and People

 

The occupied territories of the Western Sahara have witnessed during the few past weeks an intifada of the Sahrawi people against the Moroccan occupation. The demonstrators were calling for the respect of human rights in the western Sahara and the Sahrawis' right to self determination and independence.

These demonstrations took place first in Maatalla district in El Ayun, but very soon spread to all the parts of the city and the other cities where the Sahrawis live like Dakhla, Smara, Rabat, Marrakesh, Agadir, Assa and Tantan.

The Moroccan occupying authorities have faced the intifada with barbarous repression, assaulting the Sahrawi demonstrators with no exception to women, old people or handicapped ones. More than a hundred were injured and many were arrested after being brutally tortured. There are more than 25 Sahrawi political prisoners still detained in the Black Jail in El Ayun. All of them were arrested during the intifada of independence which started on May 21st, 2005.

Having seen some of the atrocities committed by the Moroccan repressive forces against the Sahrawi defenseless citizens on TVE1, TVE2, Euronews and Aljazeera T.V., the international community is now more certain about the violations of human rights that the Moroccan state commits against the Sahrawi civilians everyday.

The human rights activists are subjected to a ferocious media campaign led by the Moroccan newspapers and websites (Aujourd'hui le Maroc, Al Aalam, Al Ahdath Almaghribia, MAP, etc) and a campaign of arrests, torture and threatening (Aminatou Haidar, El houcine Lidri, Hmad Hammad, Bazaid Salek, Fatma Aayach, Sidi Mohamed Dadach , Bougarfa Abderrahman….)

Therefore, I urgently appeal to the Sweddish government, NGOs, civil society associations and the Swedish people at large to interfere to help protect the Sahrawi defenseless people in general and Sahrawi human rights activists in particular.

There are some helpless people in this part of the world who really need your help!!

The Sahrawi ex-political prisoner and human rights activist

Ali Salem Tamek,

Barcelona, June 20, 2005

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