INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FREEDOM for MOHAMED DADDACH

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The European Bureau for Human Rights in Western Sahara decided to start an international Campaign for the liberation of Mohamed Daddach, a Sahrawi citizen, detained since more than 17 years in Moroccan prisons.

In a letter written to Madame Danielle Mitterrand, dated 28 May 1995, he explained his situation.

I am born in 1957 at Galtat Zammour in the Sahara. I have four brothers and two sisters. They are in the region of Tindouf in Algeria (most probably in the Saharawi refugee camps). I do not know if they are still alive. I have not seen them since November 1975. I joined Polisario Front and its army in 1973 and was arrested for the first time on 2 February 1976. I was seriously wounded in my left foot at the battle of Mgala. Prisoner of war, with poor health care, transferred several times, I did not see the sun for two years. Then I was forced to join a unit in the royal Moroccan police even though I was a Saharawi. I tried to escape with other companions. The Moroccan army caught us. Our car overturned and my friend died instantly. I broke my left shoulder. This was on 10 August 1979. I was condemned to death by a military tribunal in Rabat on 7 April 1980. Repression, insults, mental torture, total isolation, nothing was spared me. I went on hunger strike several times to improve my situation and finally get some medical treatment. Today my sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment. I am in favour of the referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara because it is the most logical solution to this conflict. I have been asked to be entered on the electoral role. I am in favour of respecting human rights and democracy. May God help you and give you a long life to do good and to give more help to those who suffer and fight for peace and freedom.

Mohamed Daddach is a Prisoner of War. The ICRC visits him since 1995. Why did he not be liberated as other 66 Sahrawi prisoners last year?

Mohamed Daddach is a prisoner of conscience. Mohamed Daddach is not a deserter, he is a prisoner of conscience. He tried to escape from the police unit he was forced to join for his political conviction. Amnesty International took care of his situation but did not yet recognize him as a prisoner of conscience.

Mohamed Daddach must be free.

Support the campaign for the liberation of Mohamed Daddach

Write to the Moroccan Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to ask for his liberation:

Excellence
Mr. Abderrahmane Amalou
Ministre de la Justice et des Droits de l'Homme
Ministère de la justice
Place Mamounia
Rabat - Maroc
Fax: + 212 7 730772

Write to Amnesty International to ask for his adoption as a prisoner of conscience:

Amnesty International
International Secretariat
E-mail:amnestyis@amnesty.org

or to the AI Section in your country

Write to Daddach to tell him of your support:

Mohamed Daddach
Ecrou numero 19590
Prison Centrale
Kenitra - Morocco

Starting this special campaign for one of the oldest prisoners of conscience in Africa we, however cannot forget the many more hundreds of Saharawi citizens who have disappeared without trace, some even for twenty years, and who may be surviving in forced labour camps or secret underground prisons a lot worse than the infamous detention centre at Tazmamart. A monthly initiative consisting of symbolically adopting disappeared Saharawis has been running for several years now, initiated by the European Bureau for Human Rights in Western Sahara.

For more information please contact:

European Bureau for Human Rights in Western Sahara

Post Box 53, CH-1211 Geneva 9 Switzerland

Fax: 41 22 320 65 50

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