Repression in El Aaiun, Saharaui territory occupied by Morocco
During a visit of an ad-hoc delegation of the European Parliament
The CGTP-IN strongly condemns the recent aggressions and actions of the Moroccan police force against Saharaui citizens and their representatives, during a visit of a European Parliament delegation to the occupied Saharaui city of El Aaiun.
The Moroccan forces of occupation closed the main roads leading to the city of El Aaiun (Western Sahara), on the eve of the arrival of the European Parliament ad-hoc delegation. El Aaiun was under severe police control during the whole of the 27th, with the clear intention of preventing demonstrations in support of the Saharaui people’s self-determination.
The Association of Victims of Serious Human Rights Violations (ASVDH) recently exposed the detention, last week, of El Hafed Toubali, well known Saharaui human rights activist.
Last Tuesday, January 27th, the Moroccan police brutally assaulted three representatives of the Dajla Commission Against Torture when they were about to meet with the EP delegates. They were tortured in the street and then taken away in a police van.
The police also held in custody and interrogated Amminatour Haidar (proposed in 2008 for the Nobel Peace Prize) and Ali Salem Tamek, both members of the Saharaui Collective for Human Rights Protection, after a meeting they held with the European Parliament delegation.
On that same date, the CGTP-IN sent a message of solidarity to the Saharaui National Trade Union Centre, the UGTSARIO, reaffirming its unshakable support to the struggle led by the Polisario Front, against Morocco’s illegal occupation, condemning the arrests, torture and assassination of Saharaui democrats by the occupying military and security forces and demanding the enforcement of the right – recognised by the United Nations – of the people of West Sahara to self-determination and to freely choose their own future.
Lisbon, 30 January 2009
CGTP-IN Executive Committee