Tweet me!| Haidar Enters 29th Day of Hunger Strike with No End in Sight. She has been on a hunger strike for four weeks since being deported against her will by Moroccan authorities occupying her homeland. Haidar, known as the “Sahrawi Gandhi,” is at an airport on the Canary Islands. |
A hunger strike in Lanzarote is turning into a serious crisis in and between Spain and Morocco. Center stage is occupied by Western Saharan human rights leader and pro-independence activist Aminatou Haidar. This former prisoner-of-conscience, “desaparecido”, and mother of two, has been a major name in Sahrawi politics since May 2005, when a picture of her smashed into a pulp by Moroccan police officers went viral, as the kids say, among Sahrawi activists. The photo of her in her blood-drenched melhfa became, for them, the first iconic image of the Sahrawi independence struggle, waved as both memento of Moroccan cruelty and as a stand-in for the banned flag.
To add insult to injury, she was jailed after the abuse, but eventually released after heavy foreign pressure. Displaying a rather remarkable steel in her spine — whatever you think of her politics, there’s no doubting her courage — she’s been charging in a one-woman full frontal assault ever since, campaigning publicly and frequently meeting foreign politicians and the press, in what seems to be a deliberate gamble to raise her profile and make her untouchable. So far, it’s been working all right. She’s been monitored, harassed, made unemployable and had her family placed under perpetual pressure, but the government hasn’t really had the stomach to touch her personally again since HRW and Amnesty aimed their spotlights at her; remember that Morocco’s overarching strategy is to keep the Saharan front as quiet as possible.
Last week Democracy Now! covered the story of thje Western Saharan human rights activist Aminatou Haidar. She has been on a hunger strike for four weeks since being deported against her will by Moroccan authorities occupying her homeland. Haidar, known as the “Sahrawi Gandhi,” is at an airport on the Canary Islands.
María Carrión, a Madrid-based journalist and human rights activist, is posting updates about the ailing human rights activist Aminatou Haidar and her attempt to return to her home in occupied Western Sahara.
JOHANNESBURG (South Africa)- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has renewed its call on Morocco to allow human rights activist Aminatou Haidar, on a hunger strike for 29 days, to return to her occupied country, Western Sahara, Sahrawi news agency SPS reported on Monday. In a statement to the press in South Africa, where she presided over the celebration of Human Rights Day, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has expressed her "concern over the deteriorating health of Aminatou Haidar," SPS pointed out. The UN official recalled in this context that the Moroccan authorities had confiscated the activist's passport, forcing her to go to Lanzarote (Canary Islands) because she refused to recognize the "Moroccanness of Western Sahara."
Monday December 14th
The optimism that seemed to prevail over the weekend among the close-knit group caring for the ailing human rights activist Aminetou Haidar, fueled by an impending meeting in Washington between the Spanish Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State, today gave way to disbelief. Instead of publicly asking Morocco to readmit Haidar back to her hometown of Layounne in the Western Sahara, from where she was illegally expelled a month ago, in a post-meeting press conference, Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos urged Haidar to abandon her hunger strike, which she began 29 days ago. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton stood at his side and said nothing about the situation.
Moratinos and Clinton met over a number of issues, including the situation in Afghanistan and Spain’s upcoming presidency of the European Union. But expectations were high that the Spanish Foreign Minister would also urge his US counterpart to get more involved in pressuring Morocco to allow Haidar to return to her home, where her mother and two children await. It is not yet known exactly what transpired between the two, but publicly, the pressure seemed to be on Haidar to give up her hunger strike, rather than on Morocco to meet its human rights obligations.
“We are asking her, not pressuring her, only suggesting to her, that her just and legitimate cause can be defended without the need of a hunger strike,” Moratinos said as Clinton looked on. “We [the US and Spain] are two close allies, and that is what we agreed to do, to begin to work quickly” to convince Haidar.
“If I abandon my hunger strike, Morocco will expel many other Sahrawis just as they did with me,” Haidar told the Spanish daily newspaper EL PAIS yesterday. “My case is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is happening in the Western Sahara. Seven Sahrawis, including the vice-president of Codesa, the human rights organization I direct, are about to be tried by a military court after visiting the refugee camps in Tindouf [in Southwestern Algeria] for collaborating with the enemy.” The seven could face the death penalty.
Haidar also denounced that her family is under siege in their home, permanently surrounded by Moroccan police. “They have effectively been put under house arrest,” she said. “But no government or institution is condemning that.”
The social movements supporting Haidar have, in turn, stepped up pressure on the Spanish government to return Haidar home. Thousands of people from all over Spain are planning to attend a demonstration in Madrid this coming Saturday, and scores of smaller protests are taking place daily across the country. Some of Spain’s top actors and film directors have produced a television spot urging Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has remained at the sidelines, to call Moroccan King Mohamed VI and request that Haidar be readmitted.
Haidar’s hunger strike, almost a month long, is beginning to cause permanent damage to vital organs, according to a doctor who saw her but did not examine her yesterday. Frail but resolute, and wearing a bright yellow melfa—a traditional Western Saharan dress—she emerged this morning from the small room in the airport in Lanzarote where she spends most of her time and was taken by wheelchair to an airport pharmacy to weigh herself. Supporters say that she is determined to fight to the end, and that her spirits are high thanks to a visit from four of her first cousins who flew from Layounne yesterday to spend a few hours with her.
Saturday December 12th
Morocco has told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that it will not back down on its refusal to allow Western Saharan human rights activist Aminatou Haidar to return to her home in Layounne, in the Western Sahara. With her health worsening by the hour, Haidar today enters her 27th day of her hunger strike as pro-independence Sahrawis and human rights activists in the Morocco- occupied territories, unable to demonstrate on her behalf, await in a climate of fear.
In a meeting yesterday in New York, Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri told the Secretary General that Morocco “will not be blackmailed” and that Haidar’s situation is not a humanitarian problem, but a political one.
On Thursday, Fassi Fihri gave a similar answer to Hillary Clinton, and the State Department said yesterday that the issue remains “a bilateral problem” between Morocco and Spain. “She [Clinton] did note our concern about the state of health of Ms. Haidar and expressed our concern that we try and resolve her situation as quickly as possible,” said State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly. He refused to say whether Clinton had directly asked Morocco to readmit Haidar to Layounne.
Clinton will address the issue with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos tomorrow in a meeting in Washington. Many close to Haidar, including representatives of the Robert Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, are hopeful that the US, the European Union and the UN could eventually get Morocco to change its mind if they increase pressure on the Moroccan King, Mohamed VI.
RFK Center representative Marshela Gonsalves, who is with Haidar at the Lanzarote airport, said yesterday that conversations are taking place “at the highest level” and that her hope is that ultimately the United States would be able resolve the problem.
“All that Clinton has to do is set a deadline for Morocco,” said a Sahrawi who is close to the negotiations, “and Morocco would have to yield.” But so far, the US is acting with extreme caution, avoiding a diplomatic confrontation with its close ally.
The readmission of Haidar has now become a problem of “honor” for Morocco. Officials have said repeatedly that they will only allow Haidar back into the Western Sahara if she apologizes to the King for writing in her entry form at the airport that her home is in the Western Sahara—a designation not recognized by the government—instead of Morocco.
But Haidar, who was disappeared into Moroccan prisons, tortured and held without charges for over four years, refuses to apologize to the person who is, ultimately, responsible for her suffering. “I will return to Layounne—dead or alive, with or without my passport, but with dignity,” she said. Haidar has said that the only reason that she accepts a Moroccan passport and nationality is because “according to international law, an occupying power has the obligation to grant a passport to the occupied population so that they can exercise their freedom of movement.” Even so, it was not until 2005, and in part due to US pressure, that Morocco granted Haidar a passport.
Meanwhile, in the occupied Western Sahara, there is a total prohibition by Moroccan authorities against any public sign of support for Haidar. Tomas Bárbulo, one of the few journalists able to report from the tightly controlled territory, wrote today in EL PAIS that in the Layounne neighborhoods where many human rights and pro-independence activists live, “fear is camouflaged on the streets as apathy” and activists are told to keep the doors of their homes open “so that the police posted outside can see every one of their movements.” In an interview with former political prisoners, including an activist who holds the sad honor of being the longest-held political prisoner in Africa after Nelson Mandela, one of them told Bárbulo: “People don’t even talk about Aminatou with their friends because you never know who will snitch to authorities.”
As streets in Spain fill with protests, “here there is not a single demonstration, not even a painting on a wall,” according to Bárbulo. The police control is such that a few days ago, when someone threw pro-independence leaflets out of a four-by-four vehicle, “the next day police interrogated every single owner of an SUV in the city to find out what they had done the night before,” he writes.
Last night, hundreds of people in Madrid held a candlelit protest in front of the Spanish Foreign Ministry and accused Spain of collaborating with Morocco in the deportation of Haidar. Spontaneous protesters also held banners inside the Spanish Parliament demanding that Spain return Haidar to Layounne.
The Spanish government is saying that it is doing everything within its power to help Haidar return to her home. But the Spanish government has refused an offer by King Juan Carlos, the Head of State, to intercede in the crisis and speak with King Mohamed, a personal friend.
Yesterday, amid accusations that Madrid had actively collaborated with Rabat to have Haidar deported against her will to Spain, Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero explained that his government had applied immigration laws to have her admitted. But Haidar’s lawyer, Inés Miranda, said that Spanish authorities “violated immigration laws that say that a non-citizen is only admitted if they are willing, and if they carry a passport.” In addition, Miranda noted that Haidar’s rights under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights had also been violated.
Friday December 11th
As Aminatou Haidar increasingly sets her hopes on Washington’s ability to convince Morocco to allow her to fly back home, Spain’s state television, Televisión Española, is reporting that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri and has asked him to allow the human rights activist to return to Layounne, in the Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.
The news reports say that Fihri told Clinton that Morocco would only allow Haidar to return to Layounne if she apologized to King Mohamed VI for claiming on an entry form that she was a citizen of the Western Sahara, instead of Morocco. But Haidar, on her 26th day of a hunger strike, has said that she will not apologize because even though she holds a Moroccan citizenship, her homeland is the Western Sahara, which she says is illegally occupied by Morocco.
The United States, a close ally of Morocco, has remained almost silent on the issue but is now feeling intense international pressure to intervene on behalf of Haidar. Clinton is due to discuss the issue this Monday in a meeting with Spain’s Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. Yesterday, UN Secretary General Ban-Ki moon spoke with the Moroccan Foreign Minister and urged him to readmit Haidar back into Layounne. The European Union has also urged Morocco to “meet its human rights obligations.”
It is Moroccan King Mohamed VI who has the last word on Haidar’s fate, but most experts feel that the US could convince him if it applies sufficient pressure.
Haidar today emerged briefly from the small room in the airport in Lanzarote, where she spends most of her time. She accepted a human rights award from Izquierda Unida, a progressive political party in Spain, and also spoke with representatives of the Robert Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights
Friday, December 11th
AS SPAIN ASKS FOR WASHINGTON’S HELP, THE EU URGES MOROCCO TO READMIT HAIDAR
Aminatou Haidar, a tiny bespectacled woman wrapped in a colorful Saharan shroud who today enters her 26th day of a hunger strike, has singlehandedly achieved what legions of lobbyists, diplomats and politicians have failed to do in the past 35 years: with no money or weapons, she has managed to put her forgotten homeland of the Western Sahara on the world map.
As she appeared yesterday before the international press outside the airport in Lanzarote, frail but determined, her words reached the corridors of power running from the White House to the headquarters of the European Union. She told world leaders that on International Human Rights Day, her humble request was to have her own rights respected and that she be allowed to return home with her mother and two children. On the same day that the world’s most powerful man received the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the least powerful was giving the world a lesson in the true meaning of peace.
The European Union responded. As Spain and Morocco reached an impasse yesterday in negotiations to return Haidar to her hometown of Layounne, the EU asked Morocco to fulfill its “international human rights obligations” and cooperate with Madrid in the resolution of Haidar’s deportation. In a statement issued yesterday, the EU presidency also expressed its concern over Haidar’s health, which is declining rapidly.
Madrid is urging the Obama administration to intervene in the crisis. Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain’s Foreign Minister, is planning to travel to Washington, DC in the next days to discuss the issue with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Representatives of the Robert Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, who are now at Haidar´s side in Lanzarote, have also met with State Department representatives and urged them to pressure Morocco to readmit Haidar.
Haidar’s peaceful struggle began 21 years ago, when as a university student she demonstrated for the right to self-determination for the people of the Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco has occupied for 34 years. She was arrested by Moroccan police and held without charges for four years in a series of secret prisons, where she was repeatedly tortured along with other women activists. She continued to struggle peacefully for independence and human rights, and was again imprisoned in 2007. While Rabat has confronted activists in the territory with hard repression, Moroccan officials now appear disarmed in the face of her peaceful international protest.
Washington, a close ally of Rabat, has remained practically silent on Haidar’s situation. The State Department issued a statement on November 26 expressing concern for her health, but stopped short of asking Morocco to readmit her into the Western Sahara. Several US Senators and Members of Congress have urged the Obama administration to get involved.
The US has a long history of supporting Morocco’s occupation of the Western Sahara, which was set in motion in 1974 after Spain, the occupying power, reached an agreement ceding the territory to Morocco and Mauritania. Morocco´s King Hassan consulted closely with then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger before launching a full-scale military invasion in 1975. The invasion precipitated an exodus of over one hundred thousand Sahrawis fleeing the repression, who have ended up in refugee camps in a forgotten corner of Algeria. Morocco also launched a repopulation campaign known as the Green March, and moved tens of thousands of Moroccan citizens into the territory.
Morocco has received substantial military aid from the US without any conditions limiting its use in the Western Sahara, where part of the Sawhari population remains. With US help, Morocco built a fortified wall in the early 90’s running for over 1000 miles and lined with over a million landmines. That wall separates the occupied territory, rich in fishing waters and phosphates and offering the promise of offshore oil, from the area that was liberated by the Polisario Front after its independence war with Morocco.
In the past, the US has supported a series of UN resolutions calling for a referendum to be held in the Western Sahara with three options: full integration with Morocco, autonomy within a Moroccan State or independence. But Morocco has rejected every option for a vote, including the Baker Plan, which was put together by the former US Secretary of State when he was the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to the Western Sahara. James Baker left in 2004 in disgust after working at it for seven years and realizing that Morocco had no intention of agreeing to a vote. Another American, Christopher Ross, now occupies that post and recently held a series of talks in New York with Moroccan and Sahwari representatives.
In 2007, Morocco offered an Autonomy Plan that was rejected by Sahrawis, both those in the occupied territories and those in the refugee camps. The US, France and Spain support the Moroccan plan, which does not include a referendum, and even though human rights conditions in the occupied territory continue to worsen. According to human rights monitors, King Mohamed VI, Hassan’s son, rules in the Western Sahara with an iron fist, and any expressions of dissidence are brutally repressed.
Haidar’s protest has mobilized thousands of people in Spain, where social movements have supported the Sahrawi cause for decades. Yesterday, a group of Spanish writers, artists, actors and film directors, including three Nobel Prize recipients and headed by Oscar-winning Pedro Almodóvar, urged the King of Spain to intervene on behalf of Haidar. King Juan Carlos is known to be a close friend of the King Mohamed VI, who is personally responsible for the decision to deport Haidar. However, the Spanish King said yesterday that although he is willing to step in, he has been told by the Spanish president, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, that the government wants to handle the matter.
Another group of artists and intellectuals in the UK, including director Ken Loach and music producer Brian Eno, yesterday sent Gordon Brown a letter urging him to intervene.
Supporters of Haidar urge the public to press Hillary Clinton to resolve the issue. Among the actions that people can take is to write a letter to the Secretary of State asking her to pressure Morocco to readmit Haidar with no conditions. A template of a letter is available at Amnesty USA’s Website:
Amnesty also has an urgent action appeal on Aminatou Haidar:
Thursday, December 10th
MADRID– On International Human Rights Day and as President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, Western Saharan human rights activist Aminatu Haidar said today that if the US President asked Morocco to allow her to return to her home in the occupied Western Sahara, “the Moroccan authorities would yield.”
On her 25th day of a hunger strike, Haidar gathered her strength to make a brief statement to the awaiting press outside the small room where she now spends most of her time, on the ground floor of Lanzarote airport, in the Canary Islands. She had to be carried to her wheelchair by an assistant, but her voice was firm as she spoke.
“In this, International Human Rights Day, Spain and Morocco must respect these rights above other interests,” said Haidar. She added that the appeal her children had sent on her behalf “has made me stronger” and that her wish now is “to hug them and live with them and with my mother, but with dignity.”
Asked yesterday by a reporter what she thought would happen to her, Haidar responded that “I will return to Layounne—dead or alive, but I will go home.”
Morocco has initiated an intense lobbying campaign to explain its side of the story. A high-level delegation, including Morocco’s Minister of Justice, flew to Spain to meet with government officials and political leaders. The Moroccans repeated their mantra to anyone who would listen: that Spain and Morocco are mere victims of a “problem created by Aminatu Haidar” and that she chose to renounce her Moroccan citizenship when she declared in an immigration form that she was a citizen of the Western Sahara. Rabat has also activated its network of mosques and imams in Spain to defend its position and attack Algeria, a supporter of self-determination for the Western Sahara whom it accuses of setting up the diplomatic incident.
Meanwhile, scores of demonstrations were held across Spain to demand that Haidar be flown back to her home in Layounne before it is too late. Students gathered on college campuses with photographs of Haidar and her children, cities across Spain turned off their Christmas lighting in protest, and a large group of actors, film directors and writers signed a letter addressed to the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, a personal friend of the King of Morocco, asking him to intervene in the crisis. Hundreds also protested today outside the Spanish Foreign Ministry.
Haidar has received the support of the Portuguese Parliament and of the government of South Africa. Numerous personalities, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, film directors Ken Loach and Pedro Almodovar and Nobel Literature winner Jose Saramago have also launched appeals on her behalf.
In the United States, conservative Republican Senator James Inhoffe from Oklahoma has added his voice to the many in Congress who are asking the Obama administration to intervene on behalf of Haidar.
Wednesday, December 9
Ever since his mother began a hunger strike 24 days ago in a Spanish airport terminal demanding that she be allowed to return home to her family, Sahrawi activist Aminatu Haidar’s youngest son, Mohammed, awakens every night to ask if his mother is still alive. On Tuesday, the 13 year-old and his sister Hayat, 15, sent an urgent appeal to “all the children and the mothers in the world” to help “our mom return to our side so we can live in peace.”
“We plead with all the children and mothers in the world to support our mom,” the handwritten letter says. “We are pained to learn the bad news that our dear mother has decided not to take her medicines, and this is dangerous for her.” The letter ends with an anguished plea to “avoid the tragedy, which would affect us very negatively both physically and psychologically.”
Shuttered in the family home in Layounne, in the Morocco-occupied Western Sahara, and surrounded by armed police, Haidar’s children speak with their mother every day by telephone. Haidar’s supporters, who remain with her at the Lanzarote airport, say that she is especially concerned for her youngest, Mohammed. After she speaks with him, Haidar “appears depressed,” according to those closest to her.
Haidar’s family has tried to speak with reporters but Moroccan police refuse to let journalists into the home, nor do they allow family members to meet with the press. Haidar’s partner, Bachid, did manage to tell a Spanish reporter that the family “respects Aminatu’s will and struggle.” The police is also impeding Sahrawis in the occupied territories from demonstrating publicly in support of Haidar or for a vote on self-determination. Local human rights organizations have denounced that since the incident began, several people have been arrested and beaten for demonstrating peacefully.
As the Spanish government weighs whether to take her to a hospital and force-feed her, Haidar has warned that she will accuse the government of kidnapping if she is forced into a hospital against her will. She has signed a notarized document rejecting all medical help and dismissed her personal doctor because he had been forced by a judge to submit confidential medical records. A Spanish high judge said today that Haidar’s will must be respected “while she is conscious,” but if and when she slips into unconsciousness, the State might be able to legally intervene.
Haidar’s health is worsening. Today she tried to hold a press briefing but had to cancel because she was too weak. Since she began her fast, she has only taken water with a few spoonfuls of sugar.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay yesterday called on Morocco to allow Haidar to return to “her country.”
Tuesday, December 8
After Morocco threatened over the weekend to end its collaboration with Spain in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal immigration, the Spanish government has backed down on the diplomatic confrontation it has held with Rabat over the deportation of Sahrawi human rights activist Aminatu Haidar to the Canary Islands. Instead, it has begun a different confrontation, this time with Haidar herself.
A judge, accompanied by a team of doctors and several armed police, charged into the Lanzarote airport terminal Saturday evening where she has been protesting peacefully and demanded to physically examine her in order to determine whether she needs to be force-fed.
Haidar, who today enters her 23rd day of hunger strike with her life hanging on a thread, accused the Spanish government of engaging in “Moroccan tactics” and assured the judge that she did not want medical treatment. “My beliefs are not for sale,” she said. “I will continue with this protest until I am allowed to return home.” Spain has force-fed hunger strikers in the past but only those in custody, and there is no legal precedent here to force-feeding non-prisoners against their will. After pushing Haidar´s supporters out of the room where she now spends most of her time and conducting a brief check-up, the team left the airport.
Haidar also decided to forgo regular medical check-ups by her personal doctor after the judge ordered him to turn over confidential medical reports.
In a plea to Spanish authorities and the international community, Haidar asked for international protection for her family, who remains under siege in the occupied Western Sahara. Haidar´s mother is at the family home, while her two teenage children are at the home of another renowned human rights activist. Both houses are surrounded by police, who prevent anyone from entering.
“Police harassment of Aminatu´s family reflects the increasing aggression being directed by Morocco against her,” said Spanish actor Willie Toledo, who remains at Haidar´s side in Lanzarote airport.
The Spanish government has withdrawn the request it made Friday to Rabat to fly Haidar to the Western Sahara on a government airplane. Hundreds of people protested yesterday outside the Spanish Foreign Ministry. They asked the Spanish government to put Haidar on a commercial plane to Layounne, her hometown, and to begin diplomatic efforts to resolve the 35-year military occupation by Morocco of the Western Sahara.
But the Spanish government does not want a face-off with Morocco, which they consider of strategic interest both politically and commercially. “Morocco is not hundreds of kilometers away, but only 14,” stated a government official.
Moroccan representative are due to meet today with EU officials over the terms of the preferred commercial status Morocco has been granted by Europe. Haidar´s supporters have asked for the meeting to be suspended until Morocco allows her to return. Efforts also continue at the United Nations to find a solution. In the United States, Senators Patrick Leahy and Russ Feingold, as well as several other members of Congress, have demanded Morocco allow Haidar back home and have asked the Obama administration to help resolve the crisis.
Sunday, December 7 at 4:41 a.m. EST
Aminatu Haidar, the Sahrawi human rights activist entering her 21st day of hunger strike, may not have more than a few more days—or even hours—to live, according to the doctor who is monitoring her health, Lanzarote Hospital director Domingo de Guzmán Pérez Hernández. Her blood pressure is fluctuating dangerously, and she suffers from a number of other life-threatening ailments due to her hunger strike and the sequels of abuse and torture in a Moroccan prison. Hernandez said today that Haidar´s health is uncertain, and that she could require hospitalization at any time. But Haidar, who has vowed to persist “to the end” if Morocco does not allow her to return home, has asked doctors not to medicate her or revive her should she need intravenous fluids or hospitalization.
Spain has reapplied for flight and landing permits from Moroccan authorities to fly Haidar home to Layounne, a city in the Western Sahara occupied by Morocco since 1975. On Friday night, a Spanish medicalized airplane carrying Haidar and high-ranking government officials, was refused entry into the Western Sahara when it was preparing for take-off from the Canary Islands. Spanish officials and Haidur´s supporters fear that Morocco could protract the crisis until it is too late to save Haidar´s life.
Haidar is very frail but upbeat, flashing signs of victory to her friends and supporters who are camping out with her at the Lanzarote airport.
Saturday, December 6 at 2:30 a.m. EST
Aminatu Haidar today enters her twentieth day of hunger strike, frustrated but determined. After Morocco last night backpedalled on an agreement to let a Spanish airplane carrying her and Spanish government officials to land in Layounne, in the occupied Western Sahara, the human rights activist was transported on a gurney back to the airport terminal in Lanzarote (Canary Islands), where her disappointed supporters awaited her.
The Moroccan government has not officially explained why it decided to rescind on the landing permission, which was granted at 6pm local time. At first, authorities said that Spain had not given a 24-hour notice on its landing request, which was sent through diplomatic channels rather than directly to airport authorities. But many speculate that the real reason was that the Moroccan King, Mohammed I, was angered at what appeared to be a victory for Haidar and the Sahrawi pro-independence movement.
Haidar has told supporters that she will not give up her hunger strike until she sets foot in her homeland. Yesterday, UN top officials, including Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay had been involved in the negotiations with Morocco and Spain to return Haidar to Layounne, and will continue to do so over the weekend.
Haidar’s health is rapidly deteriorating. She now slides in and out of consciousness and is too weak to stand, or often to sit up. After three weeks of hunger strike, the body begins to mine vital organs, as well as bone marrow. Haidar’s health was already fragile due to years of torture and mistreatment in Moroccan jails, and a prior hunger strike that lasted 40 days.
Supporters are asking people to take action by sending urgent action appeals. One, directed to the UN, is available at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights). Amnesty International USA is asking people to send letters to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Templates can be found here
Friday, December 5 at 4:33 p.m. EST
The government of Morocco is apparently saying that Spain did not give enough notice about the flight. Spain denies this and says that it advised Morocco about the flight earlier today. Spain will re-submit flight and landing requests, but the outcome is uncertain. As she boarded the plane to cheers from her supporters, Aminatu stated that “I may be going home, or I may be going to jail. But I thank the Spanish government for finally flying me home.” Aminatu’s supporters were shocked to learn minutes later that the airplane would not be leaving Lanzarote. The situation has produced a grave diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco.
Friday, December 5 at 3:08 p.m. EST
Morocco will not let the Spanish government plane that Aminatu Haidar is on land in Layounne. She will thus not abandon her hunger strike. She is on the plane but it looks like she will have to return to the airport in Lanzarote.
Friday, December 5 at 2:59 p.m. EST
After 19 days on a hunger strike to protest her deportation from the Western Sahara by Morocco to the Spanish Canary Islands, renowned human rights activist Aminatu Haidar was flown Friday evening to Layounne, her hometown, on a Spanish government airplane. Moroccan authorities confiscated Haidar’s passport and deported her as she returned from New York City after stating on an entry form that she was a citizen of the Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco has occupied since 1975. Thousands of Spaniards, including Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem and director Pedro Almodovar, mobilized to pressure Spain to allow Haidar to return. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy and other members of the US Congress also urged the Obama administration to intervene in the case. Haidar was accompanied on the plane by a doctor and a Spanish government official.
Now, however, a harsher note has been sounded in Moroccan policy against the independence movement, with King Mohamed VI’s speech recently, where he declared that you are “either a patriot or a traitor”. Clearly, the velvet gloves, if such there were, are off: seven leading activists are being hauled off to a military court, and a number of other arrests have been made.
In the case of Aminatou Haidar, she was supposed to return from the United States, where she had received the John Train Civil Courage Prize for her human rights work, but was held up at el-Aaiun airport, after having signed “Western Sahara” as her country of residence — not “Morocco”. (She claims to have done this routinely in the past, without problems.)
This is, of course, strictly speaking true: she lives in el-Aaiun, which is internationally recognized as being in Western Sahara, not Morocco proper, and where there’s even a UN mission deployed to determine final sovereignty. The Moroccan government, however, sees things otherwise. She was stripped of her Moroccan passport (which she had held from birth, having been born in a Sahrawi area of southern Morocco rather than Western Sahara), and forcibly put on a plane to Spain. According to the Moroccan authorities, she herself signed a document saying that she is no longer a Moroccan citizen and threw away her passport to effectively make herself stateless; she denies this. The truth is impossible for an outsider to tell, but one might note that the authorities haven’t in fact been able to produce this much-talked-about document. (Also, Spanish papers claim that Morocco had booked her return flight long before she arrived to the airport, which would mean that the expulsion was planned beforehand, and the travel paper formality was simply an excuse.)
A few days after being expelled, Aminatou began a hunger strike in Lanzarote airport, refusing to move; when they threw her out overnight, she huddled up under blankets in the airport parking. She says she will not go to Spain, or any third country, but is determined to return to her home, dead or alive. The latter is of course impossible as long as the Moroccans refuse to let her in, alive, which they now do saying she hasn’t got valid travel documents (…since they took them from her). The Moroccan press, having gone into one of its Sahara-induced fits of spittle-and-foam wingnuttery, is saying a lot of other things as well — most of it some spikily worded variation on the theme of her being an ungrateful daughter of Morocco and/or a hostile Algerian agent, and oh, oh the irony that she’s demanding her Moroccan passport back. (Which is of course true, in a way, but it’s not as if she’s got a choice; not even POLISARIO wants Sahrawis in Western Sahara to burn their passports, since that would only leave them politically crippled.)
Spain is terribly discomfited by the whole affair. The Western Sahara solidarity movement (which is uniquely strong in Spain, post-colonial guilt and all) has mobilized like crazy around the issue, and the Socialist government is facing a barrage of fire from right and left on behalf of Aminatou. Should she die in the airport, as medical staff in the solidarity campaign claim she may do very soon, it would not only be hideous stain on the country’s image — and self-image — but also a really nasty domestic scandal. The government has tried to give her refugee status or even Spanish citizenship, having presumably secured a promise from Morocco to let her back on a tourist visa or something similar, but Aminatou remains intransigent: she’s not having any of that, she’s having her identity papers back and thank you very much. For a while, Spain apparently thought they had a deal — or possibly Zapatero tried to chicken-race King Mohamed — but a plane sent out to bring Aminatou back was forced to turn by the Moroccans.Adding to the pressure is the rapidly growing international attention, with continual updates from the major news agencies and criticism of both Spain and Morocco from Amnesty, HRW and similar groups, all driven by a sense of urgency and fear that Aminatou really is determined to go all the way and starve herself to death. There’s no doubting that official Spain shivers at the prospect:
The extraordinary power of Aminatou to shame her hosts, whom she has accused of connivance with Morocco in failing to defend her rights and helping to have her sent home, led a Foreign Ministry representative to tell her in the hall of Lanzarote airport that the Spanish authorities did not actually recognize the 1975 Madrid Accords, which saw her territory carved up without any consultation with the local people.
Of course, Morocco isn’t really interested in her dying there either. Sure, the government would like nothing more for her than to quietly pass away, but not while she’s in the media spotlight. There’s also the problem that the longer the affair drags on, and certainly if she should die, Spanish-Moroccan relations (which are quite crucial to Rabat, perhaps less so to Madrid) may take a serious hit, given how unpopular Zapatero’s conciliatory strategy towards Rabat is already in much of his political base. But a humiliating climbdown would really irk the Rabat government, having loaded the issue with so much prestige. Also, there’s the fear in Morocco that caving to Aminatou’s demands could set a precedent: that Sahrawis, or at least their diehard core of independence activists, can write whatever the hell they like on entry forms; or that, if Morocco allows the UN to help her back, or there is some other special arrangement, this could potentially be construed as a chip off of Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory. Both things of course anathema to the government, and to the oolitical elite and the press — although the latter been known to bark on command, and be shut up as easily, when it comes to the Sahara.
All in all, a tough stalemate to break. Spain is working fervently to find a solution — any solution — but Morocco hasn’t budged, and neither has Aminatou, although there are increasing pleas for her to at least break off her hunger strike. The question, now, in this battle of wills between the government of Morocco and a lady in an airport parking, seems to be who will flinch first.
It is obvious that The Algerian Government doesn't want to get involved in this situation, but since it is being used by the Moroccan Government as an excuse, shouldn't any official step up and get the lady some assistance? Algerians have always shared the stuggle of opressed people to help them improve their lives.
Algerianamericans.com - December. 14, 2009
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Hits: 562
Comments (10)
Subscribe to this comment's feed
a guest
said:
 |
algeria Why does algeria always want to make morocco as a bad country??? Me as an american think that algeria isn't good! They have the most terrorists and they even have al-qaida camps,, so??? WTF! I have been to morocco 3years ago, and i love that country! So open and I think it's the only arab country that doesnt hate america!!! Morocco I love you |
a guest
said:
|
... Justice is served!!! Mrs Haider returned to her native country the Western Sahara yesterday,after weeks of hunger strike. No police services or military regime should be able to stop the will of people to enjoy their freedom. history repeat itself over and over. Toufik. |
a guest
said:
|
... Morocco is not using Algeria for anything. It is a fact that Algeria would love to see an independent state in the Sahara. It is also a fact that Algeria supports the separatists financially, diplomatically, and militarily against Morocco. Morocco does not want or wish any harm to Algeria but unfortunately I can't say the opposite is true. If Algerians can put themselves in our shoes, maybe they can understand our feelings. Imagine if we have supported the Kabyles during their black spring uprise in 2001 and make them believe they should get independence. Imagine if we have set up refugee camps for them in Oujda. Ms. Haidar, has been manipulated by the Algerian secret service and Polisario against Morocco. Note that she wasn't even born in the Sahara. This lady was born in Akka, located in Tan Tan Province well within the non disputed provinces of Morocco. So why wouldn't she be called a traitor? Hicham |
a guest
said:
|
... The Western Sahara, Polisario whatever you wanna name it belong to it’s people like this lady…..she should go back to her country and it is as simple as that, the same story of Apartheid is taking place in Palestine …do you Moroccan want to copy the Israelis and kick these people out of their country or make them suffer if they do not obey. Algeria will always stand by their side just like other countries did for Algeria while fitting the French. |
a guest
said:
|
... Mrs Aminatu is not an Algerian, nor a Morrocan Citzen, she just want to return to her native country, Western Sahara, The Morrocans police should, let this lady return to her family, smiple as that..! |
a guest
said:
|
If there is an earthquake tomorrow morocco will blame it on Algeria Morocco will continue to "bark". But pressure is mounting and Aminatu will be home soon. Algeria did NOT expell Aminetu or confiscate her passport. If there is an earthquake tomorrow morocco will blame it on Algeria. The king of Morocco F-----D it this time. He gave us, the saharaouis, a very necessary boost to our cause arround the world. |
a guest
said:
|
I got a better solution why does not algeria give her a passport and tent in Tindouf? she is working for you, she should at least be compensated some how, come on don't be stingy. |
a guest
said:
|
... Sheshould be allowed to return to "her" country,without any problems from the morrocan police! |
a guest
said:
|
... Isn't Algeria anti-Moroccan anyways? Too bad for a rising democracy to be the neighbor of a military dictatorship! |
a guest
said:
|
Yeah right!!! Get your facts right, she denied being a Moroccan so why should she be given a Moroccan passport?? It doesn't make any sense. |
Write comment
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
