Thawra

Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

VISITED DESTINATIONS
Agadir, Guelmin, Tantán, Laayoune, Boujdour, Dakhla

VISITS IN THE TERRITORY

Associations:
- AFAPREDESA.
- Saharawi Committee against Torture.
- CSPRON.
- CODESA (Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders).
- AMDH (Moroccan Association for Human Rights).
- Association for Medical Assistance to Forgotten Victims of Western Sahara.
- CODAPSO (Committee for the Defense of the Right to Self Determination of
Western Sahara).
- Association of Mothers of the 15 prisoners (formed by the mothers of the fifteen
youngsters abducted by the Moroccan authorities in December 2005 in
Laayoune, they’re still missing).
- Committee for the Preservation of the Saharawi Memory.
- Former employees from FosBucraa

Indivuduals

Thawra the group, haven’t just met various associations in the occupied Western
Sahara, but have also been able to collect testimonies from different people, who
at an individual level, wanted to tell their personal experience, demanding
explicitly to make it public.

Committee for the Preservation of the Saharawi Memory

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

1. CODESA - Laayoune 1 . Assoc. for Medical Assistance to Forgotten Victims of W.S.

1. CSPRON & AFAPREDESA

1 .CODESA - Tantán

1. CODAPSO 1. Former employees of FosBucraa

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

- The need to ensure the presence of international human rights observers in the
occupied territory remains a priority, being essential, moreover, that the authorities
could see and feel that Saharawi people are supported. Many Saharawi people have
gained some protection because of being known internationally, but the majority of
the population cannot access that kind of protection. It’s important that the Saharawi
feel their voices are heard and their cause is supported, it also increases their
motivation and reinforces them to continue in their struggle.

- We believe, the trips and compilation of evidences and testimonies remain

necessary, but other type of trips are also important, such as accompanying
Saharawi human rights activists who come from having visited their families at the
refugee camps in Algeria, as when the activists return to Laayoune, in many cases
there have been clashes with Moroccan police. I order to prevent what happened
last October of 2009 with the group of 7 activists, imprisoned by this fact, it is
extremely necessary the presence of international observers. We also believe that
the accompaniments represent a peaceful resistance activity and not just observing
the strong Moroccan repression. Hence, the importance of reflecting and making
visible what Morocco wants to hide at all costs. It is significant that, when the
human rights observers have seen violence infringed by the police on the Saharawi
people, the audiovisual material about these situations have been seized, this
reflects the fear Moroccan authorities feel if the situation and their attitude against
the Saharawi people is made public..

- We think that the visits to different Saharawi associations working at the occupied
territories are very important, to ascertain their concrete aims objectives and
methods of actuation. But still not forgetting how important are the visits to
individuals who not belong to any particular association, but can give valuable
information. The Saharawi people open the doors of their homes and their own
experience, to anyone who wants to listen. It’s deeply important to establish a
commitment to disseminate their testimonies so their voices will be heard,
addressing the impediments that the Sahrawi population suffers daily in relation to
their freedom of expression.

- Regarding to future visits and its usefulness, we note, in the Saharawi own request,
the need for specialists in different professional fields be part of the human rights
observers delegation traveling to the occupied territories. For example: nursing,
computing, communication, audiovisual and so forth. Similarly, Saharawi people
also demand the materials needed to develop these activities: medicines,
computers, cameras, storage media, audiovisual materials and so forth.

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

- In the moment you go through the arches of the capital of Western Sahara,
Laayoune, you feel the presence of police, as well as an exaggerated number of
Moroccan flags, which drawns attention significantly, also taking into account the
tens of billboards with King Mohammed VI’s face you can see all around the city. If
we compare this vision of Laayoune with the rest of the Moroccan cities visited, we
can conclude that there is a greater presence of these Moroccan national symbols in
the occupied territories of Western Sahara. We have also found the manipulation
and wrong use of information in media as propaganda of the Moroccan regime and
discredit of Polisario Front.

1. Billboards with the image of Mohammed VI spread around different parts of Laayoune

Port entrance of Laayoune and its Beach

Dakhla’s Beach 4
Misinformation about Abdelaziz
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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

- According to the attitude of the human rights observers towards the police, it’s
necessary to remain calm and peaceful at all times. The Moroccan authorities are
seeking to destabilize the work carried out, through continuous monitoring, taking
pictures of our activities shamelessly and making extensive and frequent
interrogations. All with the goal of exciting the observers and thus affect the
development of their task.

The observers are followed closely by the secret police in Dakhla.

More moments of the follow-up in Dakhla

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Person in charge of controls and monitoring tourists in Laayoune

- The presence of MINURSO forces (the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western
Sahara) is large, especially in Laayoune. We deeply recommend contacting the offices
of the organization getting the opinion of workers and staff, as we believe their point of
view and job in the occupied territories should be very interesting..

MINURSOS´S Headquarters entry

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MINURSO´S staff and workers hotel (Hotel Nagjir)

- Education of Saharawi people is a main problem that should be addressed in

successive trips, especially taking into account the manipulated viewpoint of history.
Several schools in Laayoune have drawn on the wall a representation of the “Green
March” or “Marcha Verde”. There is at least one school, which has an entrance for
children and another one for soldiers and army since there are military headquarters
inside the school. For Sahrawi students, to enter university, there are several setbacks,
for instance, the nearest university a Saharawi student living in Laayoune can apply for
is 1300 km away, in Casablanca. It gets worse we talk about students living in the
southern regions of occupied Western Sahara, like Dakhla, which is 1600 km away
from the Moroccan capital city, Marrakech. Moreover, they have a specific bid of
studies, simply because there are careers that Saharawi students cannot apply for, such
as Politic Sciences. This exclusion and other kind of repression is a reality for Saharawi
students at University..

Laayoune schools with “Green March” representations

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

- Public health does not exist in the whole occupied territory of Western Sahara. In
addition, if some kind of medical attention is required due to an encounter with the
police defending and supporting the Saharawi cause the people will not receive any
care or treatment. In these cases, people makes up excuses in order to receive the
necessary medical attention, such as, a domestic problem, an accident or a fight. In
fact, during the Intifada protests and demonstrations during 2005, the ambulances
picked up the wounded by police charges and brutality taking them directly to
prison.

Dih El Ghalia. Wounded in a demonstration (July 2010)

in Bucraa Avenue. (Laayoune) Medical Certificate of Dih El Ghalia

- In regard to the Saharawi culture conservation, we observed a strong attempt of

Moroccans as if it had always belonged or been a part of Morocco. For instance, a
popular party was celebrated in Guelmin, where several Saharawi traditions were
exhibited as if it were Moroccan traditions, or the fact that the use of “Melfas” and
“Darrás” (traditional Saharawi clothing and a characteristic symbol of Saharawi
culture), its widely spreading among the Moroccan population living in the occupied
territories, as if it was a symbol of their culture. Closely linked to this goal of
assimilating Saharawi culture as their own culture, is the continuous effort of
normalizing the occupation, and so, we can see at the National country house hotel
or “Parador”, a large photography exhibition about the “Green March”.

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

Photographies and scenes set at the corridors of the National “Parador”

Popular celebration at Guelmin

1F Guelmin celebration showing the appropriation of Saharawi culture by Moroccans

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

- Another important issue we must take into account the plundering of natural
resources such as phosphates and other explorations of the area, the environmental
hazard posed by the overexploitation of Saharawi fishing banks. We recall in this
regard, the report of the European Parliament's legal service, which dictates that the
exploitation of resources in the territory is illegal; still, many European companies are
participating on that exploitation. Morocco uses different methods to legitimize this
illegal exploitation, transporting the fish caught in Laayoune to Tan- Tan (A city
located in the south of the legal national Moroccan territory), to export it to Europe.
We have also carefully verified that the indigenous people of Western Sahara does not
receive any benefits from the exploitation of its own resources, not even having access
to that fish for daily consumption, also lacking the possibility to work in those
plundering companies which are violating the opinion of Hans Corell issued in 2005.

Checkpoint in the Port of Laayoune Laayoune’s port Factories

Port of Laayoune Avenue with white trucks exporting Fishing boat in Laayoune’s port
plundered fisheries

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

Dakhla’s port. Trawl fisheries

Phosphates conveyor belt in Laayoune’s port

1. Phosphates conveyor belt in Laayoune’s outskirts

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Report July 2010. Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

- For future trips, Thawra considers essential that the figure of the international
observer does not pass unnoticed for Moroccan authorities. There may be
doubt whether the consequences of these trips have a positive outcome for the
Saharawi people’s own interests. It can be expected that, after European citizens
visit the occupied territories, there may be some kind of retaliation against those
Saharawi’s receiving observers. However, even being so, we have found that
Saharawi people requests and needs the foreign presence in the occupied
territories, even living with them in their own homes, so the situation does not
last forever.

- We want to take advantage of this report to denounce the recent attacks

carried out by Moroccan police against dozens of Saharawi citizens and foreign
citizens in the occupied territories. During an accompaniment of Sahrawi
human rights activists returning from the refugee camps in Tindouf, after
visiting their families 18th July 2010, the Moroccan police attacked our Spanish
colleague, Javier Sopeña, along with dozens of Saharawi people. Another
example happened the 22nd of August 2010, another accompaniment of
Saharawi human rights activists returning from Argel after an international
congress for Human Rights, again, Antonio Velázquez, a Mexican colleague
and Isabel Terraza Spanish, along with dozens of Saharawi people were beaten
up by Moroccan policemen. Finally, the 28th of August 2010, a peaceful
demonstration including 14 Spanish citizens ended up with 11 detentions and 3
forced retentions, this time the police brutality and their aggressions left
Carmen Roger, Sara Mesa and Pablo Monederos, very badly injured. These
events are another example of Moroccan brutality and impunity with which
they act in the occupied territory.
It should be emphasized, during these events no member of the Spanish
government nor Foreign Ministry nor the Spanish Embassy or Consulate, has
been in contact with Spanish citizens, only Mariano Collado, responsible for the
Spanish heritage in the Western Sahara.

- Because of the things we´ve seen and we´ve learned along with the Saharawi
people and Saharawi associations, thawra understood the imperative need to
coordinate and take urgent action. Pressing the Moroccan regime implies a
physical action in the international arena. This means that, disseminating the
situation in Europe or the USA, we could somehow, get support to pressure
internationally the constant violation of human rights done by the Moroccan
Kingdom, which, on the other hand, has a privileged relationship countries like,
Spain, France or USA. The media is certainly a pending subject. We should
work to develop methods to “claim the attention” of international media.
Weaving a single solid network it’s also a hard work. For all that, we should not
withdraw and we must never give up on the idea of joining forces will let us
work harder, it’s obvious. Let’s do it!.

Thawra: Complaint and Human Rights in the occupied Western Sahara.

www.saharathawra.com

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