By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
RABAT, Morocco – Western Sahara rights activist Aminatou Haidar, 42, was arrested on Friday after arriving in Laayoune, capital of Western Sahara, from the Canary Islands. On Saturday Moroccan authorities ejected her to the Spanish archipelago.
Haidar is accused of being linked to the Polisario rebel group. She was arrested for allegedly refusing to follow police formalities. According to Haidar, she was arrested at the airport when she listed Western Sahara as her country of residence on an entry form at Laayoune airport.
“After her stubborn refusal to follow normal police procedures and renouncing her Moroccan citizenship upon her arrival at Laayoune airport…Aminatou Haidar was sent back by plane Saturday to the Canary Islands,” said a security source.
Haidar, a mother of two, lives with her children in Laayoune. She threatened to go on a hunger strike if she is not allowed to fly back on Sunday. It is unclear whether or not she will be allowed to return because Moroccan authorities confiscated her passport when they arrested her.
A leading defender of human rights of the people in Western Sahara, known as Sahrawis, Haidar received the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Laureate. Most recently she received the Civil Courage Prize from The Train Foundation in New York on October 21.
“This prize gives me the courage to pursue the non-violent struggle that I have been leading since I was 23,” she said. “I have been threatened with arrest on my return.”
In 2005 Haidar became a symbol for non-violent protest when she nearly killed herself by going on a hunger strike after Moroccan authorities imprisoned her for nearly seven months. Some of her admirers call her “Sahrawi Gandhi.”
Haidar frequently criticizes Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara after Spanish colonial rule ended in 1975. Her critique prompted the Polisario to rise up for independence of the territory. Members of a seven-person group are to appear before a military tribunal in Rabat on charges of supporting secession after returning from a visit to Polisario refugee camps in Algeria on October 8.
Last week, King Mohammed VI warned “opponents of the territorial integrity of Morocco” that he would be cracking down, referring to Sahrawis supporting the Polisario Front.
For more information, please see:
AFP – Western Sahara Rights Activist Expelled From Morocco – 14 November 2009
AllAfrica – Human Rights Awardee Detained, Deported By Morocco – 14 November 2009
AFP – Polisario Militant Arrested in Morocco – 13 November 2009
ASVDH (The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations) – RFK Center Condemns Morocco’s Detention of Decorated Human Rights Defender, Amintou Haidar – 13 November 2009
ASVDH – Western Saharan Activist Wins Prestigious RFK Human Rights Award – 16 September 2008
