Saharawi Activist Remains in Spain

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MADRID, Spain – Although Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar was supposed to return home on Friday, she remains on the Spanish Canary island of Lanzarote.

“The Spanish government requested permission [yesterday] for the plane to fly over and land” in Haidar’s hometown of Laayoune in Western Sahara, said Spain’s foreign ministry spokesperson.  “Morocco granted this permission but it withdrew it just before the plane was to take off.  We were on board the plane… when the control tower called to say authorization had just been cancelled.”

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has called on Spain and Morocco to “consider any measure that could facilitate [the] movement and end the current impasse” of Haidar, whose condition is rapidly deteriorating.

Haidar began her hunger strike on November 16, three days after her passport was confiscated and Moroccan authorities denied her entry into Western Sahara.  She went on strike in order to draw attention to her cause.  Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain left.  She has frequently criticized Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara.  Her critique prompted the Polisario rebel group to rise up for independence.  Although Morocco has pledged widespread autonomy for the country, it refuses independence as demanded by the Polisario Front.

According to Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, last week Spain’s government offered her either Spanish nationality or refugee status “as an exceptional measure.”  She declined because she plans on returning home and does not want to become “a foreigner in her own home.”

Recalling landing in Lanzarote without a passport, Haidar said “I never would have thought that the Spanish government would play such a dirty role, to do such a favor for Morocco.”

Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa de la Vega said the country is taking “all diplomatic steps with Morocco in order for her to recover her passport.”

Moroccan Ambassador to Spain, Omar Azziman, said that she can have her passport back as long as she recognizes her own Moroccan nationality.

Haidar “disowned her identity and her nationality,” said Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri, and she “must accept, on her own, the legal and moral consequences which result from this behavior.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Morocco Refuses to Allow Sahara Activist to Return: Spain – 04 December 2009

UN News Centre – UN Refugee Chief Urges End to Impasse Over Saharawi Activist – 04 December 2009

VOA – Western Sahara Activist in Third Week of Hunger Strike – 03 December 2009

Guardian – Fear Grows for Hunger Strike Nobel Nominee – 29 November 2009

Reuters – Saharan Hunger-Striker Refuses Spanish Passport – 29 November 2009

AFP – Spanish Nationality Offered to W.Sahara Hunger Striker – 28 November 2009

Impunity Watch – Rights Activist Arrested in Western Sahara – 14 November 2009

Author: Impunity Watch Archive