AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT, 12 September 2013

Revelations published this week by a Spanish team of forensic experts confirming the deaths of eight Sahrawis, including two children, who disappeared in 1976 and providing unprecedented evidence that they were extrajudicially executed by Moroccan armed forces underscore the continuing need to uncover the full truth about hundreds of cases of enforced disappearance from previous decades and to ensure justice for victims and their families. (…cont.)

Amnesty Public Statement  >>

MEHERIS: A possibility of hope – Mass graves and the first Sahrawi disappeared who have been identified
Carlos Martín Beristain, Francisco Etxeberria Gabilondo
Hegoa, Bilbao, Septemer 2013

The document contains the findings of a forensic and research team, working together with a genetic laboratory at the University of the Basque Country, on a case of Sahrawi missing persons in Fadret Leguiaa in the region of Samra, near Amgala and Meheris, in February 1976.
…..The issue of the disappeared during the armed conflict and violence against Sahrawi civilians is still present in the lives of their families (cont

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Green Left Weekly,Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Minetu Larabas Sueidat is a young Saharawi woman living in refugee camps in Tinduf in the south-west of Algeria….she describes the lives and struggles of Saharawi people, forced to live as refugees and continuing to struggle for their freedom. She can be contacted at: [email protected].

“As a young Saharawi woman who born and lives in exile away from the land of my ancestors, I wish to share with the world the hard life that my people, especially my generation, have to deal with in the Saharawi refugee camps here in Tinduf.
Five years ago, I met with amazing group from Australia who came to attend Saharawi Workers Congress in the Saharawai refugee camps,…”  (cont.)

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June, 2013. Copyright © 2013 Human Rights Watch

The HRW report covers six cases of which 2 are important Saharawi ones, viz the Casablanca 7 and Gdeim Izik group.

HRW summary of report findings >>

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wsahara.org.uk , May 2013
SAHARA ANALYSIS   No: 77

Despite a well supported international campaign the UN Security Council voted not to monitor human rights violations on April 25th . The Moroccan Government will continue to wage its campaign of systematic violations of the rights of the Saharawi – MINURSO will remain a silent on-looker.

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16 May 2013

Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme
“Reports that the Moroccan authorities subjected these six detainees – including a child – to torture and other ill-treatment to extract ‘confessions’ are deeply disturbing. The allegations must be thoroughly investigated, with those responsible brought to justice.”

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U.S. State Department.Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 : Western Sahara

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“Morocco claims the Western Sahara territory and administers Moroccan law through Moroccan institutions in the estimated 85 percent of the territory it controls. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario), an organization that has sought independence for the former Spanish territory since 1973, disputes Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over the territory.(…cont.)

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