Sahrawi activists on trial for visiting refugee camps
14 October 2010   

Amnesty International on Thursday called on the Moroccan authorities to immediately and unconditionally release three Sahrawi activists set to face trial following their visit to refugee camps in Algeria run by the Polisario Front. The trial of Brahim Dahane, Ali Salem Tamek and Ahmed Nasiri, begins on Friday in the Court of First Instance, Casablanca. All have been accused of “undermining (Morocco’s) internal security”.Amnesty International said it considers the three men to be prisoners of conscience.
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Friday 1 October 2010 / by Stefan Simanowitz, for the other afrik

“They tore off my clothes leaving me naked in front of their ferocious eyes,” twenty year-old Nguia El Haouasi tells me describing an ordeal she suffered last year at the hands of Moroccan police. As a campaigner….(continued)

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A seminar was held on 13th September at Melbourne University’s Law School, under the title “Self-determination and Western Sahara”, hosted by Professor Gerry Simpson as a Global Justice Studio event.

Professor Simpson opened proceedings with some very interesting remarks about self-determination. He traced the origins of the concept to the time of the French Revolution with its Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) and in the American Bill of Rights (1791).
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Jan Bartlett will be broadcasting an interview with Cate Lewis on her
program : Tuesday Hometime next Tuesday, 5 October at 4.10pm on 3CR 855AM.
Subjects discussed will include the Casablanca 7 and the military court declaring itself incompetent, and visits to the camps by other human rights activists.
You can also stream it on your computer or download a podcast by going to:
http://3cr.org.au/

28/09/2010
Stefan Simanowitz reports from Algier
“I have just lived through one of the most terrifying experiences of my life” renowned Spanish actor Willy Toledo, tells me over the phone in the early hours of Tuesday morning. He, together with six other international observers had just accompanied 28 Saharawi human rights defenders on their trip back from an international conference in Algeria to their home in Layoune, Western Sahara, the mineral-rich former Spanish colony controlled by Morocco…..(read full report >>)

Saharawi Association of Victims of Serious Violatons of Human Rights committed by the Moroccan state (ASVDH)
El Aaiun, Western Sahara  – 23/09/2010
Today, 23/09/10, the instructing judge informed the three Saharawi prisoners of opinion incarcerated in Salé prison, that they were no longer being prosecuted by the military court, which had declared itself incompetent.

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Seven Facing Charges in Military Court After Visiting Tindouf Refugee Camps
August 2, 2010
(New York) – Moroccan authorities should release three well-known Sahrawi activists held since October 8, 2009, on charges of “harming state security,” or provide them with a prompt and transparent trial, Human Rights Watch said today.

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A lecture delivered by Professor Stephen Zunes during an event that took place on 7 July 2010 as part of the Fringe Program of The International Peace Research Association (IPRA) conference 2010 which was held in Sydney (Australia) on 6-10 July 2010.

The event was under the title: “Self-determination, 50 years on: Conflict Resolution in the Struggle for Self-Determination” The theme for the event was the issue of self-determination with Western Sahara as an example of where peace perspectives are urgently needed.

Professor Stephen Zunes is Professor of Politics & International Studies and Chair of Middle Eastern Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.

Full-text of Professor Stephen Zunes lecture >>