Green Left Weekly, Sunday, February 5, 2012

By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim & Laura Gilbie

The Sahrawi people continue to demand independence after decades of poor treatment under Moroccan rule. Many Sahrawi report being routinely subjected to police brutality and say they suffer widespread discrimination.

Activists in Laayoune face a day-to-day struggle with local authorities. The city is touted by the Moroccan government as a regional development hub, but from the ground looks more like an infantry barracks.

The police station is like an enormous shopping mall. Soldiers are everywhere, patrolling the main streets. ….(continued)

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Pambazuka News Feature by Malainin Lakhal
2012-01-19, Issue 566

This is a transcript of the lecture by Malainin Lakhal, secretary general of Saharawi Journalists and Writers Union, presented during a conference organised in Cairo, Egypt, from 15 to 17 January 2012 by the Habitat International Coalition under the title: ‘Sovereignty over the land and peoples’ right to self-determination’.

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Human Rights Watch: World Report 2012
January 22, 2012
(Rabat) – Morocco’s new government should overhaul repressive domestic laws, curb police violence, and enhance judicial independence if it is to realize the human rights promises contained in the country’s new constitution, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2012. Substantial progress in these areas will prove the sincerity of the reforms announced by King Mohammed VI in response to street protests in Morocco and major upheavals elsewhere in the region in 2011.

HRW  Statement >>

HRW World Report 2012: Morocco and Western Sahara>>

Malainin Lakhal
17 November 2011, Pambazuka news/allAfrica.com

The prisoners were taken from a group of more than 200 activists arrested by Moroccan authorities a year ago. And as Malainin Lakhal reports, Morocco has over 60 Saharawi prisoners of conscience, including eminent human rights defender Naama Asfari.

Twenty-four Saharawi human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience, who are to appear before a Moroccan court-martial, are on hunger strike since 31 October, after being one year imprisonment without appearing before a court.

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