Chahid Al Hafed (refugee camps), July 16, 2014 (SPS) - The Union of Saharawi Journalists and Writers (UPES) organized Tuesday a sit-in at the headquarters of the Saharawi Television (RSDTV) to show solidarity with the Saharawi journalist and blogger Mahmoud Al-Haissen, who has been detained by Moroccan occupying forces on 4th July 2014.
The sit-in was attended by the Saharawi journalists, cadres in the Polisario Front and the state, in addition to of civil society representatives.
Participants at the vigil raised the pictures of Mahmud El-Haissan and some other Saharawi political prisoners.
Addressing the audience, Minister of the Occupied Territories and Diaspora, Mr. Mohamed El-Ouali Akaik, said that the policy of arrests and kidnapping “will only make the militants in the occupied territories more determined.”
UPES Secretary General Mr. Nafi Rais, for his part, expressed “full solidarity” with the Saharawi journalis Mahmud El-Haissan, adding that the move by the Moroccan occupying authorities “will only make the Saharawi journalists, whether in the occupied territories, southern Morocco or refugee camps, determined to gain the battle for liberation.”
Other speakers including the President of Saharawi Human Rights Commission and representative of Ministry of Information expressed their full solidarity with Mahmud El-Haissan, highlighting that these kinds of repression will not deter the Saharawis from continuing their peaceful demonstration.
They also called on world press organizations to exert pressure on Morocco to stop its violations of human rights against the Saharawi people in occupied Western Sahara.
In a declaration read at the end of the vigil, UPES called on the international press organizations to use pressure on the Moroccan regime to release Mahmud El-Haissan.
It is to be recalled that Mahmud Al-Haissan was arrested by Moroccan occupying police last Friday, July 4th, while he was covering some demonstrations against Morocco’s looting of Sahaarwi natural resources.
He is now waiting to be brought before court on July 21st.
At least 70 Saharawi political prisoners and journalists are currently languishing in Moroccan jails. (SPS)
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