Rome (Italy) March07,2013(SPS) - Italian Florence City Council members have unanimously agreed to award honorary citizenship status to Saharawi activist Aminatou Haidar for her struggle for human rights in Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco, Saharawi representation in Rome said Wednesday.
"After Florence city’s distinction to Aminatou Haidar, a peaceful activist for Saharawi people’s freedom, we shall now go further in supporting them, through a unified front made up of (Italian) institutions to defend human rights in Western Sahara," said Susanna Agostini, a member of Florence City Council.
Andrea Vannucci, also member of the city council, said "thanks to Kennedy Foundation, which follows and supports her struggle since 2008, we will now invite Aminatou Haidar to Florence and develop a plan and submit it to the United Nations, in order to extend prerogatives of MINURSO to include human rights monitoring in Western Sahara."
Vannucci tackled the latest trial of 24 Saharawi political prisoners, dubbing "tragic shock," the sentences a Moroccan military court gave them.
He urged the town councils in Tuscany "to work together to achieve self-determination for Saharawi people through a referendum in Western Sahara."(SPS)
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