London, May 25, 2012 (SPS) - Amnesty International (AI) has denounced Morocco for continuing to violate human rights in occupied Western Sahara.
“Security forces used excessive force against protesters. Critics of the monarchy and state institutions continued to face prosecution and imprisonment, as did Sahrawi advocates of self-determination for Western Sahara. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees persisted,” Amnesty International writes in its 2012 annual report on human rights throughout the world that was released Thursday.
According to the report, the Moroccan government harasses and imprisons those who peacefully advocate any change in the status quo. “Saharawis advocating self-determination for the people of Western Sahara remained subject to restrictions on their freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and leading activists continued to face prosecution.”
The report uses the violent clamp down on protesters in Gdeim Izik, a protest camp set up outside the capital of Western Sahara, El Aaiun, to peacefully protest the extensive discrimination against the Saharawis in Western Sahara, to exemplify this harassment.
“Some 23 Sahrawis continued to be detained at Salé Prison, awaiting an unfair trial before a military court for their alleged involvement in violence in late 2010 at the Gdim Izik protest camp near Laayoune. No impartial and independent investigation was undertaken into the events at Gdim Izik and in Laayoune in November 2010 when Moroccan security forces demolished a Sahrawi protest camp, sparking violence in which 13 people, including 11 members of the security forces, were killed”, said AI.(SPS)
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