Vitoria (Spain) November30, 2011(SPS) the Saharawi Human rights defender, Aminatu Haidar received Wednesday from the hands of the Minister of Justice and Spokesman of the Basque Government, Idoia Mendia, the René Cassin Prize for human rights 2011 for defending human rights in the occupied part of western Sahara and her peaceful struggle for her people’s right to self-determination.
The Minister of Justice of Basque Government said in the ceremony held in Vitoria that Aminatu Haidar represents the struggle of the Saharawi people recognizing her courage and peaceful struggle for her cause.
Haidar declared that she will devote all the amount of the prize (more than16, 000 euro) to help families of the Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails.
She thanked the organizers hopping that the new Spanish government will change Spanish position towards the Saharawi cause.
She indicated that Spain has moral and political commitments and responsible right now for all sufferings of the Sahara People because “it withdrew from Western Sahara in 1975 without complete decolonization in its former colony Western Sahara” she said.
“Gandhi of Sahara” as she is known was subjected to arrest and torture many years in Moroccan prisons due to her political rights demanding the Saharawi people’s rights to self-determination and for her struggle to protect human rights from the Moroccan occupying government abuses in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
In 2009 Haidar was expelled from her homeland, western Sahara, to Spain because she denies Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, but after one month of hunger Strike in Lantharote airport and a wide solidarity network with her, the Moroccan government finally accepted her return to her country western Sahara.
Through her struggle Aminatu Haidar has received many prizes such as Civil Courage Prize, 2009, the Silver Rose and others, while she was candidate to other prizes including Nobel peace prize.(SPS)
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