For two weeks, a wave of violence has run through Morocco, where violence has been directed against the occupied Western Saharans. This follows an anti-occupation demonstration on May 7, when Western Saharan students at the university of Agadir, Morocco, were brutally beaten and arrested.
On Thursday Moroccan police clashed with student protesters from Western Sahara demanding an end to Rabat's control over the disputed region.
According to two students at Rabat University, police carried out about 15 arrests and some students were injured after protesters defied a police order to end a week-long sit-in at the entrance to the university in support of the separatist Polisario Front.
Now reports are coming in of the arrest of human rights activists in Western Sahara as well. Brahim Elansari, a member of the Saharawi Association for Human Rights Victims, was arrested Sunday afternoon after police stopped his car in Laayoune, Western Sahara's main city, said the organization's president, Brahim Dahane. Fellow activist Hassana Douihi, who was riding with Elansari, was also arrested.
Shortly afterward, police arrested Naama Asfari, president of the Paris-based Committee for the Respect of Human Freedoms and Rights in Western Sahara, Dahane said.
The three remained in police custody Sunday evening, said Dahane, adding that police had visited the homes of three other human rights activists seeking to arrest them, but that the men were not there.
Saharawis in Laayoune held a demonstration on Sunday morning calling for independence for Western Sahara, a desert territory invaded by Morocco after colonizer Spain left in 1975.
Meanwhile President and Polisario Front Secretary-General Mohamed Abdelaziz stated on Monday Morocco "fears" the forthcoming negotiations on Western Sahara, scheduled to be conducted by the United Nations in the first half of June, Sahrawi. Morocco "fears the negotiations, for it doesn’t want its public opinion to know that it de facto recognizes the Polisario Front as the Sahrawi people’s sole and legitimate representative," he told a news conference conducted in the Sahrawi freed territories in Mijek, where the celebrations of the 34th anniversary of the Sahrawi armed struggle outbreak are taking place.
The following is from the Westfall Weekly News.
Moroccan police arrest 3 activists
RABAT, Morocco - Police in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara arrested three leading human rights campaigners on Sunday following weeks of crackdowns against students and activists in the territory, a human rights association said.
Shortly afterward, police arrested Naama Asfari, president of the Paris-based Committee for the Respect of Human Freedoms and Rights in Western Sahara, Dahane said.
The three remained in police custody Sunday evening, said Dahane, adding that police had visited the homes of three other human rights activists seeking to arrest them, but that the men were not there.
Moroccan authorities are targeting prominent Saharawis in an attempt to quell the growing pro-independence sentiment in Western Sahara, a desert territory invaded by Morocco in 1975 after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew, Dahane said.
Saharawis in Laayoune held a demonstration on Sunday morning calling for independence.
The Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed independence movement, fought until the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991 aimed at allowing an independence referendum, which never happened.
On Thursday Moroccan police clashed with student protesters from Western Sahara demanding an end to Rabat's control over the disputed region.
According to two students at Rabat University, police carried out about 15 arrests and some students were injured after protesters defied a police order to end a week-long sit-in at the entrance to the university in support of the separatist Polisario Front.
Now reports are coming in of the arrest of human rights activists in Western Sahara as well. Brahim Elansari, a member of the Saharawi Association for Human Rights Victims, was arrested Sunday afternoon after police stopped his car in Laayoune, Western Sahara's main city, said the organization's president, Brahim Dahane. Fellow activist Hassana Douihi, who was riding with Elansari, was also arrested.
Shortly afterward, police arrested Naama Asfari, president of the Paris-based Committee for the Respect of Human Freedoms and Rights in Western Sahara, Dahane said.
The three remained in police custody Sunday evening, said Dahane, adding that police had visited the homes of three other human rights activists seeking to arrest them, but that the men were not there.
Saharawis in Laayoune held a demonstration on Sunday morning calling for independence for Western Sahara, a desert territory invaded by Morocco after colonizer Spain left in 1975.
Meanwhile President and Polisario Front Secretary-General Mohamed Abdelaziz stated on Monday Morocco "fears" the forthcoming negotiations on Western Sahara, scheduled to be conducted by the United Nations in the first half of June, Sahrawi. Morocco "fears the negotiations, for it doesn’t want its public opinion to know that it de facto recognizes the Polisario Front as the Sahrawi people’s sole and legitimate representative," he told a news conference conducted in the Sahrawi freed territories in Mijek, where the celebrations of the 34th anniversary of the Sahrawi armed struggle outbreak are taking place.
The following is from the Westfall Weekly News.
Moroccan police arrest 3 activists
RABAT, Morocco - Police in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara arrested three leading human rights campaigners on Sunday following weeks of crackdowns against students and activists in the territory, a human rights association said.
Shortly afterward, police arrested Naama Asfari, president of the Paris-based Committee for the Respect of Human Freedoms and Rights in Western Sahara, Dahane said.
The three remained in police custody Sunday evening, said Dahane, adding that police had visited the homes of three other human rights activists seeking to arrest them, but that the men were not there.
Moroccan authorities are targeting prominent Saharawis in an attempt to quell the growing pro-independence sentiment in Western Sahara, a desert territory invaded by Morocco in 1975 after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew, Dahane said.
Saharawis in Laayoune held a demonstration on Sunday morning calling for independence.
The Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed independence movement, fought until the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991 aimed at allowing an independence referendum, which never happened.
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