Saharawi, Western Sahara: Repression increases, freedom and rights squashed

Repression increases, the freedoms and rights of the Moroccan population continues to be overlooked and ignored and Western Sahara is far from seeing an improvement in the living conditions in their land thanks to the new amendment of the constitution of Morocco.

In an extremely doubtful whitewash Mohammed VI ordered a Constitutional change to suit his counselor Abdellatif Menuni and pushed through a referendum by 98.4 percent. The king did advertise for the world to see that the country is changing and that everyone, absolutely everyone, in Morocco supports it.

Several reasons make us suspicious of the validity of intention and the extraordinary unanimity in the poll. No opposing factions were involved, such as the February 20 Movement, Justice and Charity, or the Left parties. In turn, the information published on Wikileaks revealed that corruption reaches enormous levels of indecency, institutionalized by the king, worse than the regime of Ben Ali in Tunisia. We read in December last year in the country, "While corrupt practices existed with Hassan II, now they are institutional."

On the other hand, the facts that have been happening since last August this year allow us to see that reform is not only hard to believe, but does not change substantially with regard to respect for international law. As for human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara... arrests, fights, torture in prisons, repression, disappearances, etc.. are the day to day reality in the city of Laayoune, Dakhla Bojador or from the month of August and until today the anniversary of the beginning Gdeim Izik.

Morocco illegally included in the referendum of the Constitution, occupied Western Sahara and the Saharawi President Mohamed Abdelaziz states: "This is a violation of internationally recognized borders and a flagrant violation of the Charter and Resolutions of the United Nations, violation of international law ".
 
However, according to its new constitution the king is to copy the European model of parliamentary monarchy, still far from being because it is the king who will elect the prime minister. Some youths proclaim: "We had an absolute monarch and now we have an absolute monarch who is also a Pope."

The fact is that many imams preach inciting people to vote "Yes" (the Constitution) as in who votes Yes is with the king, who votes No is against him and he will go to hell as a heretic.

Meanwhile, the European Council last March, was backing the reforms announced by the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI. In a proposal by the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the summit's final statement included a paragraph, not originally anticipated, which gives a "warm welcome" to the monarch's decision.

Source: Thawra

Timofei Belov

Pravda.Ru