Western Sahara: Moroccan police terrify residents

A group of Moroccan plain clothes police officers is monitoring the family home of Adala UK president - In Western Sahara, a group of Moroccan plain clothes police officers is monitoring the family home of Adala UK president Sidi Ahmed Abdala Mohamed Fadel in El Aaiun capital of Western Sahara, which led to panic among nearby residents. He is also constantly followed by police officers throughout El Aaiun during his current stay there. On the 27th April Sidi Ahmed and his brother were surrounded by eight police officers in one of the main streets of El Aaiun, who pushed them and threatened them, e.g. by saying 'you either leave or we will arrest you'. 

Constant intimidation

This constant intimidation comes after Morocco newspapers and websites published the names and personal details of the Western Sahara activists Sidi Ahmed Fadel, El Ghalia Djimi and Lwaraa Abdul Samad who participated in the 28th session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva to bring the reality of human rights violations in the Occupied Territories to the UN's attention.

The three activists have also been discredited by the Moroccan press and accused of 'inciting violence'

Harassment and prosecution of Saharawi human rights continues in Western Sahara.  Adala UK ask the internationl community to take urgently action on these new dangerous developments which put human right activists in Western Sahara at even greater risk or detention and violence than in the past.

History

The Moroccan armed forces invaded Western Sahara in 1975 (the Green March), annexing it after the Spanish walked out of their last colony in northern Africa and promptly sent thousands of Moroccan citizens southwards to repopulate the territory, altering the ethnic and nationality balance.

 In 1991 the UNO brokered a peace agreement between the Moroccan armed forces and the Polisario Liberation Front, under which the UNO and Morocco promised to organise a referendum on self-determination. Morocco has since blocked and stalled at every turn, defying international law. Meanwhile around 200,000 Saharawi refugees brave the stark conditions of the Algerian desert in Tindouf, across the border.

Adala UK