STATEMENT: Aminatou Haidar writes to Prime Minister Brown

Statement from Aminatou Haidar to Prime Minister Gordon Brown
10th December 2009

Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing to you from my bed in the terminal of Lanzarote airport on this the 25th day of my hunger strike in protest at my illegal expulsion from my home in Western Sahara on 14th November.  As I write, my spirit remains strong but I feel my physical strength is fading fast.
 
I would like to ask you and your government and the people of Great Britain for your urgent support. Support not just for me but for all the Saharawi people who, for the past 34 years have been forced to live either under an unlawful and brutal occupation in Western Sahara or in desolate refugee camps in the Algerian desert.
I call on the British government to do all in their power to bring pressure to bear on Morocco to accept a solution to this conflict that conforms with international law, namely:

• to allow the United Nations to hold a referendum on self determination for Western Sahara;
• to immediately desist from the arbitrary arrest, torture and ¨disappearing¨ of human rights defenders in occupied Western Sahara;
• to free without delay the prisoners of conscience held in Moroccan jails, particularly the seven human rights activist who were arrested in Casablanca on 7th October and are awaiting a sentence in Sale / Rabat prison which could include the death penalty;
• to allow me to travel home to my children in Laayoune, Western Sahara in accordance with Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Today, on International Human Rights Day, I hope the Britain together with the rest of the international community will not ignore our plight and will support our just struggle to bring an end to an unlawful occupation that has been allowed to continue for over three decades.

Yours,
Aminatou Haidar

Official UK launch of Free Western Sahara Campaign

As I write this, a delegation formed of representatives from the Western Sahara Campaign, Polisario Front, Sandblast and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara head to 10 Downing Street to call on the prime minister Gordon Brown to take steps to resolve the Western Sahara dispute. The delegation is handing Brown a letter from the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) president-in-exile pledging the leader of one of the most powerful Western countries to become active. With specific focus on the continuous exploitation of the territories resources and fishery, the Free Western Sahara Campaign is drawing attention to this - as the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan would name it - "orphaned" dispute that is held in a tight international geopolitical and -economic grip.

The Western Sahara Resource Watch wrote two valueable contributions to today's events:
Press Release: Brown called on to take action
British MEPs call on amending EU-Moroccan fisheries agreement

The official press release of the Free Western Sahara Campaign by Stefan Simanowitz quotes MP Jeremy Corbyn (L) to say: "Our collective failure to address Morocco’s ongoing violation of countless UN Resolutions, to stop the illegal plundering of Western Sahara’s natural resources and to allow human rights abuses to be committed with impunity diminishes Britain, it diminishes the United Nations and it is an affront to all those with a belief in justice".

While this specific action focuses on the exploitation of the territory's resources and fishery by the international community, the UK Free Western Sahara Campaign addresses the resolution of the Western Sahara dispute, the human rights violations, the unkept promises of the United Nations and the international community and the absence of the dispute and the Saharawi people in public awareness and discourse.

To join the campagn, visit http://freesahara.ning.com.

Update: The Guardian posted Simanowitz's letter "Western Sahara's lingering crisis" here, Indymedia here, and Newstin here .