Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A BRAVE SAHARAWI WOMAN: SYMBOL OF A PEACEFUL PEOPLE

Voices from all over the world are expressing their worry about the health of The Saharawi Human Rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, who is on hunger strike for three weeks because was expelled by the moroccan occupider authorities after a trip to New York where was awarded by the 2009 Courage Prize given by the Train Foundation. From the highest international organizations to the regionals and national ones and also some of the european political parties expressed their concerns about the unhuman situation of the " Saharawi Gandhi" as Mrs. Haidar is internationally known.
For example, United Nations Secretary General Office said in a statement:

United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, remains concerned about the condition of Western Sahara activist Aminarou Haidar who has been on a three-week-old hunger strike at a Spanish airport, his spokesman said Monday.

The secretary general reiterated the appeal made last week by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for Spain and Morocco "to consider any measure that could facilitate a resolution of the issue and end the current impasse," spokesman Martin Nesirky told a press briefing.

"The UN is looking for ways it can help to resolve Ms. Haidar's situation," he added.

Haidar has been consuming only sugared water since November 16, days after Moroccan authorities denied her entry to her native Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco in 1975, allegedly confiscated her passport, and sent her back to Spain's Canary Islands.

"I will continue with my hunger strike until there is a solution," the award-winning activist, who campaigns for the Western Sahara's independence from Morocco, told AFP in an interview at the airport on the Spanish Canary island of Lanzarote.

Spain had offered to give the 42-year-old mother-of-two refugee status or Spanish citizenship so she could be allowed to return home but she rejected both options on the grounds that she did not want to become "a foreigner in her own home."

Morocco annexed the Western Sahara following the withdrawal of colonial power Spain, sparking a war with the Polisario Front independence movement. The two sides agreed a ceasefire in 1991, but UN-sponsored talks on its future have since made no headway