The Saharawi Women express their most forceful comdenation to the brutal repressión of the moroccan occupied police and settlers against fourteen spanish activists from the Canary Island (located in front of Western Sahara) when they were participating in a peaceful demostration in the capital of our country: L´Aayoune, las week-end.
Last tuesday, August 30th, the 14 Spanish activists attacked in El Aaiun made a press conference after their arrival to the Canary Islands and attested that the situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, under which the Saharawi people live, as a huge prison.
“Western Sahara is like a huge prison, where the people live under a climate of continued repression,” According to the testimony of one of the activists, Sara Mesa, upon arriving in Spain.
The activists arrived at the port of La Luz, where they were awaited by a group of 50 supporters with banners and posters for the Saharawi cause. The boat with 14 activists who were arrested and beaten by Moroccan police last Saturday arrived at the Port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The boat belongs to "Pro-Saharawi Sahara Acciones."
In the port waiting was a group of supporters who waved placards calling for the creation of a free and democratic referendum in what was the last colony of Spain in Africa and that has been occupied for more than 35 years by Morocco.
According to the testimony of Anselm Fariña "They attacked us without warning, individually administering straight punches to the kidneys and the face. They insulted us and spit on us without stopping. Some colleagues estimate that there were more than a hundred plainclothes police officers. Several of them followed us from our entry into the territory and even on the journey back."
"Nobody cared about what was happening in the occupied territories. Reports reached us that many Saharawi women and children were beaten and the result was many injuries and many faces bloodied. We wanted to denounce the repression suffered by the Saharawi people and we ended up surviving it in our own bodies," adds Anselmo Fariña, a professor from the island of Tenerife.
Members of the group announced their intention to denounce the brutal treatment by the Moroccan police in these incidents. The group of fifty militants who received them and the returning 14 activists shouted loudly: "Guilty Morocco, responsible Spain" and "Sahara Libre (free Sahara)."
