A Sahrawi Minor Abducted and tortured in the outskirts of Laayoune, Western Sahara

A Sahrawi Minor Abducted and tortured in the outskirts of Laayoune, Western Sahara

Last Night August 27th,2009 at 9.00 p.m, Ms. Hawassi Ngiya, a Human Rights activist and a student in high school in Laayoune, was abducted last night at around 9.00 pm by Police Officers: Khalid and Aziz Anouch when she walking down the street in Maatallah District,Laayoune, Western Sahara. They took her blind-folded to the outskirts of Laayoune city in the area of Sakia Al Hamra. They endured lots of torture both physically and psychologically. Many other Morrocans security agents joind them later on and started interrogating her about her views while stripping her of all her colthes. she was asked about her affiliations and her political views as well regarding the conflict. All this was done while some of them were video-taping the whole operation. She was threatened to be exposed naked on the internet if she would tell anyone about what happened and if she does not cease her activities. One of the high rakned officers belonging to DIAG Moroccan Secret Services) threatened to kill her next time they would catch her.
At 2.00 a.m, she was left behind naked in the outskirts of Laayoune in the darkness. She managed to reach a dwelling where a sahrawi family gave her clothes and helped her reach her relatives.
A Sahrawi Minor Abducted and tortured in the outskirts of Laayoune, Western Sahara


في أبشع انتهاك لحقوق الأنسان وخاصة حقوق القاصرين ،تم ليلة البارحة 27/08/2009 علي الساعة 09 مساءا اختطاف الطفلة الصحراوية القاصر :انكية الحواصي الناشطة في مجال حقوق الانسان والتلميذة في الاعدادية في مدينة العيون ،عندما كانت تتجول في شارع حي معط الله ، وقد اشرفت قوة امنية يقودها الجلاد المغربي المعروف عزيز أنوش وضابط الامن خالد رفقة مجموعة أمنية ،على اختطاف الطفلة انكية الحواصي وتعصيب عينها ونقلها إلي واد الساقية خارج المجال الحضري لمدينة العيون الصحراء الغربية ،بدأ بعدها مسلس من التعذيب الجسدي والنفسي علي حد سواء فتم نزع ملابسها حيث أصبحت عارية ،وبعد فترة من الوقت أنضم مجموعة من رجال الامن حيثوا بداو التحقيق معها عن علاقتها بالنشطاء الحقوقيين والوقفات التي تطالب بحق تقرير المصير لشعب الصحراء الغربية ،كما سألوه عن آرائها السياسية وعن علاقاتها مع بعض الافراد والجمعيات الحقوقية وكانت تتم عملية التسجيل بالفيديو لعملية التحقيق في الصحراء ويتم تصويرها وهي عارية وبعد خمس ساعات من التحقيق والتعذيب أكدوا لها بعدها أنه في المرة المقبلة ستتم تصفيتها جسديا وأن الفيديو الذي لم تم تصويره لها والذي تظهر فيه عارية سوف يتم نشره عبر الانترنت وأكد لها احد ضباط الدياج المغربية أنه في المرة المقبلة سوف يشرف على قتلها وعند الساعة الثانية ليلا تركوها عارية في الظلام دون رحمة أو شفقة لحالها لتنتقل بعدها سيرا علي الاقدام عارية من ملابسها إلي أحد منازل الصحراويين القريبة منها ليتم نقلها إلي العيون
يذكر أن أنكية الحواصي كانت من ضمن مجموعة الشباب الستة الذين تم منعهم من السفر إلي بريطانيا للمشاركة في برنامج دولي يتحدث عن حل النزاعات كذالك هي أحد الشابات المساهمات في انتفاضة الاستقلال التي انطلقت في 2005

Urgent Need for Archeologs to work in a Project in Western Sahara

Very Urgent Action:
Archeologs without Experience needed for a project in Western Sahara.
for more information, please visit the following Web site.
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/WS/WSahara.htm

Western Sahara Project: Environmental and Social Change in Arid Northwest Africa
The Western Sahara Project is an interdisciplinary research project that aims to improve our understanding of past environmental, social and cultural change in northwest Africa. The main focus of the research is on human-environment interaction over the past 10,000 years (the Holocene period), with an emphasis on the transition from humid to arid conditions in the Middle to Late Holocene.The Project is led by the University of East Anglia, and involves specialists in a wide range of subjects from a number of institutions.

Fieldwork is conducted in the eastern and southern areas of the disputed, non self-governing territory of Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara). These areas are under the control of the Polisario independence movement, the remainder of the territory being occupied by Morocco.

For more information on the Project, its findings, and its wider context, navigate this site using the links on the left. The Project's findings are described in Project publications and field reports. For reports and further details of the Project's work, see Field Seasons.

Anyone can VOLUNTEER to take part in the Project. No experience of archaeology or scientific fieldwork is required.

We seek no revenge – only peace: Mohamed Kheddad

We seek no revenge – only peace

11/08/2009

By: Mhamed Khadad








The people of Western Sahara stand prepared to engage with Morocco and to enter open discussions about our joint future.

A new round of talks between the kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front of Western Sahara are under way in Vienna, Austria. These talks, characterised as informal by the personal envoy of the UN secretary general, Christopher Ross, are the latest attempt to bring peace and security to Western Sahara and to the wider Maghreb region. We enter them with an unwavering and genuine commitment to finding a just, mutually acceptable and democratic solution. Will our Moroccan counterparts adopt the same approach?

In every circumstance, peace comes at a cost. Somehow, somewhere, there must be a compromise and someone, generally everyone, must be prepared to search for common ground and to yield to the higher ideals found there. For the people of Western Sahara, the price of peace is high. We have been occupied for over three decades, following an illegal annexation by the Moroccan kingdom. We have seen our natural resources become unethical trade boons to the Moroccan economy while our people languish in refugee camps, unable, or too afraid, to return home.

Yet, rather than seek to exercise a sense of revenge or frustration, we stand prepared to engage with Morocco and to enter open discussions about our joint future. This is long-established policy. In our statement to the UN security council in 2007, we stated we would guarantee "the rights and obligations of the Moroccan population in Western Sahara". We also put on the public record that our readiness "to participate with Morocco and the countries of the region in the maintenance of peace, stability and security for the whole region."

The people of Western Sahara remain committed to the self-determination process initiated by the UN nearly 50 years ago, and have backed ever since via various resolutions and statements. For instance, we recall the security council resolved in 2002 to express "its readiness to consider any approach which provides for self-determination". It is not clear how or where Morocco’s proposal for autonomy within the Moroccan state fits in with this basic agenda. A unilateral solution to a three-decade-long conflict, as is proposed by Morocco, is not only farcical, it is an option the community of democratic nations cannot countenance.

The people of Western Sahara have been clear that we are willing to work with the Moroccan monarchy and will act without recrimination in relation to Moroccans now living in Western Sahara. We are aware we do not choose our neighbours and so we are destined to share a border. This is a form of realpolitik that makes sense at all levels. We do not seek any victories over Morocco, we only seek parity. We aim to co-operate in economic and security matters, as any decent neighbour would be expected to do.

For Morocco, the benefits of good relations with a free and democratic Western Sahara are immense. The massive costs of its military occupation have been estimated at 3% of Morocco’s GDP. Analysts suggest the military costs in keeping some 150,000 troops in the occupied territories alone is over $153bn (£92.3bn) since 1975, or around $12m (£7.2m) for every day it has occupied Western Sahara. As a result of this extraordinary outlay, Morocco has the world’s fifth highest proportional spend on its military. Moreover, the long-touted Maghreb union, which has faltered for decades on the back of the Western Saharan dispute, would at last be free of this considerable obstacle to better relations.

Quite apart from the damaging moral position Morocco maintains in Western Sahara, ending this money drain must surely be a priority for Rabat and its often impoverished people, as must the prospect of awakening the sleeping giant of North African economic unity. The UN’s way is the only way forward. A referendum on self-determination, a fundamental mechanism for all UN-mandated colonies – as Western Sahara is – is the only viable means of engendering anything like a sustainable common ground. The future of the Sahrawi people must be in their own hands, not in any institution and it is certainly not the right of an invading power, maintaining an illegal and unjust regime.

As we enter these talks we favour the open-palm approach of US president Barack Obama. We are willing to pay the price of peace as an investment in our future. That is our stated agenda going into the Vienna talks. The people of Western Sahara deserve nothing less from us, for it is peace and freedom we crave most of all.