Human Rights in Western Sahara - Human Rights

Human Rights

The Western Sahara conflict has resulted in severe human rights abuses, most notably the aerial bombardments with Napalm and White phosphorus of the Sahrawi refugee camps, the consequently exodus of tens of thousands of Sahrawi civilians from the country, and the forced expropriation and expulsion of tens of thousands of Moroccan civilians by the Algerian government from Algeria in reaction to the Green March as well as violations of human rights and serious breaches of the Geneva convention by the Polisario Front, the Moroccan government and the Algerian government.

Both Morocco and the Polisario accuse each other of violating the human rights of the populations under their control, in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara and the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, respectively. Morocco and organisations such as France Libertés consider Algeria to be directly responsible for any crimes committed on its territory, and accuse the country of having been directly involved in such violations.

Morocco has been repeatedly condemned and criticized for its actions in Western Sahara by several international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as:

• Amnesty International
• Human Rights Watch
• World Organization Against Torture
• Freedom House
• Reporters Without Borders
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Derechos Human Rights
• Defend International
• Front Line Defenders
• International Federation of Human Rights
• Society for Threatened Peoples
• Norwegian Refugee Council
• Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights
• Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

POLISARIO has received criticism from the French organization France Libertes on its treatment of Moroccan prisoners-of-war, and on its general behaviour in the Tindouf refugee camps in reports by the Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. A number of Former members of Polisario who have joined Morocco accuse the organisation of abuse of human rights and sequestration of the population in Tindouf

During the war (1975–91), both sides accused each other of targeting civilians. Neither claim has met with support abroad. The USA, EU, AU and UN refused to include the Polisario Front on their lists of terrorist organizations. Polisario Front leaders maintain that they are ideologically opposed to terrorism, as they had condemned terrorist attacks and signed the "Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism", in the framework of the African Union.

Human rights are repressed in the Moroccan-controlled territories of Western Sahara, according to Amnesty International in 2003 and Human Rights Watch in 2004. While the situation has improved since the early 1990s, the political liberalization in Morocco has not had the same effect on Western Sahara according to Amnesty International in 2004., when it comes to having a pro-independence position. There are allegations of police abuse and torture by Polisario-organisations., and suspected dissidents are harassed. The United States State Department reported in 2000 that there were arbitrary arrests of Sahrawis and no organized labor. Prisoners of conscience were kept in squalid conditions according to Polisario-groups. Some Sahrawis also complain of systematic discrimination in favor of Moroccan settlers.

The Moroccan response to the demonstrations of 2005 was very aggressive, and provoked international reactions. In a criticised mass trial in December 2005, 14 leading Sahrawi activists were sentenced to prison sentences; many more had previously been detained. Most of these prisoners were later released by royal decree in the spring of 2006, but some have since again been rearrested.

According to the US State Department's 2006 report on Morocco "The law generally provides for freedom of speech and of the press. The government generally respected these rights in practice, as long as Islam, the monarchy, and territorial integrity (the inclusion of the Western Sahara) were not criticized. Throughout the year several publications tested the boundaries of press freedom."

The US State Department's 2005 report on Morocco's attitude towards human rights noted that "n 2004 various international human rights groups estimated that 700 persons were imprisoned for advocating Western Saharan independence.". Foreign journalists and visiting missions have been prevented from visiting the territory and in some instances deported from it. In 2004, Moroccan newsman Ali Lmrabet was sentenced to heavy fines and ten year ban on practicing journalism, for referring in an article to the Sahrawis in Tindouf, Algeria, as being "refugees" rather than "sequestered" or "kidnapped", as is the official Moroccan position. Sahrawi human rights organizations have been refused permission to operate in Morocco: the Sahrawi branch of the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice (FVJ) was dissolved in 2003, and its members arrested. They were later released in the royal amnesties of 2006, or before that, even if some have since been rearrested again. Presently, several organisations, such as the ASVDH, operate illegally, with activists occasionally subject to arrests and harassment, whereas others, such as the polisario close AFAPREDESA, are mainly active in exile.

Sahrawi activists have tried to compensate for this through extensive use of the Internet, reporting from illegal demonstrations, and documenting police abuse and torture through online pictures and video. Morocco has responded by blockading Internet access to these sites in Morocco and in Western Sahara, prompting accusations of Internet censorship. On 20 December 2005 Reporters Without Borders reported that Morocco has added Anonymizer to its Internet blacklist, days after the association recommended the service to Moroccans and Sahrawis wishing to access the banned Sahrawi sites. "These websites, promoting independence for Western Sahara, have been censored since the beginning of December" it reports.