Human rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf refugee camps : Morocco/Western Sahara/Algeria

218 Pages·2008·1.03 MB·English

by  Goldstein

Morocco/Western Sahara/Algeria
H U M A N
Human Rights in Western Sahara
R I G H T S
and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps
W A T C H
Human Rights in Western Sahara and in
the Tindouf Refugee Camps

Morocco/Western Sahara/Algeria
Copyright © 2008 Human Rights Watch
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 1-56432-420-6
Cover design by Rafael Jimenez

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December 2008 1-56432-420-6

Human Rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps
Map Of North Africa ....................................................................................................... 1
Summary...................................................................................................................... 2
Western Sahara ....................................................................................................... 3
Refugee Camps near Tindouf, Algeria ...................................................................... 8
Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 12
To the UN Security Council ..................................................................................... 12
Recommendations to the Government of Morocco .................................................. 12
Recommendations Regarding Human Rights in the Tindouf Camps ......................... 14
To the Polisario Front ........................................................................................ 14
To the Government of Algeria ............................................................................ 15
To Third-Party Governments and Regional Bodies ................................................... 16
Recommendations to the US and France ................................................................ 17
Methodology ............................................................................................................... 18
Legal Framework Applied in this Report ...................................................................... 20
Background to the Western Sahara Conflict ................................................................. 23
Key Third Parties: The United States, France, and the European Union......................... 32
The United States .................................................................................................. 32
France ................................................................................................................... 34
The European Union ............................................................................................... 35
Human Rights in Western Sahara ............................................................................... 38
The Right to a Fair Trial ........................................................................................... 39
2007-2008 Trial of Naf’i as-Sah and Abdallah al-Boussati for “Throwing Molotov
Cocktails at a Police Car” .................................................................................. 43
2007 Trial of Mohamed Tahlil for “Arson” ......................................................... 47
2007 Trial of Eight Sahrawi Students at the University of Rabat for an “Armed
Demonstration” ............................................................................................... 49
2008: Trial of Activist Naâma Asfari for “Drunk Driving and Assault” ................. 52
2005 Trial of Seven Human Rights Activists in El-Ayoun ..................................... 58
Complaints of Torture, Beatings, and Arbitrary Arrests of Sahrawi Activists ............. 61
Case Studies .................................................................................................... 65
Freedom of Assembly ............................................................................................. 87
Occasional Protester Violence Cannot Justify Broad Bans on the Right of
Assembly ......................................................................................................... 93
Freedom of Association for Human Rights Organizations ........................................ 97
Forum for Truth and Justice – Sahara Section ................................................... 99
The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations ............ 102
CODESA ......................................................................................................... 104
Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) El-Ayoun Branch .................. 107
Treatment of Foreign Observers ............................................................................ 108
Morocco Expels French NGO Human Rights Delegation in April 2008 ............... 109
Morocco Blocks a Fact-Finding Mission by the European Parliament................ 110
Morocco Briefly Detains Delegation from Trade Union Consortium.................... 111
Press Freedom ...................................................................................................... 111
Human Rights in the Tindouf Camps ........................................................................... 114
Past Polisario Abuses and Accountability ..............................................................114
The Question of Political Detention in the Camps Today ........................................ 118
Freedom of Movement ......................................................................................... 122
Travel to Mauritania, Morocco, and Moroccan-Controlled Western Sahara ....... 124
Travel to Destinations other than Mauritania and Moroccan-controlled areas .. 130
Travel inside Algeria ....................................................................................... 130
Polisario Reportedly Prevents Sahrawi Dissident from Re-Entering Camps ........ 131
Freedom of Information, Expression, Association and Assembly ........................... 132
Places of Detention .............................................................................................. 137
Allegations of Slavery ........................................................................................... 142
Allegations of Slavery as it Affects Marriage .................................................... 143
Manumission Papers ...................................................................................... 146
The Case of “Saltana” .................................................................................... 148
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... 152
Appendices ............................................................................................................... 154
Appendix 1: Letter from Human Rights Watch to Moroccan Authorities Requesting
Information on Human Rights and Western Sahara ............................................... 154
Appendix 2: Response from the Government of Morocco, dated May 30, 2008, to
Letter from Human Rights Watch .......................................................................... 159
Appendix 3: Letter from Human Rights Watch to SADR Authorities ........................ 174
Appendix 4: SADR’s Response to Human Rights Watch Letter of February 8, 2008 . 179
Appendix 5: Letter from Human Rights Watch to SADR Authorities ........................ 186
Appendix 6: Response from SADR Authorities to the Letter of Human Rights Watch of
April 1, 2008 ........................................................................................................ 194
Appendix 7: Letter from Human Rights Watch to Algerian authorities .................... 205
Appendix 8: Purported Manumission Document from the Tindouf Camps ............. 210
Map Of North Africa

Morocco claims sovereignty over Western Sahara. It administers the approximately 85 percent of that territory over
which it exercises de facto control -- the portion west of the “Berm” -- as if it were part of Morocco. The UN does not
recognize Moroccan sovereignty and considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory.”
1 Human Rights Watch December 2008
Summary

This report is in two parts. Part one examines present-day human rights conditions in
Western Sahara. Part two examines present-day human rights conditions in the
Sahrawi refugee camps administered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario), the Sahrawi independence organization,
near Tindouf, Algeria.

For Western Sahara, the focus of Human Rights Watch’s investigation is the right of
persons to speak, assemble, and associate on behalf of self-determination for the
Sahrawi people and on behalf of their human rights. We found that Moroccan
authorities repress this right through laws penalizing affronts to Morocco’s
“territorial integrity,” through arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, restrictions on
associations and assemblies, and through police violence and harassment that goes
unpunished.

For the refugee camps in Tindouf, the focus is freedom of expression and of
movement. We found that at the present time, the Polisario effectively marginalizes
those who directly challenge its leadership or general political orientation, but it
does not imprison them. It allows residents to criticize its day-to-day administration
of camp affairs. In practice, camp residents are able to leave the camps, via
Mauritania, if they wish to do so. However, fear and social pressure keeps those who
plan to resettle in Western Sahara from disclosing their plans before leaving.

The rights of residents of the Tindouf camps remain vulnerable due to the isolation of
the camps; the lack of regular, on-the-ground human rights monitoring; and the lack
of oversight by the host country of Algeria to ensure the human rights of Sahrawis
living in Polisario-run camps on Algerian soil. The United Nations Security Council
should establish a mechanism for regular observing and reporting on human rights
conditions both in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf refugee camps.

This report does not cover past abuses, an important subject in its own right that
merits attention today. Although civil and political human rights conditions have
Human Rights in Western Sahara and Tindouf 2
improved in the Tindouf camps as well as in Western Sahara since a ceasefire ended
the armed conflict between the Polisario Front and Morocco in 1991, neither party
has brought to justice or otherwise held accountable the perpetrators of atrocities
committed during that earlier period.

Human Rights Watch takes no position on the issue of independence for Western
Sahara or on Morocco’s proposal for regional autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
However, all persons, whether living in contested territory under de facto Moroccan
control or in refugee camps administered by the Polisario Front, are entitled to
respect for all of their fundamental human rights. Abuses committed by Morocco can
in no way justify or mitigate abuses committed by the Polisario, or vice versa.

Western Sahara
Morocco has made steady gains in its human rights performance in the past fifteen
years. It has allowed greater freedom of expression and independent human rights
monitoring, and has established a truth commission that investigated and
acknowledged past abuses and compensated victims. It has ended some of the
most grievous practices, such as long-term “disappearances,” that were
commonplace in the past.

However, the limits to Morocco’s progress on human rights are apparent in the way
authorities suppress opposition to the officially held position that Western Sahara is
part of Morocco. The government bans peaceful demonstrations and refuses legal
recognition to human rights organizations; the security forces arbitrarily arrest
demonstrators and suspected Sahrawi activists, beat them and subject them to
torture, and force them to sign incriminating police statements, all with virtual
impunity; and the courts convict and imprison them after unfair trials.

Moroccan authorities consider the “Southern Provinces” (their term for the contested
territory) part of Morocco, subject to the same laws and administrative structures as
the rest of the country. Therefore, their treatment of dissent in this region, despite its
particular characteristics, should not be considered an aberration but rather an
example of the extent to which Moroccan authorities continue to violate human
rights in order to suppress political dissent on issues they deem critical.
3 Human Rights Watch December 2008
Because Human Rights Watch did not conduct comparative research in various
regions of Morocco, it cannot say whether Morocco’s human rights practices in
Western Sahara are better or worse than its practices elsewhere. There is, of course,
the particular problem of Moroccan laws that forbid attacks on Morocco’s “territorial
integrity” – interpreted to mean advocacy of independence for Western Sahara. But
beyond this issue, further research would be needed to judge whether dissidents or
protesters who advocate on behalf of other politically sensitive causes in, say,
Tangiers or Fez, enjoy more freedom to associate or assemble, are more likely to
have a fair trial, or are less likely to face physical violence at the hands of the police,
than Sahrawi activists in El-Ayoun or Smara.

In measuring Morocco’s compliance with its international human rights obligations
in Western Sahara, Human Rights Watch is not implying any position on the future
status of the territory. Whatever Western Sahara’s current or future status, its
residents are endowed with human rights that those who exercise de facto authority
are legally bound to respect. Any political arrangement that denies people the right
to speak, assemble and associate peacefully on a political issue central to their lives
constitutes an affront to human rights.

Morocco’s Autonomy Plan
In April 2007 Morocco presented to the UN a proposal for an autonomy plan for
Western Sahara, a plan that, Morocco claims will satisfy Sahrawi aspirations for self-
determination under continued Moroccan sovereignty. Under the proposal, Morocco
will devolve a measure of power from the central authority to locally elected bodies
and officials. Morocco has presented its autonomy plan as a basis for negotiations
with the Polisario Front.

However, Moroccan authorities have not to our knowledge indicated that their
autonomy plan envisions a change in the environment governing freedom of
expression on the Western Sahara issue. Persons may freely debate the modalities
of implementing the autonomy plan. But to propose any path, including a
referendum, that might lead to independence, will continue to be viewed as an
attack on Morocco’s “territorial integrity” (see letter from Moroccan government in
Appendix 2 of this report), incurring the risk of criminal penalties.
Human Rights in Western Sahara and Tindouf 4