Morocco expels French human rights activists May 15, 2008
Posted by ivanildafigueiredo in News.trackback
Eventhough Morocco doesn’t have any sovereignty over the Western Sahara region; it continues to take measures to maintain its influence in the area. The human rights activists’ case is an example of how this has been occurring.
Under the allegation of attempting to help the separatist Western Sahara, four French human rights activists were expelled from Morocco.
The activists were arrested south of Morocco in the town of Tan-Tan, and transferred to Agadir, where they were placed on a plane to Paris.
The Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony south of Morocco, which was annexed by neighbouring kingdom in 1975, triggering a war against the Polisario Front (independence) until 1991, when the UN held a truce.
No country recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara, but Morocco has strong allies.
As happened in the case of people living with HIV, which I put before, the countries taken arbitrary decisions, but they justify the actions with the argument of they are not obliged to accept in their territories (or in dominated territories) people who they don’t like. And nothing can be done…
Yeah, but 37 countries have withdrawn or suspended their recognition of Western Sahara as a country. Hmm, what does that say?
The Sahawari people are a part of Morocco. The fight over Western Sahara didn’t happen because a bunch of Saharawis wanted it; it happened because of the Spanish and Algerians.
I hope something can be done! If Americans and French put pressure on their governments to in turn put pressure on Morocco, things could change. I hope this incident with the French human rights activist can create that situation in France.
Wether the Western Sahara is part of Morocco or not, the expulsion of human rights activists should be ssen with caution. When a country starts expelling people out of their territory who were there to help, there’s something wrong.