Denied departure from Morocco

Last year’s Rafto Prize laureate Sidi Mohammed Daddach is once again in
trouble with Moroccan authorities. On Thursday he and his companions were
denied the right to leave the country.

Bergens Tidende (www.bt.no)

LARS HOLGER URSIN

29 March 2003

(Original article in Norwegian, translated by Sahara Update)

- They had checked in their luggage and all of them had valid visas and
tickets. But as they were getting ready to board the plane agents of the
Interior secret service DST arrived and ordered their removal. They
confiscated all travel documents without any explanation or lagal reference
for what they were doing, says Coordinator of the Norwegian Support Committee
for Western Sahara, Ronny Hansen. He has been in constant contact with the
group travelling together with Daddach.

- They were then threatened with violence if they showed up at the airport
again, says Hansen.

Daddach and the group of 13 people from occupied Western Sahara were on their
way to a meeting at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

- This is in sharp contrast to what the [Moroccan] embassy councillor wrote in
March, maintains Chairman Arne Liljedahl Lynngård. In a letter to the editor
of Bergens Tidende on 15 March this year, embassy councillor Abdelhakim El
Amrani commented on the assertion that Daddach had trouble getting a
permission to leave [Morocco] on his way to receive the Rafto Prize last year:

«We must clarify that Daddach’s trip to Bergen never was a problem. That is
not special treatment for a Moroccan citizen with full freedom to travel, the
same goes for all Moroccans who enjoy full freedom of movement.” Embassy
councillor El Amrani did not have the opportunity to comment on the issue last
evening.

The Rafto Foundation are now working hard to get the Norwegian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to protest.

- Daddach had been trying to get a permission to travel for a year before he
received the Rafto Prize last autumn. It was only when diplomatic pressure
from Norway was exerted that he was allowed to travel, explains Lynngård.

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http://www.bt.no/lokalt/bergen/article147964
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Forwarded by:
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Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsahara@...

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