A Voice for the Voiceless

7. November 2008
By Congressman Joe Pitts

A "ghost, a living dead, a young woman back from a kind of hell that bears
no name."

These are the words of Aminatou Haidar, a human rights activist from
Western Sahara, upon her release in 1991 from captivity by Moroccan
security officials. Ms. Haidar hails from Western Sahara, a coastal
nation just south of Morocco. The people of Western Sahara, the Sahrawi,
are a traditionally nomadic people who were for centuries self-sufficient
and content. But today 180,000 Sahrawis survive on donated food in
refugee camps which dot the scorched dunes of western Algeria.

Western Sahara was a Spanish colony until Spain withdrew in 1975, but
Sahrawi hopes for independence were dashed when Morocco promptly invaded.
The UN's International Court of Justice ruled in October 1975 that
Morocco's claim to Western Sahara was illegitimate. The Sahrawis have been
fighting for liberation ever since. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
(the government in exile) is recognized by the Organization of African
Unity and by 75 individual nations as the legitimate government of Western
Sahara.

A 1991 UN-brokered cease-fire agreement promised a referendum for national
self-determination, but Morocco has spent the succeeding decade doing
everything in its power to prevent the referendum from actually taking
place. While the Sahrawis languish in exile, their leaders weigh
continued patience against going back to war to regain their homeland.

Aminatou Haidar has dedicated her life to fighting the injustices and
grave human rights violations perpetrated against the Sahrawi people. In
the early 1980's, after having lived through the atrocities committed by
the invading Moroccan forces in her youth, Ms. Haidar joined a non-violent
resistance against the colonizers.

In 1987, when she was 21 years old, she was one of 700 peaceful protestors
arrested for participating in a rally in support of a referendum for
self-determination. Seventeen women, including Ms. Haidar, were among
more than 70 who were "disappeared". She was subjected to the worst kinds
of torture, including electrical shocks all over her body. At other
times, she was detained in cramped spaces where she was forced to stand
most of the time.

She was completely isolated from the outside world throughout her
detention. Her health has been permanently damaged by these five years of
torture and abuse suffered at the hands of the Moroccan police.

Since her release in early 2006, Aminatou Haidar has tirelessly led an
international awareness campaign to make known the human rights violations
perpetrated daily against the Sahrawi people by the Moroccan State in the
occupied territories of Western Sahara.

I have been to the desert refugee camps where the Sahrawi people sit
wasting away as the world turns a blind eye toward their condition. They
live and die in camps just across the Algerian border, unable to go home
to the land that was taken from them.

The greatest human rights challenges of our day are represented by
situations like that of Western Sahara. Many people have never heard of
the Sahrawi. There are no Hollywood celebrities that have taken up the
cause of the Sahrawi people. It is these forgotten people that need the
strongest and most dedicated human rights campaigners. Aminatou Haidar
embodies the strength of the human spirit and the enduring desire for
freedom. Without the efforts of people like Ms. Haidar, the most
egregious human rights violations might go quietly unnoticed in the
forgotten corners of the world.

On November 12, Ms. Haidar will be recognized for her tireless efforts
when she is presented with the 2008 R.F.K. Human Rights Award in a
ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. The Robert F. Kennedy Center
for Justice & Human Rights was established in 1984 to support courageous
individuals from around the world who have dedicated their lives to
confront severe human rights violations.

I am pleased that we will take an evening to recognize the life and work
of Ms. Haidar because she has given a voice to the voiceless, and no one
is in greater need of this than the Sahrawi people.



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Forwarded by:

Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara

*** Referendum now! ***

www.vest-sahara.no

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
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