A Brave Woman Pays the Price for a Misinterpreted Interview

The Huffington Post
16. November 2009
By Carne Ross - Independent diplomat and writer

Being US Secretary of State requires difficult choices and careful words.
There is a balance to be struck between maintaining relations but also
principle. Great harm can be done with a few words. One recent episode
illustrates the risks.

In my work on the Western Sahara (my non-profit group advises the
Polisario Front who represent the Saharawi people), I have met a very
brave and determined woman, Aminatou Haidar, the 42-year old Saharawi
human rights campaigner. What she told me about her abuse by the Moroccan
forces who occupy the Western Sahara, her country, chilled my blood.

I was shocked to learn that last week Aminatou was again arrested and
later expelled by Morocco. She has endured years of imprisonment and abuse
but has continued to speak up for the right of her people to
self-determination. Last month she was in the US to receive the Civil
Courage Award from the Train Foundation, and she was earlier awarded the
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. She was arrested on her return from
the US and is now separated from her children and exiled from her country.

The week before Haidar's arrest, Hillary Clinton visited Morocco. While
there, she gave an interview, unreported here in the US, praising
Morocco's human rights record and appearing to endorse the Bush
administration's policy to support Morocco's plan for the Western Sahara.
Morocco has been in illegal occupation of the Western Sahara since
invading it in 1975. If implemented, Morocco's plan would effectively
bring Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, a notion rejected
outright by the International Court of Justice and never accepted by the
US.

Ask Aminatou Haidar about Morocco's occupation and she will tell you that
it means continued repression and abuse of the Saharawi people, most of
whom were forcibly expelled from the territory in 1975 and have remained
in desert refugee camps ever since. This is not just Aminatou's view.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and even the State Department
itself have detailed Morocco's systematic abuse and denial of rights to
the Saharawi people.

After Secretary Clinton's interview, Morocco has gone on the offensive
against the Saharawis. Morocco's arrest and expulsion of Haidar, who is
the Saharawis' most prominent and celebrated activist, is clearly meant to
intimidate and silence all Saharawis. In addition to her arrest, Morocco
has decided to try for treason seven other Saharawi human rights
activists. Facing a military court, these six men and one woman now face
the death penalty for their "crime" of visiting their compatriots in the
refugee camps and demanding their legal right of self-determination.

I have no doubt that Hillary Clinton would not endorse this flagrant abuse
of human rights, on the contrary. The trouble is that it is equally clear
that Morocco has taken her words as an implicit permission to enact this
repression, even if she in no ways intended it so. Morocco maneuvers with
great skill, and it has clearly sensed a political opportunity to close
down Saharawi demands for self-determination once and for all. After the
Secretary of State's visit, the King of Morocco gave a speech
unprecedented in its hostility against the Saharawis, accusing them of
treachery.

So the US must now respond. It must demand the release of these brave
campaigners for their rights. Moreover, the US must address the root cause
of Morocco's abuses -- its occupation of someone else's country, the
Western Sahara. The UN envoy is a thoughtful and experienced US diplomat,
Christopher Ross. He can only resolve the long-standing dispute over the
Western Sahara with robust support from his own government in Washington.
This means pressure, at last, on Morocco, to allow a meaningful process of
self-determination.

If this is done, it may be that a misinterpreted interview may trigger --
at last -- the long overdue liberation of an oppressed people. Aminatou
Haidar would consider her arrest and long years of suffering a price well
worth paying for this result.


Carne Ross is a former diplomat. The non-profit advisory group he heads,
Independent Diplomat, amongst others advises the Polisario Front, the
representatives of the Saharawi people.


Forwarded by:

Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara

*** Referendum now! ***

www.sahara-update.org
www.vest-sahara.no

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