The participants at the meeting held on Sunday in Tipaza on the human rights situation in the occupied Sahrawi territories, particularly for prisoners, urged for a more active approach to be taken by intensifying political and media pressure on the international community and human rights organizations to secure their release. They also demanded that the Sahrawi people be granted the right to self-determination.
The participants of a meeting on the Sahrawi issue and human rights violations, organized by the General Union of Algerian Women on the occasion of the visit of Claude Mangin, the French activist and wife of Sahrawi political prisoner Naama Asfari, who has been imprisoned since October 2010, condemned the deliberate policy of the Moroccan government in preventing visits to political prisoners and accessing information about their conditions and prison circumstances. Claude Mangin had visited her husband only twice during his imprisonment.
The Ambassador of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to Algeria, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, reiterated the call for the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination by intensifying political and media pressure. He emphasized that “the coming period will witness an escalation in political and military action to push the Moroccan regime and the international community to respect the will of the people for freedom and liberation.”
He added that “thanks to the struggles and sacrifices of the Sahrawi people and freedom fighters around the world, such as the French human rights activist Claude Mangin Asfari, the Moroccan regime continues to delude itself with the illusion of international recognition of its alleged sovereignty over the occupied Sahrawi territories.” He emphasized that “its lies and conspiracies are daily revealed before the eyes of the world and international human rights organizations.”
He pointed out in this regard the scandals in which the Moroccan regime is involved, ranging from espionage to bribery within the European Parliament, buying the consciences of journalists and media professionals, drug trafficking, money laundering, and resorting to Zionists, while human rights continue to be violated on a daily basis in the occupied territories.
Claude Mangin, the French activist and wife of the political prisoner Naama Asfari, who has been prohibited from visiting her husband, condemned the miserable conditions of the prisoners inside the camps, which she considered “inhuman”. She emphasized that the policies of the Moroccan government are “stubborn” and “do not pay the slightest attention to human rights, and prevent the slightest means of communication between prisoners and their families.”
Mangin also questioned why the international community deals with Morocco with a “double standard logic” compared to other issues, as even international human rights organizations are prohibited from visiting Moroccan detention centers.
The French activist also reiterated her commitment to the just cause of Western Sahara and vowed to continue raising the voice of the Sahrawi people who are imprisoned in the occupied territories, in their quest for independence. She also pledged to continue shedding light on the harsh conditions endured by political prisoners inside Moroccan prisons, particularly those in the Akdim Izik group who have been detained for years without trial.
