11 May 2006

In spite of the release of human rights defenders and others from detention in March and April, the Moroccan authorities continue to try to repress any independent human rights work in Western Sahara. Human rights organizations are denied legal registration and human rights defenders are subjected to heavy surveillance, threats and harassment.

“The Moroccan authorities must move to ensure that human rights defenders are free to undertake their legitimate work in conformity with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,” said Front Line Deputy Director, Andrew Anderson, at the end of a Front Line mission to Western Sahara. “The international community must also play a much stronger role in ensuring that independent civil society can operate freely as a prerequisite for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

Front Line met with human rights defenders operating under constant heavy surveillance in Laayoune and Smara. Security agents surrounded private houses in which meetings were being held and people coming to meet with Front Line had their ID cards checked.

Front Line also met with the Moroccan Ministry of Justice in Rabat and with the Procureur du Royaume in Laayoune to discuss the investigation into the complaint of torture lodged by Houssein Lidri and Brahim Noumria. The two human rights defenders state that shortly after their detention on 20 July 2005 they were taken from a police station, bound and blindfolded, to an illegal detention centre at the headquarters of the Companie Mobile d’Intervention (CMI) where they were systematically tortured for two days. They state that they had their arms and legs tied together behind them and were then suspended from the ceiling, in which position they were beaten and burned: a torture method known as the “aeroplane”. An official medical report denies evidence of torture but other detainees and the lawyer for the human rights defenders state that they were in a terrible physical condition and showed obvious signs of torture when they were brought before the Procureur on the 22 and 23 of July. The Procureur informed Front Line that he would pursue the investigation of the complaint and would convene an interview with Houssein Lidri and Brahim Noumria.

Front Line also heard testimony from human rights defenders who had been beaten by the police, threatened and harassed, denied the right to travel and prevented from meeting with victims and from undertaking their work. Human rights defenders who were employed as civil servants or teachers were reportedly forcibly transferred to posts hundreds of miles away in Morocco.