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Brahim Noumria

Front Line platform 2005 participant on hunger strike

1 September 2005

A Sahrawi (Western Saharan) human rights defender, due to attend the bi-annual Front Line platform for human rights defenders in October, is unlikely to appear as he is on hunger strike in a Moroccan prison.

Ali Salem Tamek (31), a founding member of the Saharan branch of the human rights organization Forum for Truth and Justice, is being held without charge in Ait Meloul prison, Morocco.

Mr. Tamek was arrested on July 18th at D’el Ayoun airport after returning from Europe where he had been campaigning for Western Saharan independence from Morocco and raising awareness of human rights violations in the region. According to The Sahara Presse Service, Tamek, along with four other imprisoned Sahrawi human rights defenders, Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, El Hussein Lidri, Brahim Noumria and Laarbi Massoud, has been on hunger strike for three weeks.

Front Line is seriously concerned about the health of Ali Salem Talek and calls on the Moroccan authorities for his immediate and unconditional release

Human rights defenders defy repression in Western Sahara

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.  Read More

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