Thursday, June 28, 2007

The CODESA Secretariat
El Ayun, Western Sahara,
June 25th, 2007.

The Arrest of minor children and young Sahrawis in El Ayun, Western Sahara:
The Moroccan authorities in El Ayun, Western Sahara are imposing a strict police control on different districts, streets and educational institutions that are hosting the end-of-year examinations. This has negatively affected the students who take their exams in difficult stressful conditions.The Sahrawi minors and teenagers have been suffering greatly from the Moroccan police interventions at schools, their arrest and torture in different places, especially in the police vans. Some of these students were deprived of taking their exams. The case of Mohamed Boutabbaa, 17 years old is a good example. Boutabaa was arrested, spent five days being interrogated at the judicial police center, and then put in the Black Jail in El Ayun, Western Sahara. The reason was his participation in pro-independence demonstrations.Salah Eddine Achraf, 14 years old, and Ahmad Chtouqui, 11 years old, were also arrested by some judicial police agents. They were interrogated for a period ranging from 04 to 08 hours. They allege that they were subject to beating and inhuman treatment.The Sahrawi young citizen, Ali Tawbbali, 20 years old, was arrested on June 14th, 2007. He spent 24 hours in the judicial police center in El Ayun, where he was severely beaten on all his body´s parts. This resulted in injuries on his back, knees, ears and eyes.The CODESA notices with great concern the increase of political detention among the Sahrawi minors and young people, especially these two late months. It also remarks the Moroccan authorities´ pressure on these children and their families not to unveil these violations. They warn them not to write complaints or contact the human rights associations or publish their pictures of torture on newspapers and the web.
shame on morocco, you can visit western sahara in south of morocco to see by your own eyes the real situation of sahraouis people under moroccan occupation and the strong police control there. and believe me: you will see more taht what you did hear befor so that you'll underestand the big moroccan show

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