Cairo September 19, 2012

ANHRI condemns the police officers assault on female activists. As some stragglers organized a peaceful demonstration in “EL- Aioun” in the Morocco desert, in which they called for the self-determination right.

The police forces assaulted several Sahraa female activists during the demonstration that took place on Saturday August 25, 2012 in the street of “Ddsh” of “Mo’ti-Allah neigbourhood” near to “Fran Monolow” in the region of “El-Aioun”. They have chanted a lot of the patriot slogans calling for the right of the self-determination to the Sahraa people.

The police forces assaulted the demonstration to prevent the delegation of the international human rights organizations (members of the international rights’ delegate, which led by the Ms. Kerry Kennedy, the Head of Robert ،Kennedy Center for Justice and Human rights of El-Aion city, which included also representative from the World Organization against Torture,the Font Line, Saramago Foundation and a U.S. judge specialized in the field of human rights.

- Skina Gad Ahlow: the Head of the Forum for the Future of the Sahraa woman; former victim of forced disappearance and the female sahraa struggler, neck and back injury;

Teslm El-Dawadi: the female sahraa struggler, back injury;

- Fatma Zarkow: the female sahraa struggler, member of the Forum for the Future of the Sahraa woman and member of the Sahraa society for protecting and publishing the Sahraa heritage; back injury;

Ali Sadoni, Male struggler, member of Moroccan citizenship withdrawn group, eye injury and strike on the head which made him unconscious; and

Embarakah Aliana Aba Ali, member of the Forum for the Future of the Sahraa woman, thigh, face, nose, eye and back injuries.

In addition they have threaten several human rights activists who monitored the events closely and there was an attack on the human rights delegation. As a police officer attacked the daughter of Kiri Kennedy for taking pictures of the assault.

ANHRI said that “the assault on peaceful demonstration and the injuring its activists deemed to be a severe violations against the freedom of expression and opinion. It also said that the suppression is the only method that the Moroccan authorities recognize to address the peaceful demonstrations, using the same failure security solutions of using the excessive violence ,hurting them physically, arresting the demonstrators, prosecuting the activists and rights’ advocates with false charges in order to infanticide the popular movement in the country. Such movement is clear in the Moroccan Sahraa which witnessing wide protest calling for the self-determination right”.

ANHRI calls for the necessity to the rule of law and conduct an immediate investigation in these assaults, holding the responsible into account and bring them to justice.