The Association of the Sahrawi Community in Lanzarote (Cosal) has requested the immediate and unconditional release of Sahrawi human rights activists Ali Salem Tamek and Aminatu Haidar. The first was arrested last Monday when he traveled from Las Palmas to the occupied city of El Aaiún. At the airport, the Moroccan judicial police were waiting for him and transferred him to the Black Prison of the occupied city.
A few days earlier, Aminato Haidar was arrested, known for her long struggle in favor of the independence of Western Sahara, and who was arrested after leaving the Hassan Ben Mehdi hospital where she went to have some wounds treated that the police had caused her a few hours earlier when she was trying to organize a demonstration in El Aaiún.
The president of Cosal, Said Yiba, explained that they are waiting for news about what will happen to the two activists. However, he remarked that Moroccans usually hold closed-door military trials "and the accused do not even have lawyers."
Given the situation, the members of Cosal also request the release of all detainees who are now in Moroccan penitentiary centers for the simple act of demonstrating and asking for self-determination for the Sahrawi people.
Other requests
While the crisis situation continues in Western Sahara, Sahrawi associations request the immediate intervention of the Government of Spain "and in particular the Government of the Canary Islands" as well as international forces to end this situation. In this sense, Said Yiba stressed that Morocco carries out a "political makeup" with campaigns such as sending delegations made up of ministers, deputies and intellectuals to countries in Latin America and Central America to explain the country's position in the Western Sahara conflict.
From Cosal they do not understand why the different authorities remain silent in the face of a conflict in which many people are being imprisoned without justified cause. For the Sahrawis, the reason why international forces do not intervene in the face of the serious situation is that Morocco "has bought their silence." However, associations such as Cosal insist that the problem is real, so they continue to demand help from countries such as Spain because it abandoned the area in the 1970s or autonomies such as the Canary Islands due to its geographical proximity.
