HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD FOR JAILED SAHRAWI ACTIVIST

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Saturday March 13 2010

WESTERN Saharan prisoner of conscience Ali Salem Tamek has won a new human rights award, local campaigners announced on Saturday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

The Assembly for Tenerife (AXT), a coalition of residents', environmental and left-wing groups, said that its inaugural José Manuel Méndez memorial prize for the defence of life, human rights and social justice would go to the imprisoned activist.

AXT spokesman Ramón Afonso (pictured, centre) said that Mr Tamek was the only person nominated for the prize.

The award is in honour of veteran local campaigner, communist and trade unionist José Manuel Méndez, who died in December 2006.

Mr Afonso quoted Mr Méndez' favourite saying: “The defeated are invincible,” by which he meant that though one may not achieve one's goals, they have no choice but to continue the struggle against oppression and exploitation.

Mr Méndez was a member of the Communist Youth Union and the CCOO trade union federation in the 1960s and 70s, when those organisations were banned by the fascist dictatorship of general Francisco Franco.

The Tenerife - based Association for Friendship with the Sahrawi People attended the press conference.

Mr Tamek is one of seven Sahrawi independence campaigners held in the Moroccan capital Rabat's Salé prison since October last year.

The group of six men and one woman were arrested at Casablanca airport following a visit to the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, where much of the desert nation's population have lived for decades.

Mr Tamek had previously been jailed for his political activities in 2003 and 2005 and was declared “public enemy number one” by the Moroccan state.

He claims to have been tortured in custody and his wife Aicha Chafia was raped by five men while visiting him in prison in 2005. Amnesty International considers Mr Tamek to be a prisoner of conscience.

He is a co-founder of the Coalition of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA) along with Aminatou Haidar.

Ms Haidar spent a month on hunger strike at Lanzarote airport in November and December 2009, after being denied entry to her home country and having her passport confiscated on return from collecting another human rights award in the US.

Mr Afonso said that the AXT would present the award to Ms Haidar on Mr Tamek's behalf when she was able to visit the Canaries.

Western Sahara, which lies about 100 miles east of the Canary Islands, was annexed by the kingdom of Morocco in 1975 after the withdrawal of former colonial occupier Spain.

The POLISARIO Front national liberation movement fought the Moroccan armed forces until 1991, when a ceasefire was negotiated by the US based on the promise of a referendum on independence.

The referendum was never held, and in recent years Morocco has proposed granting the Western Sahara limited regional autonomy instead.

US secretary of state Hilary Clinton visited Morocco for talks with the government during Ms Haidar's exile and hunger strike, a move which the Moroccan media hailed as a sign of US support for its autonomy plan.

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