Morocco: the Rogue State of Africa’s Most Reviled Pseudo-king

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

[ Posted On: 2009-01-09 ]

In seven previous articles, entitled ‘Occupied Western Sahara - Human Rights Violations Perpetrated by the Moroccan Regime’, ‘HRW Recommendations to the Moroccan Tyranny to Prevent Human Rights Violations in Western Sahara’, ‘UN – US to Terminate the Shameful Moroccan Tyranny over Western Sahara’, ‘Freedom for the Sahrawi Nation – Put an End to the Illegal Moroccan Occupation of Western Sahara’, ‘US, EU, French Involvement in Western Sahara: Tolerating the Moroccan Tyranny’s Evildoings’, ‘The Ugly Face of the Moroccan Tyranny Unveiled by the HRW Report on Western Sahara’ and ‘The Inhuman Character of the Moroccan Tyranny Denounced in HRW Report on Western Sahara’, I republished the first parts (List of Contents, Summary, Recommendations, Methodology, the Legal Framework Applied in this Report, Background to the Western Sahara Conflict, and Key Third Parties: The United States, France, and the European Union) and two units from the main part (namely the ‘Human Rights in Western Sahara’) of a HRW Report on Western Sahara.

The Report (“Human Rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps” - http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/12/19/human-rights-western-sahara-and-tindouf-refugee-camps-0) was released on December 19, 2008. In the present article, I republish the third unit of the main part (namely the ‘Human Rights in Western Sahara’) of the comprehensive (216-page) HRW Report, In forthcoming articles, I will complete the republication of the Report.

Human Rights in Western Sahara (Part III)
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/77259/section/9

Freedom of Assembly

December 10 is international human rights day. It is the anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

On December 10, 2006, in downtown El-Ayoun, police violently dispersed a small gathering organized by local human rights organizations before the event could even begin. This incident entailed violations of the rights of association and of assembly and the use of excessive force by the police. Moreover, the perfunctory dismissal by authorities of complaints regarding police conduct that day suggests that the police can use excessive force with impunity when breaking up nonviolent demonstrations by persons labeled as "pro-separatist."

Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:

The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Morocco's Law on Public Gatherings does not require prior authorization to hold a demonstration in a public space.[164] Organizers must simply notify authorities of the planned event at least three days in advance. Authorities may forbid the demonstration by notifying the organizers, in writing, that they deem it "likely to disturb the public order," according to Article 13 of the law. The law qualifies the right in another important fashion: According to Article 11, the only entities allowed to organize public demonstrations are legally recognized political parties, trade unions, and professional associations. The law forbids "armed gatherings"[165] and "unarmed gatherings capable of threatening public security" and empowers the public authorities to disperse them.
Moroccan authorities use the wide discretion that the law affords them to forbid and to disperse political demonstrations as "likely to disturb the public order." The governor of El-Ayoun-Boujdour, M'hamed Drif, made clear to Human Rights Watch that the authorities systematically refuse to authorize demonstrations if they suspect the organizers of belonging to the independence camp.

The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations (ASVDH) had attempted to follow the legal procedures for holding its December 10, 2006 demonstration, the organization's vice-president, el-Ghalia Djimi, told Human Rights Watch.[166] On December 7, ASVDH President Brahim Dahhane went to the office of the local administration (the bachaouia) to submit a written notification of the sit-in, indicating the sponsor (the ASVDH), motive (to commemorate International Human Rights Day), location (Place Decheira, in front of the Hotel Nakjir downtown), and time (5pm to 6pm on December 10). When the bachaouia refused to accept the notification in person, Dahhane sent it by express post and requested a return receipt, according to Djimi.
The Law on Public Gatherings states that after organizers of demonstrations on public thoroughfares have duly notified local authorities, they can proceed with their event unless local authorities forbid it in writing.[167] Between December 7 and December 10, no official contacted the ASVDH to inform them that they could not hold the gathering, Djimi said.

While the wali of El-Ayoun later argued (see below) that the ASVDH lacked legal status and was therefore not legally entitled to organize a legal demonstration, one could argue plausibly that it did have legal status. Three months before the planned demonstration, an Agadir court had ruled that the bachaouia had abused its authority in refusing to accept the ASVDH's founding papers (see below,section entitled Freedom of Association for Human Rights Organizations).

On December 10 at about 5pm about sixty members and supporters of the ASVDH and other local human rights organizations began to gather at the assigned place. Three would-be participants, el-Ghalia Djimi, Mohamed Boutabâa, and Mohamed Salih Dailal,said in separate interviews with Human Rights Watch that when they arrived, a large number of police, many of them in plainclothes, had already surrounded the square. Police Chief Ichi abou el-Hassan was on the scene directing the operations, according to both Dailal and Djimi; the provincial security chief (the "security wali") was also present.
According to all three participants, the police charged the demonstrators as they were arriving and beat them with clubs in order to disperse them. Dailal described the scene:

Security forces surrounded the square. A rapid-reaction force came, as well as a unit led by Ichi abou el-Hassan. We were from various Sahrawi rights and political groups. They attacked us with batons, bruising our arms and legs, and chased us out of the square. They chased me personally as far as my house in their car.[168]

According to Boutabâa,

People arrived in twos and threes beginning at 3pm. The plan was for every committee, the one for the "disappeared," one for the students, and so on, to give a speech about what had happened to them. But the police was already on the scene, and before anyone could begin speaking, they attacked.[169]

Djimi said the police pounced on the demonstrators without first orally ordering them to disperse, as required by the Law on Public Gatherings,[170] and confiscated her megaphone. In a written complaint she submitted to the prosecutor, she stated that police chief Ichi abou el-Hassan shoved her, insulted her, spat in her face, kicked her onto the ground, and hit her with a police baton.[171] Brahim Dahhane and Sidi Mohamed Hamia also submitted written complaints to the office of the prosecutor concerning the beatings they said the police administered to those who had sought to begin the demonstration.[172]

Ech-Cherif el-Kouri, of El-Ayoun, brother of the activist Aminatou Haidar, filed a complaint stating that police intercepted him as he was driving to the demonstration, put him in their car and beat him as they drove to the police station. At the station, they took him to the office of officer Aziz Annouche, shackled him, pulled down his pants, threatened him with rape, and beat him further. The police held him until 11pm, he said. At one point, police chief Ichi abou el-Hassan was present and threatened to do to his family the same things the police were doing to him, el-Kouri's complaint stated.[173]

The authorities said that the police dispersed the December 10 demonstration because it was "illegal," but denied that the police behaved abusively toward anyone. Responding to an inquiry by Human Rights Watch about the complaints filed by Djimi and Hamia, authorities provided identical responses to both:

The judicial inquiry into this subject determined that it concerns an unauthorized sit-in that could constitute a threat to public order and security because its organizers are known to the security agencies as provocateurs who aim to cause disturbances and sew public disorder. For this reason, security forces intervened in a responsible and disciplined manner, causing all of the protestors to disperse in different directions. The complaint is baseless and aims at impeding the police from confronting those who seek to disrupt public order.[174]

Djimi told Human Rights Watch that, contrary to what the authorities said, they never informed her of the decision taken on her complaint; in fact, she said, the authorities never contacted her about her complaint in any way since she submitted it.[175]

The official response to el-Kouri's complaint was equally dismissive. Although the prosecutor's office had stamped his complaint as received, authorities informed Human Rights Watch:

After looking into this matter and examining the records of the public prosecutor, it was determined that … the name of the plaintiff was present nowhere and that he had presented no complaint to the judicial authorities on this matter. For this reason, the public prosecutor decided to close the file for lack of evidence …. The aim of the complaint is to confuse and impede the activity of the judicial police. The concerned party has been notified of the decision.[176]

Reached by telephone on July 23, 2008, El-Kouri said that authorities neither contacted him to follow up on his complaint nor informed him of the outcome of any investigation.

The five participants in the demonstration cited here provide a consistent account of how security forces dispersed a peaceful gathering using force that was both excessive and premature, in violation of the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.[177]

M'hamed Drif, the governor of El-Ayoun-Boujdour, gave several reasons for refusing demonstrations like the one described above:

Here in El-Ayoun, it's exactly the same as in the rest of Morocco. My responsibility is to apply the law, and I apply it here as I did when I was the wali of Fez and of Casablanca.

When it is pro-separatists who want to organize a demonstration in relation to human rights, there is no problem. But when they want to organize a demonstration that is pro-Polisario, I say "No," just as we wouldn't allow a pro-Polisario demonstration in Fez or Casablanca. We are responsible for applying the law, and my first responsibility is to defend the territorial integrity of Morocco.

Governor Drif made clear why authorities routinely refuse to permit such events:

The ASVDH asked for permission to hold a demonstration. But they have no legal status, so who would be responsible for what happens? Basically, there are three reasons why demonstrations are broken up: when we know they [demonstrators] are directed and financed by the Polisario, when the demonstration is not legally authorized, and when there is a risk of violence.

Governor Drif claimed that authorities would permit "pro-separatists" to hold a demonstration if it were limited strictly to human rights issues. This claim seems disingenuous. First, only recognized associations are entitled to submit the legal notification necessary for an upcoming demonstration, and authorities have legalized no organizations, including human rights organizations, suspected of being run by persons with a "pro-separatist" agenda. The governor said:

For CODESA and the ASVDH, the problem is that their founding statutes do not respect the Constitution of Morocco. Their work must be within the framework of the Constitution. If they present an application for legal recognition that conforms to the law, like the AMDH or the OMDH did, then they will be approved. They must first of all renounce the Polisario line.

The authorities have wide discretion and use it to ban demonstrations whenever they suspect the organizers of favoring Sahrawi independence. They do so by labeling organizations and gatherings as "pro-Polisario," by denying associations the legal status they need in order to submit the legal notification of public gatherings, and by determining that demonstrations "threaten the public order." Activists still stage impromptu "illegal" demonstrations but on a small scale and infrequently.

Occasional Protester Violence Cannot Justify Broad Bans on the Right of Assembly.

Moroccan authorities accuse Sahrawi political activists of inciting or condoning violence as part of the public protests they organize, in order to provoke a response by the police that will keep tensions high locally and prompt censure of Morocco internationally. The authorities invoke the risk of violence as a justification to prevent or break up demonstrations. Governor Drif said, "When there are demonstrations [that] can have consequences on persons and property, police must do their job …. When the demonstrations are violent, the police find themselves required to use force."[178]

Most pro-independence and human rights demonstrations in Western Sahara are peaceful, Human Rights Watch concluded from interviews with numerous residents of El-Ayoun. However, participants in some political protests, or persons on their periphery, deliberately obstruct public thoroughfares, throw rocks at the police, and in rare instances, throw homemade incendiary devices fashioned from cans, bags, and bottles (Molotov cocktails). "Sometimes protests start peacefully and then degenerate," said Rachid Bouhbehane, an ordinary policeman in El-Ayoun. "You have within a peaceful protest people who try to provoke by throwing stones. It degenerates because of a minority who try to provoke."[179] There are also, on occasion, politically motivated acts of violence that persons perpetrate outside the context of demonstrations, targeting police and sometimes civilians.

Such violence has injured both law enforcement officers and civilians. In the context of a Sahrawi demonstration held on February 26, 2008 in the southern Moroccan city of Tantan, policeman Abderrahmane Meski was fatally struck on the head by a stone.

Human Rights Watch interviewed several police and civilian victims of violence in El-Ayoun. It was not possible for Human Rights Watch to confirm the identity of the perpetrators or to know their political motivations, if any. Some incidents resulted in the trial and conviction of Sahrawi youths for throwing stones or incendiary projectiles. But the unfair nature of the trials makes it difficult to reach conclusions about the defendants' individual guilt or innocence. In most cases, at trial, the accused claimed that they had committed no violent acts and were being prosecuted because of their political sympathies alone.

Hafidha er-Raddad was in her hair salon in the Haï et-Taâwoun neighborhood in El-Ayoun with four clients on June 14, 2006, when someone threw a Molotov cocktail inside. Er-Raddad, who is thirty, divorced, and without children, recalled:

There were four hooded persons in the street. They tossed the bottle into my salon, shut the door and started running. The salon and the equipment, the carpet, and my diploma were all burned.

I have no idea why they hit my salon. I am Moroccan and have lived in the Sahara for ten years. I never had any problems with Sahrawis. I never heard about any racial incidents. There was nothing going on at the time in the street.

One of the attackers lost his hood. The police came and made a report.

I don't know the culprits, but neighbors said they are youths who live nearby and who are connected to politics. They did this kind of thing elsewhere. Three of them were arrested; the fourth escaped to Spain.[180]

The three men convicted for this attack were El-Hafez Toubali, Mohamed Lehbib Gasmi, and Ahmed Salem Ahmeidat. The El-Ayoun Court of First Instance on March 7, 2007 sentenced them each to three years in prison for participating in "a criminal enterprise" and setting fire to a building. On March 22, 2007, an appeals court upheld their sentences.

According to Amnesty International, their "conviction was based on written statements by police officers in which they said that the defendants had confessed their guilt. When the three men later appeared before an examining magistrate, they denied the charges and said that security personnel had forced them to sign the statements after subjecting them to beatings."[181] On October 8, 2007, when they appeared in court to face charges of contempt of court, they entered chanting slogans in favor of Sahrawi self-determination and the Polisario Front, according to Amnesty International.[182]

Er-Raddad said she spent six months in the hospital because of her burns. She has since reopened her shop but has not regained her clientele.

Human Rights Watch also interviewed police major Mohamed Lakraâ, who said that on May 17, 2006 a group of persons on Qods Street in the Maâtallah neighborhood of El-Ayoun attacked him and his partner with rocks and Molotov cocktails. Lakraâ, who was born in 1969, said a bottle struck him on the head, causing him to faint and leaving a visible scar above his left eye. Lakraâ said the assailants fled into the alleys. He described them as "a group of about ten, who looked to be about 18 to 20 years old, all wearing masks. They seemed to be from the area, since they knew which way to run. They were shouting slogans when they surprised us, things like "La badil, la badil 'an taqrir al-masir" [Self-determination is the only option].[183]

Law enforcement authorities have the right and responsibility to prevent and punish violent acts committed against persons and property, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators. However, the authorities must not use these incidents of violence as a pretext to impose sweeping restrictions on the right of people to gather in public or to protest peacefully. Yet that is what they have done repeatedly, forbidding demonstrations by Sahrawi activists or sending police to disperse them with force, even when the gatherings were peaceful and orderly.

Freedom of Association for Human Rights Organizations

Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those which are prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."

Morocco's constitution recognizes freedom of association in Article 9.[184] But its Law on Associations, while liberal in some aspects, violates international standards in other aspects. Notably, Article 3 prohibits associations that have "an objective that is illegal, contrary to good morals or that aims to undermine the Islamic religion, the integrity of national territory, or the monarchical regime, or that calls for discrimination."[185] These criteria are used to prohibit associations with certain political agendas, including advocacy of Sahrawi self-determination.

Individuals need no prior authorization to start an association, but they must formally declare its creation to the local authorities. They must furnish specific information about the association's address and office-holders. The law imposes penalties on persons who conduct activities on behalf of an association that has not complied with these procedures.

When an association submits its founding papers, the local authorities – who are part of the Ministry of Interior – must provide a provisional receipt attesting to their having received the papers. The authorities must provide a definitive receipt within 60 days; if they do not, the association may lawfully conduct activities in conformity with its statutes. If, during the 60-day period, the authorities oppose its legalization, they must provide reasons. The association can then appeal the refusal in administrative court by arguing that the authorities exceeded their legal authority.

Once an association has legal recognition, only a court can order its dissolution, pursuant to a 2002 reform to the Law on Associations. The law enumerates various grounds for dissolution, notably in Articles 3, 7, and 36, and imposes fines and prison terms on persons who continue to act on behalf of an association after it loses legal status.

As the cases below illustrate, the law is problematic not only because of its restrictive clauses, as delineated above, but also because of the way that Moroccan authorities apply, and sometimes, flout it.

Authorities point out that in the Sahara region there are hundreds of nongovernmental organizations[186] and that the Advisory Council on Human Rights, a national institution created by the monarchy in 1990 to protect and protect human rights in Morocco, opened its first local administrative office in El-Ayoun.[187] The Royal Advisory Council for Sahara Affairs (the CORCAS), created by King Mohamed VI in 2006, has a "Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Public Liberties and Camps' Populations."[188]

This report will limit itself to examining the harassment of Sahrawi human rights organizations based in Western Sahara. Despite the proliferation of other types of associations, authorities have not allowed the free operation of a single, regionally based human rights organization that actively exposes human rights violations committed by Moroccan authorities. They dissolved the Sahara branch of the Forum for Truth and Justice, refused to grant legal recognition to the ASVDH and CODESA, and impede the work of the local branch of the legally recognized Moroccan Association for Human Rights, through administrative maneuvers and multiple arrests of its president.

Aside from a small Marxist political party called the Democratic Way (en-Nahj ed-Dimuqrati),[189] Moroccan authorities have not to our knowledge recognized any associations or political parties that publicly support full Sahrawi self-determination.

The repression stems partly from clashing concepts of human rights. The conception embraced by Sahrawi human rights activists centers on the right of Sahrawis to self-determination, to be expressed via a referendum that includes the option of independence. In fact, many assert that it is from Morocco's denial of this right that most other human rights violations emanate. To Moroccan authorities, this conception is not only a politicized notion of human rights, but it also violates Moroccan laws against "undermining territorial integrity."

The ASVDH and CODESA continue to operate, but the denial to them of legal registration and a range of other repressive measures hamper their work. There are also many smaller human rights committees in Western Sahara that monitor conditions in the cities of Smara and Dakhla, or that focus on themes such as "disappeared" persons. These committees also exist in a kind of limbo because they lack legal recognition.

Human rights activists we interviewed reported that operating illegally impedes the growth of civil society in Western Sahara. Their organizations cannot hold meetings attended by large numbers of people and they live fear that at any moment their archives and documents will be confiscated in a police raid of their homes.

Forum for Truth and Justice – Sahara Section

The Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice was founded in 1999 as a national Moroccan human rights organization focused on advocating on behalf of victims of past abuses and their survivors, and on putting an end to impunity for human rights violations. The FMVJ registered a branch based in El-Ayoun, called FVJ–Sahara, some of whose leading members were well-known pro-independence Sahrawis.

FVJ–Sahara publicly denounced present-day human rights violations that they attributed to the Moroccan authorities, including when it briefed international visitors. On February 11, 2002, for example, FVJ–Sahara briefed a visiting delegation from the European parliament's ad hoc committee on Western Sahara.

In April 2003, the prosecutor petitioned the El-Ayoun Court of First Instance to order the legal dissolution of the FVJ-Sahara. The main evidence against FVJ-Sahara was a report by the judicial police of El-Ayoun alleging that the section's members used human rights as a cover to pursue both violent and diplomatic "separatist" activities. The police report lists, among other things, many meetings that the section had held with visiting foreign diplomats, journalists, and NGOs.[190]

The prosecutor's petition said the FVJ-Sahara should be closed for the following reasons:

Its "failure to respect the organization's statutes because it did not use the full name of the mother organization, the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice." To the prosecutor, this was one indication among many of the organization's separatist agenda.

Its pursuit of activities that "can disturb public order through encouraging some youths who feel desperation owing to the social situation to commit subversive and destructive crimes in various cities of the Sahara region."

Its encouragement "of holding demonstrations in public with youths bearing sticks, clubs, and knives."

Its pursuit of activities that can harm the territorial integrity of the Kingdom, such as by maintaining contacts with foreign parties in furtherance of that objective,… plotting with foreign bodies and organizations that are hostile to Morocco, in order to harm Morocco's diplomatic standing; formulating slogans that are hostile to territorial integrity; making flags of the phony Republic[191] and distributing them to the public, along with publications hostile to territorial integrity.

While the executive bureau of the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice in Rabat had reservations about how the Sahara section had been conducting itself, and had decided in early 2003 to suspend the section's activities, the executive bureau nevertheless opposed and publicly criticized the move by authorities to dissolve the section.[192]

On June 18, 2003, the El-Ayoun Court of First Instance ruled to dissolve the section. Immediately following the court's decision, and without waiting to see if the section would appeal the decision, the police proceeded to seal the section's rented office in El-Ayoun, according to Lahoussine Moutik, an El-Ayoun-based accountant who was president of the section. The closure prevented members from accessing their files and belongings.

Eventually, Moutik said, the prosecutor allowed the landlord, but not the association, to access the premises – again, without any judicial decision. The association was never able to recover the materials it had in the office when the police sealed it, Moutik said.[193]

On February 20, 2006 Moutik attempted to fulfill the procedures for obtaining legal recognition again of the association, this time under the name Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice–Sahara (Forum Marocain de Vérite et Justice, FMVJ). But when he attempted to submit the papers of declaration, local administration (bachaouia) refused to issue a receipt for them, Moutik said.[194]

This refusal to accept the FMVJ–Sahara's declaration papers puts the association in a kind of legal limbo. It cannot hire a hall for a public meeting in its own name because it lacks legal recognition. According to Moutik, FMVJ–Sahara's president, the membership can organize meetings in El-Ayoun only when the national FMVJ applies on its behalf.[195]

The section's predicament shows how Moroccan authorities disregard their own law that gives citizens the right to create associations upon filing a simple declaration, and that designates the judiciary as the sole authority empowered to deprive associations of legal status.

Notes

[164] Dhahir 1-58-377 of November 15, 1958 on Public Gatherings, http://www.sgg.gov.ma/rec_lib_pub_fr.pdf (accessed December 9, 2008), Article 2.

[165] Article 18 defines a gathering as armed either "when several individuals who are part of it carry visible or hidden weapons, explosive devices, or objects hazardous to public security [or] when one of these individuals who is visibly carrying a weapon or dangerous explosive device is not immediately expelled from the gathering by those who compose it."

[166] Email communication from el-Ghalia Djimi to Human Rights Watch, June 6, 2008.

[167] Dhahir 1-58-377 of November 15, 1958 on Public Gatherings, Section II, Demonstrations on Public Thoroughfares.

[168] Human Rights Watch interview with Mohamed Salih Dailal, El-Ayoun, November 4, 2007.

[169] Human Rights Watch interview with Mohamed Boutabâa, El-Ayoun, November 4, 2007.

[170] Amendments made in 2002 to Article 19 of the law require authorities to make three oral warnings to unlawful assemblies before using force to disperse them.

[171] Complaint dated December 11, 2006 and stamped as received the same day by the El-Ayoun Court of Appeals, with the file number stamped by the court as 06 ?? ? 122.

[172] Complaint by Saïdi Mohamed Hamia dated December 12, 2006 and stamped as received the same day by the El-Ayoun Court of Appeals, with the file number 06/123 ?? ?; complaint by Brahim Dahhane, dated December 13, 2006, stamped as received the same day and given the file number 123/06 ?? ?.

[173] Complaint dated December 11, 2006 and given file number 127/06 ?? ? of December 13, 2006.

[174] See Appendix 2.

[175] Email communication from Djimi, June 6, 2008.

[176] See Appendix 2.

[177] Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August to 7 September 1990, http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_comp43.htm (accessed September 17, 2008), articles 12-14.

[178] Human Rights Watch interview with M'hamed Drif, El-Ayoun, November 6, 2007.

[179] Human Rights Watch interview with Rachid Bouhbehane, El-Ayoun, November 6, 2007.

[180] Human Rights Watch interview with Hafidha er-Raddad, El-Ayoun, November 6, 2007.

[181] Amnesty International, "Morocco/Western Sahara: Sahrawi human rights defenders sentenced to year in prison," AI Index: MDE 29/004/2007, March 8, 2007, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE29/004/2007/en/dom-MDE290042007en.html (accessed October 15, 2008).

[182] Amnesty International, "Morocco/ Western Sahara: Sahrawi human rights defenders face yet another prison sentence," AI Index: MDE 29/011/2007, October 11, 2007, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE29/011/2007/en/dom-MDE290112007en.html (accessed October 15, 2008).

[183] Human Rights Watch interview with Mohamed Lakraâ, El-Ayoun, November 6, 2007.

[184] "Article 9: The constitution shall guarantee all citizens … freedom of association, and the freedom to belong to any union or political group of their choice. No limitation, except by law, shall be put to the exercise of such freedoms."The constitution is at http://www.justice.gov.ma/an/legislation/legislation.aspx?ty=1&id_l= (accessed September 17, 2008).

[185] Article 3 of the Law on Associations, http://www.cabinetbassamat.com/fileadmin/Codes%20et%20lois/Droits%20de%20l’homme%20et%20libertés%20publiques/droitdassociation.pdf (accessed November 14, 2008).

[186] For example, the government wrote to Human Rights Watch, "Associations and unions are established with full freedom, without any restrictions on this right except those provided for by law….In this regard, it is worth pointing out the large number of associations formed in the various southern districts." See Appendix 2.

[187] http://www.ccdh.org.ma/spip.php?article282&var_recherche=La%C3%A2youne (accessed December 1, 2008).

[188]http://www.corcas.com/SearchResults/Committees/tabid/506/Default.aspx (accessed December 1, 2008).

[189] The party's website is http://www.annahjaddimocrati.org (accessed October 10, 2008). It boycotted the September 2007 legislative elections and has no seats in parliament.

[190] The El-Ayoun Criminal investigation department report, 222/SHK/S, is online in Arabic, and in French summary, at http://www.arso.org/docu/fvjsdiss.htm (accessed December 1, 2008).

[191] The "république fantoche" (phony republic) is a popular term in pro-Moroccan circles for referring to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

[192] See, e.g., the FMVJ statement of June 23, 2003, responding to the court's dissolution of its Sahara section. The ruling "confuses the moral person of the FMVJ and the physical persons who are its members. The decision instrumentalizes the legal provisions concerning the right of association, and must be seen as one in a series of repressive actions aimed at restricting the activism of the FMVJ in the region, if not almost to prevent it entirely." In French at http://www.arso.org/170403FVJS.htm (accessed July 22, 2008).

[193] Human Rights Watch interview with Lahoussine Moutik, El-Ayoun, November 3, 2007 and email communication from Moutik to Human Rights Watch, October 12, 2008.

[194] Email communication from Lahoussine Moutik to Human Rights Watch, August 5, 2008.

[195] Human Rights Watch interview with Lahoussine Moutik, El-Ayoun, November 3, 2007.

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About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 52, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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