Human rights activists in Western Sahara have launched a campaign to pursue Moroccan authorities to hand back Sidi Mohammed Daddach, which is the 2002 Rafto laureate, his passport. The campaign has been initiated be a newly established human rights organisation in Western Sahara. The organisation is led by a former prisoner of conscious, Ali Salem Tamek, whom was handed back his passport two weeks ago after Saharawien demonstration in the Southern Moroccan city of Assa. (21-NOV-2004)
The new organisation also demands that several other human rights activists and family members of Saharawiens gone missing have their passports returned. Daddach and his colleges had their passport confiscated in April 2003 before they were to leave for Geneva to participate in a meeting with the UN Human Rights Commission .
The Moroccan occupying authorities have has time passes banned every human rights organisation being formed in the Moroccan occupied Western Sahara, and it is believed that this organisation is soon to meet the same fate. The organisation in which Daddach used to be active, Forum for Justice and Truth, was banned in the summer of 2003.
Daddach is unfortunately not the only Rafto laureate that are facing problem acquiring their passports and other travel documentation. Others are Leyla Zana (Turkey), Rebiya Kadeer (China) and Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma/Myanmar).
