Daddach was awarded the 2002 Rafto Prize for representing the Sahrawi people in their fight for human rights and independence. Today he is the president of the human rights organisation CODAPSO (Committee for the Defense of the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara).

Series of human rights violations
Speaking to the Rafto Foundation from the Western Sahara capital of El Aaiun on 3 August 2010, Sidi Mohammed Daddach informed about ongoing aggression against him and other human rights activists by Moroccan police.

Violations of human rights by Moroccan authorities happen daily. Moroccan police is stationed around Daddach’s house all the time. This causes him and his family to suffer.

Neither Daddach nor other Sahrawi human rights activists are permitted to meet people and other activists. Daddach was aggressively hit by a Moroccan police dressed in civilian clothes on 7 July 2010 while visiting a family who had lost a family member.

On 18 July, Daddach and many others Sahrawis went to visit a group of people who had just come back to El Aaiun from a trip in the camps of the Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf, South Algeria. The house where the gathering took place was attacked by Moroccan security services. Many Sahrawis were seriously wounded and the house of the family who hosted the gathering was damaged.

On 22 July, Daddach was detained for more than 45 minutes in a Moroccan police checkpoint east of Laayoune.

Sahrawi political prisoners must be released
Talking to the Rafto Foundation earlier in May, Sidi Mohammed Daddach expressed several requirements.

He urges international bodies (UN and EU), Ministries of Foreign Affairs worldwide, as well as international NGOs to look at the ongoing situation in Western Sahara and put pressure on Moroccan authorities to stop human rights violations and aggression against civilians in Western Sahara.

Daddach also demands the release of Sahrawi political prisoners and the investigation of cases of missing Sahrawis.

Moroccan authorities continue to subject Sahrawis who openly advocate for self determination and who denounce Moroccan human rights violations, to beatings, imprisonment after unfair trials, arbitrary restrictions on the right to travel, and denial of the right to peaceful assembly, association and expression.

Basically, there is no freedom of speech in Western Sahara and Sahrawis cannot campaign for independence openly, the secret police is everywhere.

Has the world forgotten Western Sahara?
Sahrawis have been asking for self determination since 1975. A referendum on the status of the territory has been planned, but the terms have never been agreed.

Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in 1975 and is offering it autonomy. But the Polisario Front, which fought a guerrilla war until 1991, demands a referendum with independence as an option.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recommended to the UN Security Council in April 2010 that the UN Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) stay in place for another year, until 30 April 2011.

Read more about the “forgotten land” here.

Rafto Foundation
The Rafto Foundation is a non-profit and non-partisan organisation dedicated to the global promotion of human rights. The main activities of the Foundation are presenting the annual Rafto Prize for human rights work; following up projects concerning the Rafto Laureates and organising educational projects that promote human rights.

The Rafto Foundation was established in the humanistic tradition of the Helsinki Accord. The organisation aims to promote the three fundamental human rights of intellectual, political and economic freedom.

HRH Bergen, based on Rafto foundation information.

Related links:

Western Sahara: forgotten conflict with suffering people

EFTA-Morocco free trade agreement – new dispute over Western Sahara

Left Party of Sweden recognises Western Sahara

Western Saharan hunger strikers – Morocco’s Human Rights Violations