Malta Independent - Stefan Simanowitz reports on the Oxford Six, students from Western Sahara arrested and beaten on their way to a conference in England.
“What happens when students from opposing sides of a conflict zone come together to look for a better future?” asks the website of Talk Together, an organisation specialising in conflict resolution training. When the conflict zone in question is the disputed territory of Western Sahara, it seems that the students are refused permission to travel, arrested and beaten by police.
At the beginning of August, 21 students aged between 16 and 24, from Morocco, Western Sahara and the refugee camps in the Algerian desert, set off on what promised to be a life-changing experience. Each student had been chosen after an exhaustive selection process to attend a residential conference in Oxford organised by the EU’s Youth In Action programme sponsored by the British Council. The initiative was intended to help foster greater trust and mutual understanding between young Saharawis and Moroccans, enabling them to explore possible solutions to the conflict in Western Sahara, one of the world’s longest running disputes.
Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1976, after the withdrawal of the Spanish. A 16-year war ensued between the Moroccans and the Saharawi independence movement, the Polisario Front. Fighting ended in 1991 when, under the terms of a UN ceasefire agreement, a referendum for self-determination was promised to the Western Saharans. This referendum has yet to take place, leaving the Saharawi to either live under occupation in their native land or as refugees in camps in the inhospitable Algerian desert.
Ironically, of the three groups of students, it was only those from the remote refugee camps who ultimately made it to England. On the evening of 5 August, eight Moroccan students in Casablanca airport and six Saharawi students in Agadir airport were told that they could not travel. Although their tickets and visas were all in order and they had already checked in, the Moroccan authorities refused to let them board their planes. No reasons were given and the students, who had been preparing for this trip for many months, were understandably angry and disappointed. While the Moroccan students made their way back to their homes, the Saharawi students decided to stage a hunger-strike protest in the airport terminal. In a country where protest and dissent is often violently suppressed and over 500 Saharawi political activists have “disappeared”, this hunger strike was a bold action. Speaking from the airport on a mobile phone one student, 17-year-old Amaidane Maimouna, said that they understood the risks but were determined to make a stand. “Either we will go to the UK or we will not eat and we go to hospital” she said with confidence, “There is no third way”. In Morocco, however, there is always a third way.
As the sun sank over the runway in Agadir airport, around 20 police arrived. They entered the terminal, beat the students and drove them away in a convoy of vehicles. Although mobile phones were confiscated one student, Elassri Mohamed Fadel, 24, managed to keep his hidden. “We have been beaten with batons,” he whispered down the phone while being driven through the night. “Beaten very badly.”
Thanks to the swift action of human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, the six students, dubbed the Oxford Six, were release within 36 hours. All had suffered severe beatings. Although efforts were made to arrange another flight and secure permission from the authorities for them to attend the final week of the peace conference, it quickly became clear that the Oxford Six would not be coming to England. Instead the students returned to their homes in occupied Western Sahara amid concerns that their impromptu protest would lead to monitoring and harassment by Moroccan authorities.
These fears were proved to be well-founded when on 27 August, as campaigners were preparing to mark the 26th International Day of the Disappeared, 19-year-old Hawassi Ngiya, was picked up by police in El Aaiun. According to her testimony she was blindfolded, beaten, stripped naked and threatened with rape. After five hours the police left her naked and shaken on the outskirts of the town. Days later, on 2 September, another member of the Oxford Six, Razouk Choummad aged 20 was also picked up by police. He was blindfolded, stripped and covered in a liquid, which he was told was petrol, in an ordeal that lasted several hours.
These incidents have taken place within the context of a wider pattern of human rights abuses in the occupied territories. In recent years numerous bodies including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have expressed “serious concern” about human rights violations against the Saharawi. A 2008 report by Human Rights Watch found that Morocco had violated the rights to expression, association and assembly in Western Sahara, and Amnesty International’s State of the World’s Human Rights Report 2009, states that “(p)roponents of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara are harassed and prosecuted”. In addition, the refusal to let the students travel appears to contravene Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and has ignited fear that the Moroccans may impose more widespread travel bans.
In London on 7 September, a delegation of MPs and campaigners visited 10 Downing Street and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to call on the British government to communicate to Rabat their concerns about the wellbeing of the Oxford Six. There have also been candlelit vigils, solidarity meetings and a letter-writing campaign. If a resolution to the conflict in Western Sahara is to be found, committed young people like the Oxford Six will be essential to that process. Indeed, the Oxford Six set off to build bridges with their Moroccan counterparts only to return home days later as “enemies of the State”. While knowing that the world is watching is a comfort to the students, such knowledge cannot salve their wounds, heal their scars nor allay their unadorned fear.
Africa's last colonySince 1975, three quarters of the Western Sahara territory has been illegally occupied by Morocco. The original population lives divided between those suffering human rights abuses under the Moroccan occupation and those living in exile in Algerian refugee camps. For more than 40 years, the Saharawi await the fulfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
Since 1975, three quarters of the Western Sahara territory has been illegally occupied by Morocco. The original population lives divided between those suffering human rights abuses under the Moroccan occupation and those living in exile in Algerian refugee camps. For more than 40 years, the Saharawi await the fulfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
