Morocco/Western Sahara/Algeria H U M A N Human Rights in Western Sahara R I G H T S and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps W A T C H Human Rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps Morocco/Western Sahara/Algeria Copyright © 2008 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-56432-420-6 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 64-66 Rue de Lausanne 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] 2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd Floor London N1 9HF, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org December 2008 1-56432-420-6 Human Rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf Refugee Camps Map Of North Africa ....................................................................................................... 1 Summary...................................................................................................................... 2 Western Sahara ....................................................................................................... 3 Refugee Camps near Tindouf, Algeria ...................................................................... 8 Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 12 To the UN Security Council ..................................................................................... 12 Recommendations to the Government of Morocco .................................................. 12 Recommendations Regarding Human Rights in the Tindouf Camps ......................... 14 To the Polisario Front ........................................................................................ 14 To the Government of Algeria ............................................................................ 15 To Third-Party Governments and Regional Bodies ................................................... 16 Recommendations to the US and France ................................................................ 17 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 18 Legal Framework Applied in this Report ...................................................................... 20 Background to the Western Sahara Conflict ................................................................. 23 Key Third Parties: The United States, France, and the European Union......................... 32 The United States .................................................................................................. 32 France ................................................................................................................... 34 The European Union ............................................................................................... 35 Human Rights in Western Sahara ............................................................................... 38 The Right to a Fair Trial ........................................................................................... 39 2007-2008 Trial of Naf’i as-Sah and Abdallah al-Boussati for “Throwing Molotov Cocktails at a Police Car” .................................................................................. 43 2007 Trial of Mohamed Tahlil for “Arson” ......................................................... 47 2007 Trial of Eight Sahrawi Students at the University of Rabat for an “Armed Demonstration” ............................................................................................... 49 2008: Trial of Activist Naâma Asfari for “Drunk Driving and Assault” ................. 52 2005 Trial of Seven Human Rights Activists in El-Ayoun ..................................... 58 Complaints of Torture, Beatings, and Arbitrary Arrests of Sahrawi Activists ............. 61 Case Studies .................................................................................................... 65 Freedom of Assembly ............................................................................................. 87 Occasional Protester Violence Cannot Justify Broad Bans on the Right of Assembly ......................................................................................................... 93 Freedom of Association for Human Rights Organizations ........................................ 97 Forum for Truth and Justice – Sahara Section ................................................... 99 The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations ............ 102 CODESA ......................................................................................................... 104 Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) El-Ayoun Branch .................. 107 Treatment of Foreign Observers ............................................................................ 108 Morocco Expels French NGO Human Rights Delegation in April 2008 ............... 109 Morocco Blocks a Fact-Finding Mission by the European Parliament................ 110 Morocco Briefly Detains Delegation from Trade Union Consortium.................... 111 Press Freedom ...................................................................................................... 111 Human Rights in the Tindouf Camps ........................................................................... 114 Past Polisario Abuses and Accountability ..............................................................114 The Question of Political Detention in the Camps Today ........................................ 118 Freedom of Movement ......................................................................................... 122 Travel to Mauritania, Morocco, and Moroccan-Controlled Western Sahara ....... 124 Travel to Destinations other than Mauritania and Moroccan-controlled areas .. 130 Travel inside Algeria ....................................................................................... 130 Polisario Reportedly Prevents Sahrawi Dissident from Re-Entering Camps ........ 131 Freedom of Information, Expression, Association and Assembly ........................... 132 Places of Detention .............................................................................................. 137 Allegations of Slavery ........................................................................................... 142 Allegations of Slavery as it Affects Marriage .................................................... 143 Manumission Papers ...................................................................................... 146 The Case of “Saltana” .................................................................................... 148 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... 152 Appendices ............................................................................................................... 154 Appendix 1: Letter from Human Rights Watch to Moroccan Authorities Requesting Information on Human Rights and Western Sahara ............................................... 154 Appendix 2: Response from the Government of Morocco, dated May 30, 2008, to Letter from Human Rights Watch .......................................................................... 159 Appendix 3: Letter from Human Rights Watch to SADR Authorities ........................ 174 Appendix 4: SADR’s Response to Human Rights Watch Letter of February 8, 2008 . 179 Appendix 5: Letter from Human Rights Watch to SADR Authorities ........................ 186 Appendix 6: Response from SADR Authorities to the Letter of Human Rights Watch of April 1, 2008 ........................................................................................................ 194 Appendix 7: Letter from Human Rights Watch to Algerian authorities .................... 205 Appendix 8: Purported Manumission Document from the Tindouf Camps ............. 210 Map Of North Africa Morocco claims sovereignty over Western Sahara. It administers the approximately 85 percent of that territory over which it exercises de facto control -- the portion west of the “Berm” -- as if it were part of Morocco. The UN does not recognize Moroccan sovereignty and considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory.” 1 Human Rights Watch December 2008 Summary This report is in two parts. Part one examines present-day human rights conditions in Western Sahara. Part two examines present-day human rights conditions in the Sahrawi refugee camps administered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario), the Sahrawi independence organization, near Tindouf, Algeria. For Western Sahara, the focus of Human Rights Watch’s investigation is the right of persons to speak, assemble, and associate on behalf of self-determination for the Sahrawi people and on behalf of their human rights. We found that Moroccan authorities repress this right through laws penalizing affronts to Morocco’s “territorial integrity,” through arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, restrictions on associations and assemblies, and through police violence and harassment that goes unpunished. For the refugee camps in Tindouf, the focus is freedom of expression and of movement. We found that at the present time, the Polisario effectively marginalizes those who directly challenge its leadership or general political orientation, but it does not imprison them. It allows residents to criticize its day-to-day administration of camp affairs. In practice, camp residents are able to leave the camps, via Mauritania, if they wish to do so. However, fear and social pressure keeps those who plan to resettle in Western Sahara from disclosing their plans before leaving. The rights of residents of the Tindouf camps remain vulnerable due to the isolation of the camps; the lack of regular, on-the-ground human rights monitoring; and the lack of oversight by the host country of Algeria to ensure the human rights of Sahrawis living in Polisario-run camps on Algerian soil. The United Nations Security Council should establish a mechanism for regular observing and reporting on human rights conditions both in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf refugee camps. This report does not cover past abuses, an important subject in its own right that merits attention today. Although civil and political human rights conditions have Human Rights in Western Sahara and Tindouf 2 improved in the Tindouf camps as well as in Western Sahara since a ceasefire ended the armed conflict between the Polisario Front and Morocco in 1991, neither party has brought to justice or otherwise held accountable the perpetrators of atrocities committed during that earlier period. Human Rights Watch takes no position on the issue of independence for Western Sahara or on Morocco’s proposal for regional autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. However, all persons, whether living in contested territory under de facto Moroccan control or in refugee camps administered by the Polisario Front, are entitled to respect for all of their fundamental human rights. Abuses committed by Morocco can in no way justify or mitigate abuses committed by the Polisario, or vice versa. Western Sahara Morocco has made steady gains in its human rights performance in the past fifteen years. It has allowed greater freedom of expression and independent human rights monitoring, and has established a truth commission that investigated and acknowledged past abuses and compensated victims. It has ended some of the most grievous practices, such as long-term “disappearances,” that were commonplace in the past. However, the limits to Morocco’s progress on human rights are apparent in the way authorities suppress opposition to the officially held position that Western Sahara is part of Morocco. The government bans peaceful demonstrations and refuses legal recognition to human rights organizations; the security forces arbitrarily arrest demonstrators and suspected Sahrawi activists, beat them and subject them to torture, and force them to sign incriminating police statements, all with virtual impunity; and the courts convict and imprison them after unfair trials. Moroccan authorities consider the “Southern Provinces” (their term for the contested territory) part of Morocco, subject to the same laws and administrative structures as the rest of the country. Therefore, their treatment of dissent in this region, despite its particular characteristics, should not be considered an aberration but rather an example of the extent to which Moroccan authorities continue to violate human rights in order to suppress political dissent on issues they deem critical. 3 Human Rights Watch December 2008 Because Human Rights Watch did not conduct comparative research in various regions of Morocco, it cannot say whether Morocco’s human rights practices in Western Sahara are better or worse than its practices elsewhere. There is, of course, the particular problem of Moroccan laws that forbid attacks on Morocco’s “territorial integrity” – interpreted to mean advocacy of independence for Western Sahara. But beyond this issue, further research would be needed to judge whether dissidents or protesters who advocate on behalf of other politically sensitive causes in, say, Tangiers or Fez, enjoy more freedom to associate or assemble, are more likely to have a fair trial, or are less likely to face physical violence at the hands of the police, than Sahrawi activists in El-Ayoun or Smara. In measuring Morocco’s compliance with its international human rights obligations in Western Sahara, Human Rights Watch is not implying any position on the future status of the territory. Whatever Western Sahara’s current or future status, its residents are endowed with human rights that those who exercise de facto authority are legally bound to respect. Any political arrangement that denies people the right to speak, assemble and associate peacefully on a political issue central to their lives constitutes an affront to human rights. Morocco’s Autonomy Plan In April 2007 Morocco presented to the UN a proposal for an autonomy plan for Western Sahara, a plan that, Morocco claims will satisfy Sahrawi aspirations for self- determination under continued Moroccan sovereignty. Under the proposal, Morocco will devolve a measure of power from the central authority to locally elected bodies and officials. Morocco has presented its autonomy plan as a basis for negotiations with the Polisario Front. However, Moroccan authorities have not to our knowledge indicated that their autonomy plan envisions a change in the environment governing freedom of expression on the Western Sahara issue. Persons may freely debate the modalities of implementing the autonomy plan. But to propose any path, including a referendum, that might lead to independence, will continue to be viewed as an attack on Morocco’s “territorial integrity” (see letter from Moroccan government in Appendix 2 of this report), incurring the risk of criminal penalties. Human Rights in Western Sahara and Tindouf 4