Renewed Hunger Strike by Sahrawi Political Prisoners
In a significant act of protest, nine Sahrawi political prisoners from the Gdeim Izik group have resumed an indefinite hunger strike as of Wednesday. These individuals have been incarcerated in Morocco since 2010, and their decision comes in response to the Moroccan prison administration's failure to uphold commitments made earlier this year. According to a press release from the "Association des Amis de la RASD" (Friends of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), the prisoners are demanding the enforcement of their rights, which have been consistently denied.
The catalyst for this hunger strike is the unfulfilled promises made to Naâma Asfari, one of the political prisoners, who had previously undertaken a hunger strike for 46 days. Asfari and his fellow inmates are facing severe restrictions on their basic rights, including access to medical care, visitation, phone calls, and written correspondence. Furthermore, they are detained in Moroccan prisons far from their families, in violation of international law, as they are held in the territory of Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan occupation. Multiple UN organizations have repeatedly urged Rabat to release the Sahrawi prisoners, citing that their convictions stem from confessions obtained under torture.
Morocco accuses these prisoners of orchestrating the Gdeim Izik protests in 2010, which sought to highlight the dire social conditions faced by the Sahrawi people living under Moroccan rule. At that time, tens of thousands of Sahrawis established a tent camp to draw attention to their plight, but this camp was violently dismantled by Moroccan forces, resulting in casualties among both police and protesters. The government's previous promises to address the protesters' concerns were also disregarded. Interestingly, the day of the prisoners' renewed strike coincided with parliamentary elections in Morocco, a process that occurs within the framework of an authoritarian monarchy with limited powers.
As reported by jungewelt.de.
