Ailing Western Saharan Human Rights Activist Aminatou Haidar Demands Moroccan Authorities Allow Her Return to Occupied Homeland

In October a Western Saharan human rights activist Aminatou Haidar was in New York to receive the 2009 Civil Courage prize for her non-violent resistance to the Moroccan occupation of Sahrawi land. She is often called the “Sahrawi Gandhi.”

When she returned home a few weeks later she was arrested by Moroccan officials. They seized her Moroccan passport and expelled her against her will to an airport on Spain’s Canary Islands. Moroccan authorities say she was deported because refused to sign a paper saying she was a Moroccan citizen and declared Western Sahara as her country of origin on the immigration entry form.

Aminatou Haidar began a hunger strike inside Lanzarote airport in the Canary Islands two weeks ago demanding that she be allowed to return to her home in the Western Sahara. But she remains in the airport, surrounded by supporters, her health deteriorating.

Aminatou’s supporters include the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights which honored her last year and Spanish celebrities like film director Pedro Almodovar and actors Javier Bardem and Guillermo “Willie” Toledo.

We’re joined now by three guests. Spanish actor Willie Toledo joins us on the line from inside the Lanzarote airport in the Spanish controlled Canary Islands where Aminatou Haidar remains on her hunger strike.
Here in Washington, DC I’m joined by Mouloud Said, he’s the Washington, DC representative of the Sahrawi independence movement known as the Polisario Front.

And from Mountainview, California, we’re joined by University of San Francisco Professor Stephen Zunes. He’s the author, along with Jacob Mundy, of the forthcoming book “Western Sahara: Nationalism, Conflict, and International Accountability.”

Mouloud Said, Washington, DC representative of the Polisario Front.

Guillermo "Willy" Toledo, Spanish actor in Lanzarote airport speaking out in support of Aminatou Haidar.

Stephen Zunes, University of San Francisco Professor and co-author of the forthcoming book “Western Sahara: Nationalism, Conflict, and International Accountability.”