Repression in Rabat of Saharan Students

Non-violent action in Western Sahara!

Polisario appeals for help to release Saharans detained in Morocco

Text of report by Algerian radio on 13th August

The Polisario Front has made an urgent appeal to the international community to ask the Moroccan authorities to release hundreds of Saharan young people who have been detained for several days in a sports centre in Rabat.

A communique from the Saharan Information Ministry said that threats of deportation and reprisals have been made against more than a thousand young Saharans - mostly students - who were trying to enter the Moroccan capital to demonstrate peacefully against their deplorable living conditions and demand the release of 1,600 Saharans who have recently been detained.

The communique added that any Saharan citizen who attempted to enter Morocco was systematically deported by the Moroccan gendarmerie to the occupied territories [Western Sahara]. A sit-in organized by young Saharans on the Rabat-Casablanca motorway was forcibly broken up by the Moroccan security forces; seven demonstrators were injured.

The Polisario Front is thus renewing its appeal to the international community and human rights organizations, to prevent yet another wave of repression against the Saharan population.

Copyright 1996 British Broadcasting Corporation

BBC Summary of World Broadcasts

August 14, 1996, Wednesday

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