The president of the self-proclaimed Democratic Arab Republic of Western Sahara and General Secretary of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, on December 11 sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI urging him to intervene as soon as possible and contribute to resolve the “the grave situation” of the Moroccan dissident Aminetu Haidar.Wrote Abdelaziz, “We are greatly worked about the gravity of Aminetu Haidar’s health.” Aminetu has now spent 28 days on a hunger strike at the airport at Lanzarote in Spain’s Canary Islands.
According to the letter, “In view of the lack of response on the part of the Moroccan authorities and the growing concern about the probable outcome of this fatal human drama, I have considered it necessary to direct myself to your Holiness to exercise the moral authority invested in you in the name of the Christian Faith to intervene quickly and contribute to a solution to this situation.”
Polisario Secretary General Abdelaziz appealed to “your Holiness, convinced that as a person who has dedicated his life to announcing the workings and teachings of God, the Just and Merciful, that you are not distant from the greatness and tragedy of our fellow citizens.”
Abdelaziz said of Haidar that “she is a woman who is offering the sacrifice of her self, her life, to preserve the dignity of human beings, as a symbol of the Saharan people and, ultimately, humanity itself.”
The secretary general of the Polisario also said “I have no doubt that all of Mankind will be eternally grateful to you for saving the life of a woman, a Muslim, mother of two children, who made of non-violence the foremost recourse of her daily defense of human rights, who was incomprehensibly humiliated, persecuted, jailed, tortured, and now exile in the name of a power that says that it represents the “Protector of Muslim Believers”: a reference to Moroccan King Mohammed VI.
UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon has been active on the case of Haidar and has met with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri to discuss her condition.
Activist Haidar has been denied entry to Morocco because of her defense of the independence of Western Sahara, which is claimed by Morocco.
Ban expressed concerns about Haidar’s deteriorating health and “emphasized that a solution needed to be found with the utmost urgency," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. "He proposed possible steps to resolve the situation."
Fighting broke out between Morocco and the Frente Polisario after Spain’s colonial administration of Western Sahara ended in 1976.
Morocco has presented a plan for autonomy, while the Frente Polisario"s position is that the territory"s final status should be decided in a referendum on self-determination that includes independence as an option.
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SIC: Spero