An international delegation from the Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Centre for Justice and Human Rights witnessed police brutality in Western Sahara during a fact-finding mission at the end of August. Four Moroccan state agents attacked a Sahrawi woman protester. A member of the delegation was verbally and physically assaulted as the security forces attempted to block her from documenting the event.
The delegation interviewed a number of Sahrawis, many of whom described living in a 'climate of fear', under Moroccan occupation.
'The international community has stood by passively for too long, while the Sahrawi people subsist in abject poverty in extremely isolated refugee camps in the middle of the Sahara desert while their brethren in Morocco-controlled Western Sahara, who advocate for justice or criticize the regime, are subject to police state tactics of harassment, intimidation, torture, and more with near absolute impunity,' said Kerry Kennedy, president of the RFK Center.
Western Sahara has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.
Topics: Western Sahara