The organizations participating to the preparations for the World
Social Forum 2013, held in Hammamet in Tunis, were chocked to
learn about the sentences against the 25 Saharawis, 24
detainees, including members of Saharawi civil society’s
organizations are under “provisional detention” for 27 months in
total defiance of international and Moroccan laws.
They are accused in this trial about the violence that occurred
before, during and after the events of the dismantling, by the
Moroccan forces on November 8, 2010, of the protest camp of
Gdeim Izik (near Laayoune, Western Sahara), when 11 members
of the Moroccan security forces and two Saharawi civilians were
killed.
No matter what the accusations can be, and no matter what are
the conditions of the trial, a military tribunal is a court of exception
and do not meet the internationally recognized norms for a fair
trial that respects the law.
The undersigning organizations involved in the preparation of the
World Social Forum that will take place in Tunis this Marsh 2013,
while conscious that such trial can not be separated from the
political dimension related to the conflict of Western Sahara, and
while condemning the use of violence reiterating their firm
condemnation to the hideous perpetrated crimes and demanding
justice for the families of the victims:
1- Estimate that a trial of this sort adopted by a Military Tribunal is
a verdict that is not based on any legitimacy, according to
international standards.
2- Demand the annulation of the trial and the presentation of the
Saharawi defendants before a civil court with all guarantees for a
fair trial.
3- Demand the opening by the Moroccan judiciary authorities of
an immediate investigation on the allegations of torture and illtreatments
against the Saharawi prisoners, conforming to the
international standards in the subject.
4- Consider that if this conflict, which is stalled for more than 38
years so far, does not find a political solution that respects the
international law, it will continue generating violence, hatred and
risks of communities’ conflicts. They call on the direct and indirect
actors, national and international, to exercise influence on the
process of negotiations so as to reach a solution based on the
international legality and accepted by the concerned parties.
5- Reiterate their support to the process started by the
organizations of the Maghreb for the search of an alternative
solution to the actual official blockage, and to theses
organizations’ choice to join force for the protection of human
rights in the region without any restriction, for social justice, for the
inalienable right of the peoples to self-determination and for the
edification of another Maghreb, the Maghreb of the peoples.
6- Demand, conforming to Porto Alegre Charter and to the
irreversible choices of peaceful resolution to conflicts, that the
World Social Forum 2013 in Tunis, which gathers organizations
and civil societies and social movements, can be an opportunity
to strengthen their dynamic and the process launched since 2006
for the search and the proposition of alternatives to the States’
blockage and to boost the coordination of joint struggles while
respecting diversity and for another needed Maghreb.
The verdicts:
The Moroccan military tribunal condemned 25 Saharawi prisoners
last February 17, 2013 to the following sentences: 09 Saharawis
to life imprisonment, 4 to 30 years, 7 to 25 years, 3 to 20 years,
and two others to 2 years imprisonment.