Jan
31
Sahrawi activist Haidar returned to Laayoune after a month of hunger strike
The plane carrying the militant from the Spanish island of Lanzarote (Canary Islands) landed into the 00H15 (and GMT) in Laayoune, where she was greeted by two heads of Izerguiynes Saharan tribe, and Mohamed Mohamed Fadel Nafaie. His paternal uncle Ahmed Bashar Haidar, who had asked him to suspend his hunger strike, was also present, and a Moroccan doctor and a nurse.
Aminatou Haidar, 42, met the formalities of admission (at Laayoune airport) by requiring the entry form that “cameto Morocco,” said a police source said on Friday.
“This is a triumph international law, human rights, international justice and the Saharawi cause, “he said Haidar told reporters as he left the hospital, where he entered his own request, and shortly before the ship bound for Western Sahara .
Haidar”s return ended a case that began on 14 November when he was expelled by Morocco to Spain on his arrival in Laayoune for refusing “to comply with police formalities usual “and renounce their Moroccan nationality.
activist began two days after a hunger strike for over a month to demand his return to Western Sahara, while the Spanish government offered Haidar various possibilities such as a passport or Spanish nationality, all rejected by the activist.
Morocco, for its part, demanded that he apologize for having renounced his Moroccan nationality.
This Friday, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos denied that Spain would “compromise” with Morocco to allow the return to Western Sahara activist.
“There have been no concessions,” but “extensive negotiations” with the Moroccan government, Moratinos told a news conference in Brussels.
Morocco “at the end, has understood that the normal and the logical thing was to enable the return “of the militant,” he added.
Madrid “need not repent of anything,” said Moratinos, who on Thursday admitted for the first time have been informed by Morocco expulsion of activist before his arrival in Spain, where only entered his residence permit because Rabat had confiscated her passport.
Spanish The executive also made various efforts Morocco, UN, U.S. and France, which eventually bear fruit.
Paris announced Thursday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Morocco had asked to furnish a passport Haidar, while Spain called on Rabat to allow the return of the activist “given the worsening humanitarian situation.”
The Haidar hunger strike has made the international community to re to put on the agenda of the Western Sahara conflict, blocked for years.
The Polisario Front advocates a referendum on self-determination of the former Spanish colony which Morocco annexed and administers since 1975, while Rabat bets on a wide autonomy of the territory.