Prix de la paix décerné à New York à la militante sahraouie Aminatou Haidar

[icosium]

'Sahrawi Gandhi' awarded New York peace prize

(AFP)

22 octobre 2009

NEW YORK — Aminatou Haidar, a champion of peaceful resistance in the disputed African territory of Western Sahara, won Wednesday a leading international peace award.

"This prize gives me the courage to pursue the non-violent struggle that I have been leading since I was 23," Haidar told AFP after receiving the award in New York from The Train Foundation along with a check for 50,000 dollars.

"I have been threatened with arrest on my return," added the 42-year-old rights activist who lives with her two children in Laayoune, the main city in Western Sahara.

Morocco annexed the phosphate-rich northwest African territory after the withdrawal of colonial power Spain in 1975, leading to a bitter guerrilla war with the Polisario Front. It ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.

Rabat has proposed autonomy for the territory, but argues its sovereignty is a non-negotiable historical fact. The Algerian-backed Polisario demands a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options.

Haidar, a leading defender of the human rights of the Sahrawi people, was imprisoned for several months by the Moroccan authorities in 2005.

Given a Moroccan passport in 2006 thanks to intervention from Amnesty International and the US State Department, she has gone on to win a string of awards and was nominated in 2008 for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Haidar is a courageous campaigner for self-determination of Western Sahara from its occupation by Morocco, as well as against forced 'disappearances' and abuses of prisoners of conscience," The Train Foundation said.

"Regularly referred to as the 'Sahrawi Gandhi,' Haidar is one of Western Sahara's most prominent human rights defenders," it added.

The Civil Courage Prize, awarded to individuals who have demonstrated steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk, has been running since 2000.

Previous recipients include Myanmar rights activist Min Ko Naing, who is still in detention, and the late Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

The award is the brainchild of John Train, a New York-based investment advisor and author.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved

[icosium]

2009 Civil Courage Prize Honoree

Aminatou Haidar
Champion of non-violent resistance in Western Sahara



Ms. Haidar is a courageous campaigner for self-determination of Western Sahara from its occupation by Morocco, as well as against forced "disappearances" and abuses of prisoners of conscience. Regularly referred to as the "Sahrawi Gandhi," Ms. Haidar is one of Western Sahara's most prominent human rights defenders.

An Award Ceremony will be held in New York City on October 20, 2009.

Year 2009 Award Recipient

Aminatou Haidar is part of a younger generation of Sahrawi leaders working through non-violent means to organize peaceful demonstrations in support of a referendum to settle the extended conflict between Moroccan military and Sahrawi independence groups, as well as to denounce the human rights abuses on both sides of the conflict. Her peaceful efforts have been met with increased police aggression and brutality. In 1987, at the age of 21, Ms. Haidar was one of 700 peaceful protestors arrested for participating in a rally in support of a referendum. Later she was "disappeared" without charge or trial and held in secret detention centers for four years, where she and 17 other Sahrawi women were tortured. In 2005, the Moroccan policed detained and beat her after another peaceful demonstration. She was released after 7 months, thanks to international pressure form groups like Amnesty International and European Parliament.

Since then, Ms. Haidar has traveled the globe to expose the Moroccan military’s heavy-handed approach and to plead for the Sahrawi People's right to self-determination. Her efforts helped change the Moroccan government's violent tactics for dispersing pro-independence demonstrations. Unfortunately, the torture and harassment of Sahrawi human rights defenders continues.

Ms. Haidar was born in 1967 in El Ayoun, Western Sahara. She is the mother of two children and holds a baccalaureate in Modern Literature. She has been awarded the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the 2007 Silver Rose Award (Austria), and the 2006 Juan Maria Bandres Human Rights Award (Spain). She was nominated by the European Parliament for the Andrei Sakarov Human Rights Award. Amnesty International (USA Branch) nominated her for the Ginetta Sagan Fund Award. She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Background to the conflict in Western Sahara, former Spanish Morocco

Once a Spanish colony, Western Sahara has been under strict military control by the Kingdom of Morocco since its invasion in 1975. The region has experienced an extended conflict between Moroccan military and the Sahrawi independence group, the Polisario Front. In response to the International Court of Justice's rejection of Morocco's claims of sovereignty in the region in 1976, the Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as Western Sahara's legitimate government in exile.

In 1988, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to settle the dispute through a UN-administered referendum that would allow the people of Western Sahara to choose between independence or integration with Morocco. The vote still has not been held. A United Nations' administered ceasefire has been in place since 1991. In 2007, the United Nations began facilitating peace talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, but talks have stalled over disagreements, including who qualifies to participate in the potential referendum and whether full independence is an option for Sahrawis.

http://www.civilcourageprize.org/honoree-2009.htm