"The Land Screams: An experience of art and human rights in Western

Sahara"

Federico Guzmn
Saturday Afternoon of a light spring in Laayoune. A few miles offshore the
Atlantic breeze cools the capital of Western Sahara occupied by Morocco.
A Saharawi protest economic and social conditions has been called today
as a swirl on the boulevard Mekka. The Rapid Intervention Group and the
Royal Gendarmerie have blocked the avenue with armored and spiked
chain barriers. The government militarized occupation of this city has
brought the whole arsenal of the street. The tide of peaceful breaks and
folds with their cry flooding streets, squares and avenues across the width
of the capital of Western Sahara. Some people protest, shouting slogans,
hand painted banners, leaflets flying through the air and people run
through the streets between the booms of rubber bullets. The human
rights activist Brahim Dahan is leading us in his car in the chaos of a city
in rebellion and of a land that cries for freedom and not let yourself be
trampled.
At the height of Matallah neighborhood, home to most of the Sahrawis, we
stopped at an intersection. A group of about fifteen black men run to a
home. Are the Auxiliary Forces, hired paramilitary Interior Ministry, also
called disparagingly mujaznis. Taking their jackets batons pounce against
the metal door of a house and hitting violently. A few streets down people
crowded swirls in a roundabout military vehicles. We could see as within
one a man is beaten. Another truck is loaded with stones, boulders of the
beach that the police use as projectiles to disperse the crowd. We are
shocked, we want to move but everything is blocked. A disproportionate
medium divided highway turn preventing the car.
Everywhere Sahrawi men and women, gendarmerie, police, army,
colonists disguised, Urban Security Groups and blue with batons and riot
shields. Leather protectors worn on shins have metal rivets to kick. We
recognize the Humvees that Spain has recently sold to Morocco, "with the
condition that do not use in Western Sahara". There are young Sahrawis
jump from one roof to another mobile phone provided to record the
protest. The crowd occupied the street, moving from one place to another,
come together to reach into corners and sidewalks traverse systematically
blown bulldozers to prevent people sit to protest peacefully.
This brief tour of the outrage is a slap of consciousness that opens our
eyes to the nightmare that Sahrawis wake up every day. Laayoune, AlAyyn in Arabic "eyes" or springs, is the name of this city founded by
Spanish with water sources and gave the area its name. Eyes clear and
true that Morocco wants to blind shots. Eyes of the world to be opened to
the reality of suffering people. Shocked and awed go home and in the
confusion I can see how two get into a car police a child of no more than
fourteen years. On the opposite lane, another car speakers running slowly
announcing a football game tomorrow, pretending nothing happens.
We have a week in El Aaiun, two doctors (Maria Antonia Hidalgo and
Antonio Martinez) and two artists (Alonso Gil and myself) as human rights

observers invited by the ASVDH Sahrawi Association of Victims of gross

violations of human rights committed by the Moroccan state. Our mission,
with medical and other artistic component is Sahrawi people to interview
with victims of repression since the invasion of the territory in 1975.
Women and men who have suffered arrests, disappearances, rape and
torture during the war years, the Intifada, dismantling izik Gdeim Camp
and all human rights violations are repeated systematically until today.
From these interviews the doctors prepare a technical report and Loncho
and I make drawings of these stories torn from many terrible crimes and
many inspiring examples of resistance of a people.
We will work in the house of our friend Brahim Dahan, former political
prisoner, human rights activist, founder and president of the ASVDH.
Brahim was arrested in 1987 and disappeared along with other Sahrawi as
Elghalia Aminetou Djimmi and Haidar. He was held in secret detention
centers until 1991. The Moroccan authorities have never provided a formal
reason for his arrest and disappearance. In November 2009, in prison after
being imprisoned by Morocco after his visit to the refugee camps with the
so-called G-7, Brahim received in Sweden Prize "Per Anger" Human Rights
granted by the government of this country, which was collected by his
sister Aicha Dahan. Our kind and patient friend learned Spanish during his
imprisonment and welcomes us with the proverbial hospitality Sahara.
Brahim human is a model of integrity and perseverance. Your home is a
safe place and his mother and sister live in the ground floor. This home is
a cozy and confidence to interview Saharawi victims of human rights
abuses that we will know in the coming days.
Our aim is to visualize, through the testimony of people suffering
occupation, violations of their most basic human rights, its continuous
surveillance, repression and marginalization by the occupation authorities
(besides the plundering of natural resources of their land and the
continued blocking peace talks). This horror is the result of systematically
planned violence by the regime of Mohamed VI and Majzn oligarchy, his
shadow government. It is the reality of daily genocide, silenced by a media
however, not seen, not heard, but that is suffered and that the world has
to know. With this report we want to put in the eyes of the human rights
bodies and the Special Rapporteur of UNHCR? on the question of torture,
Juan E. Mendez, the testimony of people who, even if they are silenced,
are our brothers and sisters, and not just because they are still legally our
countrymen, but because we all deserve a dignified life free sharing
access to the commons of our mother Earth.
The report, therefore, is to publish backed with documents and evidence
as complaints, pictures of bruises or scars, x-rays, medical reports or
certificates from the court or hospital. We note that the most violated right
is the right to life, in all its aspects. It is also no access to justice because
the attorney does not accept complaints or leaves unanswered. In general
there is a lack of reliable evidence because the Sahrawis do not go to
hospitals for fear of being arrested, or because the hospital did not provide
reports or certificates. Finally, the interview schedule measures are
contemplated truth, reparation and justice to avoid repeating the same
damage.
The fact that we sponsored by the Association of Friendship with the
Saharawi people of Seville does not preclude that the work meets criteria
and measurable objectives within the parameters recognized by the UN. To
produce the report, doctors follow the recommendations of the Manual on
the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and other cruel,

inhuman and degrading: Istanbul Protocol, published by the Office of the

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Human in 2001. We are also
advised by Carlos Martn Beristain, a psychologist expert in Human Rights,
former adviser to the International Criminal Court and co-author of "The
Oasis of Memory. Human Rights Violations in Western Sahara ".
The book traces Carlos speaks of the terror has left in Saharawi society.
"The fear and silence, first. For many years, not just the Western Sahara
conflict has been forgotten but the victims have not been able to speak.
When those missing out clandestine centers found a company with which
they could not have relationship beyond the family level. They could not
talk about what had happened. Until 2005 barely knew what was
happening in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. That year, took to
the streets to reject Morocco's autonomy plan in what they call Saharawi
Intifada. He has not only been an expropriation of land and the ability to
decide but also memory. The title of the research, "The Oasis of memory",
is a metaphor of the desert, in an oral culture. There were victims we
interviewed who started to recite the names of 25 people you shared
captivity. This oral report needs to be written and told to new generations.
"
About the mechanisms that can enable a society which has lived so
egregious situations look forward Beristain is clear: "the recognition of
truth. There's a part of history that can not be denied. Do not really have
that frame the story erases you and your reality. For the relatives of the
disappeared who are between 25 and 30% of those surveyed in this
report, is the most important. They want to know what happened, what
was the fate of his family, where he was buried, that his remains are
returned, to investigate the responsibilities ... Morocco has publicly
acknowledged the names of 207 people who died during the period of
detention but is simply that died, without explaining the causes or the
place. For many it is still an insult. "
Carlos goes on to explain that "unlike perhaps other contexts, in the
Saharawi repair also involves the recognition of the right to decide. If one
looks in psychosocial terms, is related to the need to give meaning to pain.
For many people, the recognition of their rights would make sense of all
their suffering. In my opinion, would have a profound positive value and
repairer. The repair is also linked to the right to return and rebuild family
relationships, to recover their territory and their property. We are talking
about a people divided into two families who in 30 years have not been
seen. Only after 2006, thanks to the UNHCR program, began to establish
visits between the two territories. The repair includes also all the
symbolism that claims to King Hassan II and the regime that oppressed
them, the public apology and the dignity of the victims and their health
care, since the vast majority remained strong psychological impacts and
some with serious mental health problems. "
The report of our doctors is complementary to the interviews conducted by
Carlos Beristain. Each case is collected in a form in which it is
contemplated: violence or violence exercised; category violated human
rights, access to justice, responsible for the alleged violation,
consequences and coping, and redress and compensation. In this last
section all respondents are unanimous: the repair goes through the
decolonization of the territory and self-determination of the Saharawi
people.
The evaluation of reported cases try to follow the following scheme:
Psychosocial history before the alleged event

Summary of the facts

Circumstances in which they occurred
Place and conditions
Methods of torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading
Physical Examination and assessment
Interpreting findings
Documentation provided
Psychological evaluation
Conclusions
On the other hand, is our artistic task consisting of drawing, at one level,
representations of events and places that have been buried by an amnesia
planned. The Sahara is a massacre such as Argentina, Chile and
Guatemala, but in many cases people are scattered in the desert,
nomadea, and is much harder to get photos or documents. In other cases
secret detention centers have been demolished and the graves were
forgotten. This is the case for example of the brutal Lemsayed pits, or the
dreaded PCCMI (Command Post of the Mobile Intervention) in the former
Spanish artillery barracks of Laayoune, which has been torn down and
buried. The site, along with others like the former Recruit Training
Battalion of the Spanish Army in Laayoune, better known as the "Black
Jail" and other prisons each more sinister as Agdez, Agadir or Kaalat
Magouna, all are now part of Alawite regime ignominy.
Remember that repression by the Government of Morocco in the Sahara
from its occupation in 1975 with the "Green March" was terrible from the
start, with torture, disappearances, rape of men and women or thrown into
the sea from helicopters. 2010 has revived the complaint admitted by
Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, the same who ordered the detention of
Pinochet. This is a complaint about the torture committed by generals and
senior officials of the Moroccan authorities against Sahrawi citizens.
Recently been taken up in Madrid's statements Sahrawi victims and
witnesses with the testimony of Ms, the Sahrawi activist for human rights
chairman of CODESA (Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights), missing for
four years in the "Jail Black "of Laayoune. With a deep conviction of
nonviolent struggle for freedom of the Sahara, has received international
recognition Aminetou his work as Robert F. Award Kennedy human rights.
The text of the complaint says that the invasion and slaughter against the
Saharawi people lasted for 16 years, during which its members were
subjected to the domination of a foreign power that prevents them from
"the exercise of the right to self-determination, recognized by Resolution
1514 of the UN General Assembly in December 1960, implying a denial of
fundamental human rights. " The paper reports that since October 31,
1975 and until today "the Moroccan army has had a permanent violence
against Saharawi people" in a war of invasion that forced to leave their
homes to 40,000 people, who had to flee to the desert and "were
persecuted and bombed by invading forces with napalm, white
phosphorous and cluster bombs." Quote text
Our friend and host Brahim Dahan is the first to share your experiences
with us, making it clear from the start: "I hate to tell you the details, it
hurts. But people should know. " Brahim shows graphically some of the
forms of torture he suffered in the PCCMI. The relation to torture is stained,
in the words of Carlos Beristain, a "banality of terror" in the names
adopted, such as chicken. "We tied well, see? Hands with the feet, legs
bent. We spent a stick in her arms and knees and we hung upside down,

like a roast chicken. " Or the plane, also hung upside down, hands tied
behind their backs, and feet: "You felt that I was going to break the back.
And so you could have a half hour or more. "
The graph clearly some drawings follow the detailed explanations of the
victims. Djimmi Elghalia position corrects me how was bound hand and
body, lying in state of undress on a bench with her head hanging back,
and his face covered with a cloth soaked in dirty water and bleach. In this
torture was called the iron. As stated Mariantonia Elghalia's sister and her
smile lights up all the space it inhabits. Elghalia speaks from prison with
some distance, strong and generous, full of light. Among a story and
another, reminds us that it is important to make a good translation. "It's
funny, he says, in a territory where the Spanish have been more than 100
years, it is not easy to find good translators".
I Elghalia describes how the hooks of an abattoir where it hung for days.
And it also explains how he communicated with fellow prisoners writing on
a plastic plate with the thread of his tattered melhfa. Other memories are
inspiring examples of resistance. It relates how he gave Spanish classes in
Arabic and Kaalat cells Magouna: soap rubbed on the arm and, when dry,
wrote in the skin with a bent staple. If the jailer was coming, I obliterated
with saliva. On another occasion the prisoners organized a "Referendum
for Self-Determination", divided the space wilaya (province) and
represented a campaign for the voting options. They prepared all elements
including polls to vote with pieces of cardboard. "In the first referendum
for self-determination of the history of the Sahara, made in Kaalat
Magouna, smiling Elghalia account, the Polisario Front's victory was
overwhelming."
Through the testimonies of courage evoke patterned stories that are only
in the memory of the victims. We should add that the Sahrawis, a nomadic
people of oral tradition, are extraordinary poets and storytellers. In
addition to recounting the objective reality of his sufferings, also show
your feelings with accuracy and integrity, until his poise breaks
overwhelmed by memories. They are the moments when the narrative is
interrupted and staccato sobs only when the person is bankrupt. Then we
draw and accompany the person with our presence and silence. As in the
case of Mbarek Biga, a helpless man who in a demonstration opened the
head with a rock, causing a terrible fracture of the cranial vault. Or when
the young Abdsalam Lomadi, the youngest political prisoner in 19 years,
recounts his repeated arrests and torture, including rape with a glass
bottle, or how you "deleted" flag tattoo polisaria the shoulder with a red
hot spoon.
The account of the evidence leads to strong emotional mobilization, in
many cases, due to the strong psychological impact suffered by victims
and remains even after several months or years after the violations
suffered. In a sense, the testimony also an act that helps healing, like
listening and understanding. Often a respectful silence and modesty
strong memories remain silent. Many times, the facts are taken for
granted and sometimes there is a post-traumatic amnesia. Elghalia notes
that "never heard until now many details of the experiences of other fellow
detainees". Putting into words the emotion strangled helps break down the
barriers of darkness and make up with suffering. And we're talking about a
massive collective trauma to be healed an entire people with remedial
measures and a political process of decolonization and self-determination.
It is not possible to talk of reconciliation without the right to truth and
justice, without restoring the rule of law and overcome the exile of

marginalized people living in the shelter, which is more than half of the
Sahrawi people. With impunity of crimes committed is not possible to
reach a reconciliation.
Every day we collect stories we continue to move. We feel the urge to tell.
Let's get on photocopied fanzine when we get back to Seville, and we will
translate into English, with stories like Dadach Mohamed, who was
sentenced to death, after Nelson Mandela, African political prisoner
longest- in prison: 24 years. Rafto received the Human Rights Award. Or
Boubait Kentauia history. Arrested with 14 years in her school desk with a
group of Saharawi children. She was tortured and was missing more than
three months for having written "live Polisario" with a pen in the arm. And
they can do something to lower!
"The longest journey is towards oneself" says Brahim while accompanied
him drinking tea and drawing memories: "What happened to me was like
the coming of darkness" and Brahim speaks Moroccan authorities and
their treatment in the prison, where he spent three years and seven
months blindfolded and bound, traveling to himself, still. "I've always been
strong, I knew that if I gave a kick I could defend. But repression does not,
that's like the darkness came for all, you can not do anything, you can not
move ". Our friend also explains that the key to overcoming the darkness
was the awareness of being accompanied by other Sahrawi common sense
of justice of the people and by the conviction that "even if one dies, the
Sahara will someday be free." This also adds in prison Ghalia was greatly
enhanced their religious faith, and that the feeling of union with something
transcendent gives meaning to his life. As they give their children and her
husband, fellow prisoner, who won his attention by giving him a rosary
made with olive pits in the ground spewing their jailers neglected.
We pause to take the air on the roof. Brahim's house is a typical threestorey building painted the "official color", the obligatory dirty ocher with
the illegitimate government wants to standardize the urban landscape.
Like all the roofs of the city, is an unfinished brick building which is not
without the usual ubiquitous dish and corrugated steel rods rising hopes of
another future plant. In a partition are conveniently supported a wooden
staircase. The peers using Mediatic Team-a group of citizen journalism - to
jump from one home to another recording videos and photos of repression
in the streets immediately disseminated material on facebook and
youtube. Miro sunset orange sky with dramatic clouds on the horizon and
violets in the Bubisher think, the small desert bird that comes to tell good
news, spreading their wings by social networks and weaving a pattern of
global solidarity with these people.
After dinner the delicious couscous with chicken Brahim's sister, we review
our notebooks and we get to talk about work. We talked about how these
drawings tell stories, but in a bit literal. Our drawings are not
documentaries but rather subjective, are recreations rather than
illustrations. In a sense, can be understood at a level more than
transactive communication. These are drawings that touch us, but not
necessarily communicate the "secret" of a personal experience perhaps
indescribable. As explained by Professor Jill Bennett referring to traumarelated art, "To understand the nature of transactive, we examine how
affect is produced in and through the work, and how it can be experienced
by people who are close to work. But if this affective transaction itself does
not invoke the "meaning" of trauma, we must ask how it can lead to a
conceptual commitment. " Quote text

In this sense conceptual art is not by itself, but is rather the incarnation of
the sensation that stimulates thought. Their "intelligence", says Gilles
Deleuze cites the text, "comes after", not before. The drawings invite
empathy between the viewer and the primary experience of trauma in a
thoughtful, subjective, open and critical. The drawings are avoided any
aggregation or objectivity. They are fragments of an assembly where the
story is a discontinuous continuity, sometimes straight as the horizon of
the desert, sometimes winding sandy tracks as memory. Melhfas are
yarns, staple scratches and traces of soap that dissolve seeking light
within our own darkness.
This work that we are privileged to create here is the artistic tree branch
collective Loncho that binds us to Mariantonia and me for several years
with the Saharawi people. As the powerful talja that grows in the desert,
ARTifariti, the International Art and Human Rights, have deep roots in our
collective soul. The festival is organized by the Ministry of Culture of the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the Association of
Friendship with the Saharawi people of Seville (AAPSS) and performed
since 2007 in Tifariti, capital of the liberated territories of Western Sahara
and in refugee camps in Tindouf. This incredible cultural experience
transformed and awakened us to the reality of brother Saharawi people an
unforgettable adventure of knowledge and friendship.
As explained by its visionary promoter Fernando Peraita,
"The origin of the meetings is none other than a wall of sand over two
thousand kilometers between the Saharawi territories occupied by
Morocco in the area released by the Polisario Front. On the side Sahrawi
Moroccan army has planted a minefield of thousand meters wide along the
wall, a death line drawn with ten million mines. Near the wall is TIFARITI,
scene of major battles between the two armies until Polisario was left ...
and also stage a slaughter, the bombing of the Sahrawi people with
napalm and white phosphorous on the day of the entry into force of the
cease- fire. In this place, the Sahrawi government puts ARTifariti with the
spirit of creating a living space where interaction and communication
transcend the artistic in itself and where art assumes its public role and
thoughtful, political ... a seed for the development of other activities
cultural creators have involved in social problems ". Quote text
Pablo Picasso summed up in these words the ratio of the creative act:
"Painting is not done to decorate apartments.'s An instrument of offensive
and defensive war against the enemy." Guernica is a good proof of that.
ARTIFARITI aims to be a cultural challenge as those developed against
other walls of shame (Berlin, Palestine ...). With references such as the
Havana Biennial (Cuba) or the historic Pan-African Festival, the city of
TIFARITI wants to position itself as a space where public art symbolic
operate the blast wall, right at the meeting point of the Saharan caravans
hope to return realizing his dream of exile: an independent and
democratic.
Every day doctors ask and artists draw, and each encounter is always
unique, profound and unforgettable. In conversations verbal dialogue
dynamics is simultaneous to the graphic dialogue and we must be
continually changing registration from one hemisphere to another,
between drawing and conversation within and outside oneself. Sometimes
I copy a photo or a chest, as usual drawing flowers, tents, flocks of birds
and gazelles cave. Alonso draws his hands clasped, flags, women and
children. All round face and big eyes, like yours. Draw eyes Gargar Brahim

sad, unresolved grief keeping his brother Babbi, run over by the police.
Loncho depth look draws a people who resist with determination.
Meanwhile, I copy a passport photograph of a smiling Said Dambar, killed
by police in Gdeim izik. They hit "accidentally" shot in the forehead. His
body is still in the morgue after two years, waiting for the autopsy to claim
their relatives. Gift him drawing his sister Miriam. He tells me how his
mother returned pants Said, stained with blood and sand. Miriam thinks
the story I have told is another lie, and that his brother was murdered with
impunity in the dunes of the desert. I feel a lot of anger inside and drawing
large black smudges, and behind write something I can not remember. It's
been a long day. We take one last bitter tea with our friendly companions
and we collect to rest.
At dawn, after a hearty breakfast at the Hotel Lakouara, run by fraternal
Sahrawi maliciously salute to the "secret" Moroccan waiting to follow us,
as usual, from the hotel lobby. Since we arrived we were still "some boys",
sneaks in moped watching us and their mobile phones. Every day
stationed themselves at the corner of the street. From our arrival at the
airport we saw follow Hassan the more or less discreetly, but always
feeling his gaze on the neck. As we state in the report:
"The medical team was constantly monitored in each of his movements
apparently police and Moroccan intelligence that at no time were
identified. The permanent monitoring team had several vehicles and on
foot, being recorded by video cameras stationed in those vehicles. He was
also the subject of numerous passport checks, by the Moroccan police and
the Royal Gendarmerie, in different trips in the city and surroundings. He
was guarded even in the same hotel lobby where the soldiers of the UN
mission MINURSO. As was proved, privacy in Internet communications
menosen was raped twice in the team of one of the expedition members
warned by the alarm system of the same, that there was another user on
the network connected WI- Hotel FI with the same IP address. However,
the work could be carried out normally, despite the pressure and
intimidation that these actions represent ". Quote text
And so today we started our last day of interviews in El Aaiun, Smara
before traveling to complete our mission. He came to visit a woman of
elegant bearing, about fifty-odd years, accompanied by her daughter. First
of all and as usual, we explain the reason for the interview and asked to
consent to publish your testimony. When asked his name and place of
birth tells us Sukeina Yiddaluh called, but that photo ID, officials have
Sukeina Al-Idrissi. They have also changed the date and place of birth. We
realize that it is normal practice for the authorities: those with a name
Saharawi (with its characteristics of name-name of the fathergrandfather's name), and the documents that prove your identity, issued
by the Moroccan authority, appear in Saxon-French format, that is, they
identify with a last name (nom) and name (prnoms). Moreover, the dates
and place of birth to appear in your documents Moroccans often do not
match with the real, due to a confusion strategy studied. Change the data,
the name, surname, place and date of birth is another insidious way to
mislead people, to cancel your personality, to hinder any complaints and
otherwise wickedly planned to erase the identity of the people.
The interview continues and medical report, following the Istanbul
Protocol, trying to fix a story that comes and goes, sometimes is choppy or
have gaps and sometimes drifting in another direction. In interviews do
not take into account a certain time, which may extend for three or four
hours, and left the victim a containment space to freely express their

emotions. Typically, the victim is then passed to a therapy session with

Mariantonia, in a more intimate where issues arise for its high emotional
content, require closer accompaniment. This therapy also provides some
concrete tools to cope, such as the commitment of the person with little
rituals, as joyfully celebrate the birthday of lost family, positive memories
of the past draw or write a letter to relatives in refugee camps .
Then, following the formal structure of the data sheet of the UN, the
shocking tale of Sukeina Yiddalluh as has been transcribed by the doctors:
SOUKAINA Name Surname: IADB Ahlou
Other names or nicknames: SUKEINA IL IDRISSI Sex FEM.
Current Age: 52 Status: SEPARATE Children: 4 (3 + 1 died live)
Birthplace: Gueltat Zemmour. Date of Birth: 1957
Nationality: MOROCCAN Location: SMARA
Document ID: SH1058 Education / Educational level: PRIMARY
Profession or occupation: UNCLASSIFIED. Current Occupation: HOUSEWIFE
Contact Form: ASVDH
Participate in an organization?-SI-name (if yes): FORUM FOR THE FUTURE
OF WOMEN SAHARAUI. Type, position held PRESIDENT.
Other eyewitnesses:
How to contact these other witnesses:
Provides documentation or evidence relating to the facts? -. What:
Authorizes that his name appears in the report: YES.
NOTE: The victim reports having suffered more than one episode in which
they may have violated their rights. What follows is a detailed assessment
for each of them.
CASE EVALUATION (Detention and Confinement 1st)
1. Psychosocial history before the alleged event
Born in the desert near Gueltat Zemmour within a nomadic family that
was dedicated to raising cattle in the territory of Western Sahara. No point
psychopathological background or relevant health problems before the
fact.
Two. Summary of the facts
According to his account, in January 1976 the Moroccan army headed for
the cities of Laayoune and Boujdour. In a group of about 20 tents Sukeina
lived with his family, all the men arrested and killed livestock, leaving
women and children alone. After several days came a Sahrawi man with
food and water and rescued from certain death.
Three. Circumstances in which they occurred
The January 21, 1976, returned the Moroccan army armored and moved to
all the families who had lived in the tents where the victim, to the city of
Laayoune where they were confined for three months.
April. Place and conditions
The army with tanks, planes and helicopters entered the camp and
devastated. The prisoners, men, women and children, were taken-tied
men and helicopters, and women covered military trucks, also tied, except
those with children who do not handcuffed. After the tents burned. In total
she stopped about sixty Sahrawi your tent were arrested, with her six
women.
May. Methods of torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading
According to the testimony of the victim, were taken to a house in El Aaiun
known as "Chejs houses" which were empty, having been abandoned by
the Sahrawis. In these empty houses, with doors and windows open

permanently, lived with fifteen other women in very small dimensions: the
sixteen women were crowded into two rooms, among which there was a
gas stove and a toilet opposite, in total less than 25 -30 meters square.
Surrounded by the army, without intimacy for the permanent opening of
doors and windows, with a sack of flour and a flask of oil, all food, and with
the same and unique clothes they were wearing at the time of his capture,
remained there three months with his son Chejque was less than a year
old and I could breastfeed during this confinement.
There was no added physical torture, yes insults, intimidation, verbal
harassment, and lack of privacy for the toilet, as with the doors open, they
were constantly in sight of the guards. In early May 1976 is released with
his son still nursing. At this time, all his family, except her husband, went
to the refugee camps of Tindouf in Algeria where they remain today.
At this time remember the names of those responsible for the occupying
authority: Suleiman HADAD Laayoune Governor, and the Chief of Security
of Laayoune: BENSALEM BRAHIM
June. Physical Examination and assessment
Physical evaluation in this case does nothing as the time and is a case
where you are valuable psychological and social stigma you may suffer the
victim.
July. Psychological evaluation
The victim did not have any type of psychological treatment
August. Conclusions
After leaving released from this confinement, reaffirms its commitment to
the Saharawi people protest activity, reconstructs her family and has three
sons.
CASE EVALUATION (2nd Arrest-Forced Disappearance)
1. Psychosocial history before the alleged event
During the four years between the end of his confinement and this new
detention and enforced disappearance, lives with her husband and has
three sons.
It shows a photo (taken on the first day of year 1981) with their 4 children:
Cheikh, male, who was who nursed during his first imprisonment, a girl
named Slika, another man named Faraj and small Glana. It is very active
and militant for the cause of the Saharawi people.
Two. Summary of the facts.
The January 15, 1981 is again arrested for his clandestine militant activity,
and accused the making and distribution of propaganda pro Polisario and
organize clandestine groups. She was detained and disappeared until June
2 1991.En this Moroccan forces operation, arrested 30 women and 42
men.
Three. Circumstances in which they occurred
They were to stop at his house in the Neighbourhood Cemetery at 1.30 in
the morning where he was sleeping with his family (husband and 4
children) with cries, noises and asking loudly for her. They were
plainclothes agents, the husband answered the door asking who they were
and they wanted and told him to stop bringing order Sukeina and
identified themselves as police. She was taken to the notorious PCCMI of
Laayoune. He was blindfolded with his own melfa. For three days he was
bandaged eyes, ears, and nose. After six months remained only with the
blindfold. He left his last daughter very small, with months of life.
April. Place and conditions

Stopped the day. January 15, 1981 was blindfolded with his own melfa and
taken to PCCMI, where he remained about two weeks. Tortured accusing it
of collaborating with the Polisario Front, to find the alleged information
they were seeking. In early February 1981 Casablanca was taken to a
clandestine detention center of ALI MULEY DARB Chrif, subjected to torture
in sessions of about an hour and a half and were practiced in a unit called
the HOUSE OF SOAP (as reported by the victim , people who were tortured
there, physically and emotionally fell apart as the soap melts between
based hand rub). The guards have beaten, and was maintained on several
occasions in a state of nudity, and concerns that any guard first
interrogation he underwent verbal sexual violence. Stay in this clandestine
prison until July 1981.
The July 10, 1981 was transferred to another prison Warzazat region, to a
secret prison called AGDIZ. The transfer is done blindfolded, handcuffed
and closed military trucks, and remained there until 14 April or May of
1982.
In the early summer of 1982 he moved to Maguna KALAT secret prison.
The transfer is done, again blindfolded, bound hand and foot in closed
trucks. In this prison you are removed the blindfolds, but when you close
the door remains in absolute darkness. I do undress. The place is full of
rats and there is no ventilation, bad odor and unhealthy conditions overall.
Twice daily can go to the bathroom to relieve himself (morning and
afternoon) and take a bucket of water leading to a return to the gallery, on
the road forming two rows of guards forming a corridor (about 15 guards)
and are beaten to the outward and return journeys. The water ration is two
glasses (actually two measures of a can full of rust), no matter whether it
is summer or winter. And so for three years.
From January 85 to 91 the situation eased. Cells were passed and she was
in a group of 30 women divided into four cells: December 1 and the other
of 9 people. For each cell were entitled to a water tank of 4 liters of water
a day to the cells of 9 prisoners, and two tanks for cell 12. The cells are
not in a gallery or yard, but some are site other step. In this situation and
can talk to each other even when they closed the entrance door from the
patio overlooking the first cell remained in the dark time that allowed
them to take off the blindfold. They are with the same remaining rags,
clothing worn since the days of Casablanca and are bare. At this time they
are forced to make cooks for guards and prisoners. Every day there are
two groups of two women who have to knead and bake 75 kilos of flour
each pair. Knead on a work truck, cement dirty, in a sorry state.
Released on July 2, 1991. Coming out of captivity he learned of the death
of his young daughter, but does not even know the exact date of death.
Her husband remarried years. For ten years, Sukeina never had the
opportunity to stand trial or to have a lawyer. In more than ten years of
forced disappearance, received no news of their children.
May. Methods of torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading
Until 1985 that eased the conditions of prisoners, has been tortured in
PCCMI, Casablanca, Maguna Agdiz and Kalat. She was subjected to forms
of torture known as the chicken, the plane, and at times, was subjected to
the torture of the iron (lying on a table, naked, tied his whole body began
to beat her with clubs throughout the body , feet, and by all parties, and
once lost consciousness poured water dirty and smelly in the face and

kept asking questions to find the alleged information they were seeking. In
Casablanca torture sessions lasting an hour and a half and were practiced
in a unit called the HOUSE OF SOAP. During the torture he removed the
bandages. During the captivity are forbidden to speak with the sisters of
detention.
Managers whose name recalls is ABDHAFID BEN HACHEM, head of the
prison center Casablanca, currently Director General of Prisons.
June. Physical Examination and assessment
Physical evaluation in this case does nothing as the time and is a case
where you are valuable psychological and social stigma you may suffer the
victim.
July. Psychological evaluation
The victim has a firm decision to surrender to the cause of his people,
sublimating the hardships past, with a very intense activity, after
overcoming the grief of losing his little Glana, died while in captivity. The
victim did not have any type of psychological treatment.
August. Conclusions
Her husband remarried while she was detained in the center Sukeina
clandestine and now lives in Smara, leads a very active life in the Sahrawi
women's movement, being the president of the Forum for the Future of
Sahrawi Women.
CASE EVALUATION (3rd violence in protest by police)
1. Psychosocial history before the alleged event
No point psychopathological background or relevant health problems
before the fact.
Two. Summary of the facts.
Charging with disproportionate violence against a peaceful sit-in protest
against the harassment and beatings by the police on Saharawi children
out of the schools.
Three. Circumstances in which they occurred
Moroccan police intimidates Saharawi children after school, even give a
blow, and parents Sahrawi protest want this.
April. Place and conditions
In early April 2012, takes place in the city of Smara, in a sit-in protest. Has
been beaten by police with batons and sticks on the buttocks, flank and
right lower quadrant.
May. Physical Examination and assessment
On clinical examination hematoma seen with ecchymosis (bruising) in the
resolution phase on left buttock, right flank and right lower quadrant.
June. Interpreting findings
The story of the interviewee, and the lesions presented are consistent with
the account of the attack that complaint. The appearance and color
change by passing the bruises, agree perfectly with the time between the
date of the attack April 4 and the date of the physical examination is
performed the patient.
July. Documentation provided
Complaint filed with the Attorney of the King of Smara
August. Psychological evaluation
Sukeina is a mature woman with high levels of resilience (ability to adapt
to adverse situations constructively). He was alone in the Western Sahara
and gave his life to the fight. Presents a difficult history, with few
concessions. Twelve years suffering ill-treatment in detention condition
disappeared in 4 different prisons, the last KalatMagouna.

She lost her baby while she was in jail and tells all the pains of childbirth
sterile "an inevitable consequence being a mother and activist", ".... I was
nursing my baby and then I took prey. I came to the prison and my milk
flowed for anyone. "
Sukeina have enough control of the self-image. He knows that is a
benchmark for many people and that is their responsibility. But it also
shows the impact of suffering violence at times with strong emotional
release, especially for the death of his daughter. Just as his divorce. E
lprecio who had to pay for being an activist. "I could have planned my
incarceration .... I left the kids alone"
After a few years even somatization trauma. Refer difficulty falling asleep
and sleep disturbances, recurrent nightmares sometimes aggression.
The victim did not have any type of psychological treatment.
9. Conclusions
We would recommend help take away the traumatic event and how health
care in its three aspects (physical / mental-emotional / social).
TYPE OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS (categories)
Extrajudicial killings (murder, manslaughter)
(X) forced disappearance
Extrajudicial Execution collective (slaughter, fill out a form by victim)
Attack the Right to Life (injured person or other facts and has not left
smite @).
TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN or degrading
Physical Torture
(X) Shock without the use of instruments (X) with instruments Blows
(X) Public Scorn Penalties
(X) bandage eyes and hooding. Asphyxiation with plastic bags
(X) Hanging and / extreme positions (X) Other forms of suffocation
Drowning in water. Use of electricity in the body
Drug use. Animal use
Burns or cuts (X) Forced Labor
Extreme temperatures. Other physical torture
Other forms of physical torture or just where the source does not specify
the mode
Psychological Torture
Individual isolation end (X) Insufficient food and / or food deprivation
(X) Threats. Phone Tapping.
(X) Traces.
(X) Lack of medical care (X) Unsanitary conditions and / or deprivation of
hygiene
(X) Overcrowding. Sleep Deprivation
(X) Confinement. Witnessing torture of others
Death threat to family. Slander on family
(X) Insults Play loud music
Other psychological torture. What: Sexual Violence
Sexual violation. Blows breasts and / or genitals
(X) Forced Nude. Groping in the body
Sexual slavery. Threat of rape and / or sexual violence
Forced pregnancy. Forced Abortion
Witnessing sexual violence. Assault and / or verbal teasing sexual content
Forced prostitution. Trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation
Marks on the body. Electrical discharge breasts and / or genitals
Torture during pregnancy. Photographs forced sexual content
Sexual mutilation. Other forms of sexual violence What:

Forced displacement
Single Family
(X) Group (X) Confinement
Location Location relocation removal
Anti-personnel mines.
ACCESS TO JUSTICE (SMARA POLICE VIOLENCE CASE)
Does the fact or facts were reported to any authority? SI
Why?:
Should have been reported, before whom?
Do you know if the fact or facts were, or are being investigated by a
judicial authority?
If so, and if known, notify:
Status of the research:
THE FACTS OR EVENTS
(THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ANSWERS CAN HAVE SEVERAL DEPENDING
ON THE FACTS)
Date rape (day, month, year): January 21, 1976 (Confinement)
January 15, 1981 (Forced Disappearance)
April 4, 2012 (Aggression police)
Place / s of the violation (county, place, neighborhood, sidewalk, public or
private place, street, house, etc..): Desert (between Bojador and
Laayoune) Confinement
Laayoune, Neighborhood Cemetery. (Forced Disappearance) Smara.
Marital status of the victim at the time of the violation: MARRIED
SHEET OF SUSPECT (Confinement)
Name: Suleiman Surname: HADAD
Other names or nicknames: Age: Sex:
What group belonged to the time of the incident?
Rank or position? When the facts?
GOVERNOR AAIUN
What is the responsibility for the fact:
Mastermind (who planned the fact) Author Material (who executed the
fact)
(X) Accomplice (had some form of involvement in the offense)
What human rights violations are held accountable:
Right to Life (X) Right to humane
(X) The right to freedom. Right to access to justice
(X) The right to free movement and residence
Name of supervisor or who commanded at the time of the incident:
What do you do and where is this official now?
Were you involved in other human rights violations?
SHEET OF SUSPECT (Confinement)
Name: BRAHIM Name: BEN SALEM
Other names or nicknames: Age: Sex:
What group belonged to the time of the incident?
Rank or position? When the facts?
SECURITY CHIEF AAIUN
What is the responsibility for the fact:
Mastermind (who planned the fact) Author Material (who executed the
fact)
(X) Accomplice (had some form of involvement in the offense)
What human rights violations are held accountable:
Right to Life. Right to humane

(X) The right to freedom right to access to justice

(X) The right to free movement and residence
Name of supervisor or who commanded at the time of the incident:
What do you do and where is this official now?
Were you involved in other human rights violations?
SHEET OF SUSPECT (FORCED DISAPPEARANCE)
Name: ABDHAFID Name: BEN HACHEM
Other names or nicknames: Age: Sex:
What group belonged to the time of the incident?
Rank or position? When the facts?
PRISON CHIEF CASABLANCA (ALI MULEY DARB Chrif)
What is the responsibility for the fact:
Mastermind (who planned the fact) Author Material (who executed the
fact)
(X) Accomplice (had some form of involvement in the offense)
What human rights violations are held accountable:
Right to Life (X) Right to humane
(X) Right to freedom (X) The right to access to justice
(X) The right to free movement and residence
Name of supervisor or who commanded at the time of the incident:
What do you do and where is this official now?
Were you involved in other human rights violations?
SHEET ON IMPACT AND COPING
(THIS FORM IS TO BE COMPLETED WITH YES OR NO DIFFERENT BOXES,
NOT TO DESCRIBE EACH OF THINGS)
CONSEQUENCES
Singles (X) Specific impacts and women
(X) Family (X) Collective
REFER IF THERE:
Physical abuse (X) Threats (X)
Burglary (X) Requisition
Reporting / Monitoring Destruction of property
Others
HAVE EXISTED AS REVENUE CONSEQUENCES circumstances?
Emotional or psychological impact:
At the time of the events (X)
Even today is very affected (X)
Social stigma (X)
Consequences in public or private life, work or at work (X)
Worsening living conditions (X)
Immediate physical damage as a result of the violations suffered (X)
It truncates the life project (X) identity as a woman
Affective (X) Economic
Separation. Abandonment (X)
Social (X)
Sexuality
Description of illness, injury or physical damage due to the facts
Fractures. Wounds
Chronic pain. Physical or sensory disability
Hospitalizations. Addictions
Eating or sleeping disorders (X) Disease
COPING
What did or how he tried to face the facts?
He complaint. No talk

Focus on your family. Send one direction (X)

Religious Coping
Organize to defend their rights (X)
Find psychosocial support.
Transforming the Role it plays in the family
Sustaining economic emotional and family
Another which:
CAUSE ACTIVE MILITANCIA SAHARAUI
SHEET ON REPAIR
What would you consider to be done to repair some of the damage?
Measures of restitution:
Return the ground (X) Return the goods
Rehabilitation measures:
Health care educational measures to herself or her children
Psychosocial care (X) legal rehabilitation measures (X)
Work Support (X)
Measures to prevent violence against women
Another
Measures of satisfaction
Knowledge of the truth (X) Forms of memory of the victims
Investigate whereabouts or fate of the victim responsible Judging (X)
NO ACTION REPLAY
What does it take to make these facts do not happen again?
Measures of non-repetition
Changes in the state (X) Protection of victims
Demilitarization dismantle armed groups (X)
Legal changes (X)
Self determination (X) Other
We kept writing, taking photos and filling our notebooks, sketches and
memory traces. We know people are hopeful Sahrawis that the world may
know his story. Ahmed Salem received Bourgaa, who suffered in the flesh
the brutality of police charges in Gdeim izik. His wife gave birth to their
daughter, four days after the dismantling of Camp Dignity. The Moroccan
authorities registered in the register dated a month before his birth. Surely
moved to hinder any reports of trauma that may relate to the violent
police action.
Many of the women and men who have received recent attacks suffered in
the incidents caused by the dismantling of Gdeim izik. Recall that two
years ago, the city of Laayoune became a theater of war. On November 8,
2010, Moroccan occupation forces dismantled recorded the biggest protest
in Western Sahara in its history. More than 20,000 Sahrawi installed at
Camp Justice, in the desert area of Gdeim izik, were violently expelled by
the army, police and gendarmerie. Their demands (respect for social
rights, such as access to employment, housing and natural resources)
were, with their tents and belongings, crushed and burned.
From the October 10, several thousand Sahrawis had decided to protest
peacefully and 15 kilometers east of Laayoune, in a desert called Gdeim
izik, which in Arabic means "heel". Through rapid communications, up to
20,000 people from around the country have focused on recently. In the
words of Damian Lopez Khaimah Group, they have raised "a camp to
retrieve the word trampled, robbed the voice of a people to demonstrate

against assault, torture and illegal detention, against the plundering of

natural resources , against injustice, against the passivity of third
countries, against economic interests, facing treason and against media
silence is the word, the unflinching and peaceful voice of the Saharawi
people. "
Since its inception, Morocco imposed a tight control on access. Already in
the first week, the military surrounded the camp as a whole. There were
also helicopters overflying and authorities began constructing several
sand walls around the camp, with a strong military presence. The mobile
communications were intercepted. On October 24, the Royal Gendarmerie
opened fire on a group of young Sahrawis who were traveling by car.
According to testimony, attempted to break the siege jumping on one of
the walls of sand, at which point the Moroccan forces opened fire killing
Elgarhi Najem, 14.
Mohamed Ayoubi, Gdeim committee member arrested izik and after the
dismantling incidents, notes the insidious Moroccan strategy to try to
break on all sides Sahrawi movement. According to account, in the last
fifteen days of camp, the Interior Ministry officials were negotiating the
demands of the Saharawi Committee and even rode a tent to collect the
requests of the people. On 7 November, to negotiate an agreement that
the government would address the claims, in exchange for removing the
protest peacefully. Surprisingly, in the early hours of 7 to 8 the Royal
House gives the order of dismantling. Moroccan intervention came with
vehicles and on foot. Ayoubi says they used tear gas, hurled rocks and hot
water propulsion, burned tents and belongings destroyed. The Sahrawis,
especially young people, responding to aggression with objects within
their reach. In this context, there were attacks on homes of Sahrawis by
Moroccan civil groups with support from the police and a new wave of
arrests, which were carried Ayoubi who was detained without charge for
thirteen months.
It is believed that the order of Mohamed VI of destruction of the camp was
a strategy to provoke the Polisario and not get to sit at the negotiating
table convened on 8 and 9 by the UN Special Envoy, Christopher Ross, in
the town of Manhasset, outside New York, which had been the scene of
previous conversations. The strategy did not work and the Polisario was
presented to the meeting to advance the preparation of a fifth round of
the negotiation process that the two parties began in 2007, but two years
remained stagnant.
Despite his tragic end, Yaddassi Mohameddou notes that "Gdeim izik was
sweet, a light for the Sahrawis, a union which eliminated revived tribalism
and friendship and twinning." Coinciding in time with recent events in the
scene international publications like Wikileaks or shelling in Gaza, and in
Spain protests against the law Sinde, Dignity Camp has been, according to
Noam Chomsky, the spark triggered the Arab Spring. Indeed, the tactic of
camping space has been repeated by the countries of North Africa and
also in the streets of Spain with the 15M and the various Occupy
movements in the U.S. and the world. Since then, the Alawite regime has
banned Sahrawi plant their tents in public spaces. The tent, traditional
center of life in the desert, it becomes even more a symbol of resistance
and solidarity, and see how far the plant Sahrawis in urban roofs, out of

sight of the authorities to continue to share in them their everyday life and
struggle.
After an intense week of work we have completed eighteen interviews with
men and women in Laayoune and Smara and our notebooks are filled with
drawings. There's finally time to relax and Brahim picks us up at the hotel
for a trip to the beach, the harbor, eating fish and tea in the desert with
friends. Once again boarded the Renault 12 of our friend and settled by
opening the windows to the warm spring breeze. The bike starts behind
our boys. We crossed the Avenue Mekka, Fos Bucraa, the Spanish Quarter
and Stone Houses. Laayoune is dominated by the solemn and fraudulent
occupation symbols: large portraits of Mohamed VI, shields and flags.
Brahim going right explaining that left the "Black Jail" and later is the
place on the river where was the PCCMI. We passed MINURSO
headquarters, now surrounded by Moroccan flags defiantly. Drive to the
east of the city and, once again, the usual stop at the roadblock. Collection
of passports and phone calls. The couple we still stays there and others
take over. "There is no doubt that we are the safest place, said Antonio,
with the police taking care of us at all times."
Finally all walk the desert landscape. Apparently empty, these sands
multiple strokes saved many stories written in the wind. The landscape
changes smoothly animated colors like a painting. In the middle of
nowhere, a sign indicates a turn to the archaeological site of the province
of Smara. A little later a simple domed building houses a small
archaeological museum. We found the museum guard is a Sahrawi called
Larosi. With certain resignation speaks of rock art, material culture and
marine fossils millions of years ago are secretly plundering the authorities
to sell to foreigners. The museum displays wonderful photos of cave
drawings of elephants and gazelles in Smara, deceptively presented by
the petroglyphs of the Bronze Age of the High Atlas. All signs of the
museum include the "Moroccanness" of parts making visible the starry
logo development agency for the "southern provinces". The Saharawi
culture theft is being perpetrated in propaganda festivals in Tan-Tan and
Boujdour iron marking the "intellectual property" cultural commons of a
people: from crafts, tent, tea, poetry in Hassaniya , desert cuisine, stories
and popular games, the proverbs and contemporary art. Instead of binding
half of the people, the culture has become another resource to plunder.
View all this angers me and admire the serious attitude, but without anger
Brahim. It seems important to differentiate anger, an emotion is insane, of
indignation, claiming dignity. The Saharawi show us who feel wronged and
hurt but not vindictive. We return all to the car and took off toward the
beach. I watch Brahim thoughtful but I distracted driving jokes Antonio. At
this time of midday heat begins to tighten. Routinely, we come to another
checkpoint. The police boring question Darija (Moroccan dialect of Arabic):
Ferrak raih? (Where'd they go?). Brahim looks him in the eyes and says
dialk zein LMRA? (Your wife is beautiful?). For a moment the policeman's
face betrays a look of disbelief and confusion. Without raising his voice or
fail to meet his eyes, Brahim tells the guard that he do not care where we
go. It has no right to stop and ask because there is no legitimate authority.
I remember that it is illegal occupation force and the best thing you could
do is go back home. The guard replies something and makes us awkward
signs for us to follow, and we all asking the same time incorporate our

friend what he has said. Brahim Clutching the steering wheel gives a deep
sigh of relief. We note that it is not easy to do this. Not that it is more
courageous, but even if fear has to do the same. It has become an
obligation for him to speak in front of each call, repeat the same thing
every day, every time I stop "so that they learn".
We finally got to the beach and water we jump directly to the longedSaharan coast. We swam, we played, we wallow in the sand and then
make tea. After a particularly hard week we are enjoying right now. I watch
the waves trying to remember some verses Sahrawis say "cries
remembering the sea." I think of all that we have taught the Sahrawis. It
also cries remembering earth but knows stand up and fight. Non-violent
fight for the dignity of persons, in a daily process and permanent. The
conflict is not something that we will overcome forever, but part of the
continuing evolution of existence. We will not win a victory in which we get
to a perfect paradise of human rights. Access to the property must be won
every day, so in the Sahara that in all our societies. As stated in the
Universal Declaration of the Common Good of Humanity: the existence
and happiness as horizons of our work. Tayiba Hayat, the good life, in
Hassaniya, born of the joy of the heart.
Federico Guzmn