Open Letter: MP's and celebrities support Western Sahara hunger-striker
Free Western Sahara Network | 02.12.2009 00:24
Former Monty Python, Terry Jones and film director Ken Loach have joined British MP's and human rights campaigners in signing an open letter (published in today's Guardian), calling on Morocco to immediately allow hunger striking Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Aminatou Haidar, to return to her country.
As she enters the third week of her hunger strike, news that Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amainatou Haidar is in a critical condition is a cause of grave concern. Yesterday (1st December) a cross-party group of MP's today tabled a Motion in Parliament expressing “dismay” at her expulsion of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amainatou Haidar from Western Sahara.
Her deportation has been condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as her friends and supporters around the world including Nobel Laureates Jose Saramago and President Ramos-Horta, film director Pedro Almodovar and actor Javier Bardem. Last week the US State Department called for "a speedy determination of her legal status and full respect for due process and human rights.”
Although bearly able to speak, Haidar has vowed to continue her hunger strike and stated that her action should not be seen as an isolated act of defiance of a single indiviudal but part of the struggle of the entire Saharawi people. “It is true that this hunger strike is about the individual right of one person to return to her home and her family” she said “But it also about the collective right denied to the Saharawi people to live freely in their native land.”
We call on the Moroccan government to return her passport immediately and allow Aminatou Haidar to travel home to her country and to her two young children before it is too late.
Jeremy Corbyn MP (Chair, of the APPG on Western Sahara)
David Drew MP
Peter Bottomley MP
John Austin MP
John Grogan MP
Katy Clark MP
Paul Flynn MP
Mark Williams MP
Ken Loach (film director)
Terry Jones (actor and Monty Python)
Jill Evans MEP
Paul Laverty (screen writer)
Mark Leutchford (President, Western Sahara Campaign UK)
Y.Lamine Baali (Polisario Front chief UK representative)
Danielle Smith (Director, Sandblast charity)
Giles Foreman (Director, Caravanserai)
Stefan Simanowitz (Chair, Free Western Sahara Network)
John Gurr (Western Sahara Resource Watch)
Version of letter in today's Guardian. See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/02/aminatou-haidar-hunger-strike-morocco
Her deportation has been condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as her friends and supporters around the world including Nobel Laureates Jose Saramago and President Ramos-Horta, film director Pedro Almodovar and actor Javier Bardem. Last week the US State Department called for "a speedy determination of her legal status and full respect for due process and human rights.”
Although bearly able to speak, Haidar has vowed to continue her hunger strike and stated that her action should not be seen as an isolated act of defiance of a single indiviudal but part of the struggle of the entire Saharawi people. “It is true that this hunger strike is about the individual right of one person to return to her home and her family” she said “But it also about the collective right denied to the Saharawi people to live freely in their native land.”
We call on the Moroccan government to return her passport immediately and allow Aminatou Haidar to travel home to her country and to her two young children before it is too late.
Jeremy Corbyn MP (Chair, of the APPG on Western Sahara)
David Drew MP
Peter Bottomley MP
John Austin MP
John Grogan MP
Katy Clark MP
Paul Flynn MP
Mark Williams MP
Ken Loach (film director)
Terry Jones (actor and Monty Python)
Jill Evans MEP
Paul Laverty (screen writer)
Mark Leutchford (President, Western Sahara Campaign UK)
Y.Lamine Baali (Polisario Front chief UK representative)
Danielle Smith (Director, Sandblast charity)
Giles Foreman (Director, Caravanserai)
Stefan Simanowitz (Chair, Free Western Sahara Network)
John Gurr (Western Sahara Resource Watch)
Version of letter in today's Guardian. See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/02/aminatou-haidar-hunger-strike-morocco
Free Western Sahara Network
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