Western Sahara activist collapses during hunger strike at Lanzarote Airport

Western Sahara activist collapses during hunger strike at Lanzarote Airport
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By m.p. - Nov 29, 2009 - 8:42 PM
Aminatou Haidar has refused an offer of Spanish nationality made by Foreign Minister Moratinos

Aminatou Haidar during her protest in Lanzarote - EFE

The award-winning Western Sahara human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, known as the Saharawi people’s Gandhi, collapsed on Sunday on the 14th day of the hunger strike she has been holding at Lanzarote Airport. Haidar has refused to eat since 16th November after arriving on the island two days previously when she was expelled by Morocco for writing her nationality as ‘Saharawi’ on the entry form at the airport in Laayoune, the administrative capital of the disputed territory.

Spain then said she could only return to Laayoune with a passport, which was withheld by the Moroccan authorities when she was deported.

A representative from Spain’s Foreign Ministry travelled to Lanzarote on Sunday to speak in person with Aminatou Haidar and pass on the offer from the Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, of granting her Spanish nationality in an attempt to resolve the situation. Haidar’s health has been deteriorating increasingly over the past days and she is reported to have fainted two hours into her meeting with the Foreign Minister’s chief of staff, Agustín Santos.

The meeting later continued without her presence, following which Aminatou Haidar’s lawyer, Inés Miranda, announced that her client would continue with her protest and had rejected the Foreign Ministry’s proposal as she did not want to be ‘a foreigner in her home’. She also turned down the two other alternatives offered of refugee status in Spain for herself and her family and of a Moroccan passport which would have been issued by the Moroccan authorities in Spain.

The Spanish film director, Pedro Almódovar, was one of hundreds who attended a concert held in solidarity with Aminatou Haidar in Rivas, Madrid, on Sunday. He told EFE that he fears for the activist’s life. ‘If I was a member of the government,’ he said, ‘I would be there with her today, and I would tell her that she does not have to show her dignity with her death’.

The actress, Pilar Bardem, was also another who was there at the auditorium in Rivas and called on the Spanish king, as ‘such a good friend of Morocco’ to intervene. Others were heard shouting out for the resignation of Miguel Ángel Moratinos.

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