They call Aminatou Haidar the Gandhi of the Western Sahara. And the latest unlikely backdrop to her struggle for the independence of her forgotten desert homeland is a check-in hall full of sunburned tourists at Arrecife airport on the Canary island of Lanzarote.
Haidar went on hunger strike 12 days ago after being expelled from her home and having her passport taken away by Morocco, which annexed the former Spanish colony in 1976.
Her alleged crime was that on returning from New York after picking up the Train Foundation civil courage award, she refused to fill in the citizenship line on her customs form and wrote “Western Sahara” on the address line.
Moroccan officials told her that the disputed Western Sahara, where she and 100,000 fellow Sahrawis live, does not exist, saying it is part of Morocco. After her passport was taken away, she was placed on a plane to Spain.
Haidar’s health continued to deteriorate on Saturday amid growing worldwide concern, with US President Barack Obama’s administration and Amnesty International both expressing worry.
“She is a very strong, very special woman, but she is weak because she has not eaten for 12 days,” said Jordi Ferrer, a Spanish friend and documentary filmmaker who was with her yesterday. “She has an ulcer and the doctors say things will get a lot worse if she carries on next week.”
Haidar, a former Nobel peace prize nominee, was held for four years without charge in secret Moroccan jails, where she said she was tortured. She was also beaten by police for taking part in peaceful pro-independence demonstrations.
Moroccan Ambassador to Spain Omar Azziman accused Haidar of behaving like a militant from Polisario, the Sahrawi rebel movement seeking independence for Western Sahara.
“Why should the Moroccan government seek a solution for a woman who denies that she is Moroccan?” he asked.
But her hunger strike has won support from Spanish celebrities such as film director Pedro Almodovar, Nobel laureate Jose Saramago and from the powerful Kennedy family in the US. Yesterday, Almodovar and hundreds of Spanish artists, intellectuals and leftwing politicians were due to hold a protest meeting in Madrid.
Pressure is also, increasingly, coming from Washington.
“The United States remains concerned about the health and wellbeing of Sahrawi activist Aminatou Haidar,” US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. “We urge a speedy determination of her legal status and full respect for due process and human rights.”
John Train, the wealthy patron of the civil courage prize that Haidar was awarded in New York, said: “She is one of many brave people all around the world who resist intimidation, ostracism and pressure, and risk their lives, to promote freedom and justice.”
Meanwhile, Spain has offered Spanish nationality to Haidar in an attempt to persuade her to end a hunger strike in protest at Morocco’s refusal to allow her to return to her desert home.
Spanish authorities, worried that the prominent independence activist might die on their territory, have sought a deal with Moroccan authorities to allow her to return to her homeland.
Haidar says Morocco has to give her passport back and refuses to ask them for another one. She says she wants to return to the Western Sahara.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told Spanish radio that he hoped she would accept a Spanish passport, despite her not meeting any of the usual criteria for Spanish citizenship.
“In order to show we’re prepared to do whatever is necessary, we’ve made an exception on humanitarian grounds,” he said. “We’ll try to get her Spanish nationality and a Spanish passport as quickly as possible.”
Haidar has already rejected an offer from Spanish authorities to grant her refugee status, which would allow her papers to cross international borders.
She told newspaper El Pais she was prepared to die if she could not return home.
“Between my children and my dignity, I prefer my dignity. They will live without a mother, but with dignity,” she said.
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