Two Sahrawi girls were stopped on the street and harassed by Moroccan police Sunday. One was the rape victim from February, the other was the sister of Elkouria Amidane, Maimouna.
Sunday 22nd of March, at about 6:30 PM, two Sahrawi girls were harassed by Moroccan police on a street of El Aaiun.
A civilian police car, which normally drives around the house of the Amidane family, stopped in front of Maimouna Amidane and her friend, near Amidane's house. Maimuna is the sister of the Student Peace Prize laureate Elkouria Amidane.
One of the police officers was the same person whom according to Maimuna's friend participated in the rape against her in February 2009. The same officer has repeatedly participated in storming of Amidane's house.
The police asked the girls their names, and insulted them. Standing between the door of the police car and the wall, the two girls were slapped in their face and on other parts of the body. One of the police officers took the school books of Maimuna, and searched them, before returning them.
The police man I charge threatened Mamouna's friend to be raped again. After being told to "fuck off", she run away. Then Maimuna was insulted.
“Do you still remember me?”, one of the policemen said to Maimuna. The same policeman had participated in the beating of the Amidane family in November 2007. The policeman in charge threatened Maimuna to be given the same treatment as her friend in February, and she was told to "fuck off".
As far as the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara has been able to establish, reports from yesterday, that the two girls had been arrested and tortured, are not correct.
They were beaten with batons until they nearly lost consciousness and threatened with rape if they did not confess. This is the testimony of recently released Sahrawi students in a new report following a decade in Moroccan prisons.
The Moroccan film festival Dakhla International Film Festival is rapidly deleting critical comments from its social media channels.