Saharawis and Norwegians demonstrated today against the last days of human rights violations in Western Sahara. The protesters also carried out a demonstration in front of the French cultural centre. "Sarkozy, stop blocking human rights", the Sahrawis asked.
10 November 2010, some 30 people demonstrated in front of the Moroccan embassy of Oslo against the human rights violations committed in Western Sahara over the last days.
Also the role of France was brought up, as the Centre Culturel Francais is the Moroccan embassy's neighbour. France is using its position in the UN Security Council to work against the human rights in Western Sahara. The UN peace force in Western Sahara is the only in the world that is not mandated to observe human rights violations, and France is every year vetoing the question as it is raised. In the Security Council this spring, France's double standards when it comes to human rights was noted by the Chinese representative to the UN.
The demonstration was covered on Norwegian national TV in the evening.
Two more Norwegians, who travelled to occupied Western Sahara to learn about Morocco’s controversial energy projects in the territory, were detained by Moroccan police this afternoon and deported.
Today, 25 Moroccan police officers showed up to expel two Norwegians from occupied Western Sahara. The two had traveled to learn what the Sahrawis think about Morocco's controversial renewable energy projects on occupied land.
Sahrawi civil society welcomes a new report from the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance, and urges exhumations and identification of victims in the Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.
This week, Morocco is for the first time placed under review in the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.