On Thursday 19th June Moroccan Security Forces attacked the house of Said Dambar’s family. Said was shot and killed by Moroccan police on the 21st December 2010. A number of Saharawis were protesting outside his family house on Thursday to express their support for the family. Approximately 30 Saharawis, mostly women and including Said's mother are reported to have been injured.
Said’s family have been calling on the Moroccan authorities to investigate his death. They have so far failed to do so. Below is a recent letter they sent to Security Council members
The Western Sahara Campaign calls on the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate this violence and for the Moroccan authorities to immediately conduct an impartial investigation into Said Dambar’s death.
Video of Moroccan Security Forces attacking the family's home
Letter from Said Damber's family
Arrecife de Lanzarote, April, 25, 2011
REF.: Death of a young man by police gun shot, and authorities refuse to restitute his body to his family
We, undersigning parties to the following request, Sidahmed Abdelwahab DAMBAR, born in Saguia El Hamra, living in Laayoune, father of the victim. Mrs. Khira Ahmed Lmbarek, born in Tan Tan, living in Laayoune, mother of the victim.
On behalf of all the members of the family of the Saharawi Martyr, Said Sidahmed Abdelwahab DAMBAR, born in Fez killed by Moroccan police last December 2010 in the circumstances indicated below. Supported by an international campaign that collected so far 6000 signatures of support, and backed by the municipality of San Bartolomé, and the Council of Lanzarote, we would like to inform you:
1- That we would like to express our deepest concerns about the serious situation lived by our people, the people of Western Sahara, because of the illegal occupation of our Non-Self-Governing territory by the Kingdom of Morocco for the last for decades, deprived of the free exercise of their most fundamental rights of freedom of expression and other political, social, economic rights. Any attempt by Saharawis to demand these rights through peaceful means is systematically oppressed by the Moroccan police. The Moroccan authorities are not only impeding the exercise by the Saharawi people of these rights, but most serious is the Moroccan refusal to enable the people of this last colony to exercise their right to self-determination as recognized to them by the UN Charter and UN resolutions.
2- That because of the points risen in paragraph 1, we would like as members of the people of Western Sahara to denounce the Moroccan systematic violations of human rights of the Saharawi civilians in the zones of the territory occupied by its forces since 1975. Such violations have been reported in many international reports. One of the latest violations was committed against peaceful demonstrators last November 2010 in the protest encampment of Gdeim Izik 12 Km east the capital of Western Sahara. The Moroccan army and police, it should be recalled attacked the camps of around 8000 tent, dismantled it setting it on fire causing many injuries and killing at least two victims.
3- That there is no way our family and any Saharwi victim can be protected from the Moroccan violations and oppression because there are no reliable Moroccan institutions or legal bodies that can guarantee the respect and monitoring of human rights in Western Sahara independently. The Moroccan authorities, which are de facto administrating the Non-Self-Governing territory of Western Sahara, has always failed their obligations to protect the basic rights of the people of the territory. The judicial system of Morocco for example has always refused to investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment exercised by the Moroccan police and army to extract information from arrested demonstrators, human rights defender or political activists who oppose the Moroccan official stand on Western Sahara. Our son, Said Sidahmed Abdelwahab Dambar, is not the first Saharawi citizen to be killed by Moroccan police or army in circumstances that the state of Morocco always refuses to unveil. The Moroccan Royal Council for Human Rights has for example recognized lately the responsibility of the State in the death under torture or in prison of some 350 Saharawis between 1975 and 1993, a recognition so far denied.
4- Last December 21, 2010, our son SAID DAMBAR, was coldly assassinated by a Moroccan policeman, during the siege imposed on the city of EL Aaiún, after the dismantling of Gdeim Izik protest camp.
SAID DAMBAR, was 26 years old, a university graduate in Economy and worked in the municipality of the city of El Aaiún. He is famous of his exemplary reputation and special relation with our father. He was also famous of having been an exemplary student, sportsperson and hard-working, but also of his support to the struggle of our people and concern about the general situation.
In the evening of the 21st of December of 2010, SAID got of a cyber-café after he finished watching a football match, minutes after two policemen dressed in civil clothes stopped him and asked for his ID. According to eye witnesses, SAID didn’t have his ID on him, for this a tense discussion started between him and the policemen. One of the policemen took his gun and shot him in the head without any apparent reason.
Minutes later, our house was surrounded by a group of policemen in civil clothes who entered the house saying that they are looking for the ID of SAID, in the end they asked his elder brother Mohamed to accompany them to the seat of the Moroccan Governor of El Aaiún, where he was given a suspicious story about what happened. The governor of El Aaiún tried to buy the silence of the family. Since that date our family has been demanding from the Moroccan authorities to tell the truth about what happened to our son and the causes of his death, in vain. The dead body of our late brother is until now in the hospital of Ben EL Mehdi, in the city of El Aaiún, we still cannot burry him as he deserves following the relevant religious and cultural rituals. The Moroccan authorities refuse completely to give any kind of accountability and do not want to give us back the dead body of SAID, putting pressures on us to bury him in secret, without autopsy or investigation.
5- Not only this, the Moroccan authorities are exercising all kinds of intimidations and pressures against the members of our family attempting to abort any attempts we can think of undertaking to get justice.
6- For all the above mentioned reasons, we call on the Human Rights Council to urgently intervene vis-à-vis the Moroccan competent authorities so as it: - Restitute the dead corps of our son SAID, still detained in morgue of the hospital in El Aaiún under police custody.
- Investigate adequately to find out the details about the causes of the death of our son before we can bury him appropriately. - To give to the family an adequate moral and material reparation and to establish the responsibility of the Moroccan state in the crime, in addition to the arrest and judgment of the persons directly accountable of it.
7- We also call on the Human Rights Council to: - Adopt all available measures vis-à-vis the Moroccan authorities so as to establish the truth about what happened on the night of the crime. - Adopt all necessary measures so as to investigate on many other cases of assassinations, illegal arrest and torture of civilians, and other serious human rights violations massively committed by the Moroccan authorities in the zones of Western Sahara it adminstrates.
8- Finally, it is unacceptable that the State of Morocco not only kills our son and tries to intimidate us with a view to force us burry him without any autopsy or investigation and reparation. This is not only illegal, it is also inhumane, and the Human Rights Council should take an urgent action to enable us end this tragedy.
WESTERN SAHARA CAMPAIGN UK
The Western Sahara Campaign works in solidarity with the Saharawi people to generate political support in order to advance their right to self-determination and to promote their human rights.
Our role is to lobby the UK Government and the EU. You can help us to ensure the UK does not ignore the voice of the Saharawi people.
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