At Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel, Carne Ross of the diplomatic advisory group Independent Diplomat criticizes a recent article that calls for autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty. He describes “the devastating violence unleashed by Moroccan authorities against the indigenous Saharawi people of Western Sahara in recent days,” including against Sahrawi protesters earlier this week. He argues that “the autonomy proposal is completely at odds with the peace agreement” ...

The BBC reports that three people have been killed in a confrontation between Moroccan security forces and Saharawi protesters in the capital of Western Sahara, Laayoune. The security forces reportedly entered the camp, named Gadaym Izik and housing 12,000 protesters, early in the morning "using helicopters and water cannon to force people to leave." The violence comes as talks between the Moroccan government and the Polisario movement, which seeks ...

In a piece in Foreign Policy, Freedom House highlights the twenty nations it has identified as the "least free" in its 2010 Freedom in the World report. Six nations and territories in the Greater Middle East and North Africa (GMENA) are featured in the piece: Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.Freedom House offers harsh criticism of the human rights and democracy records of the regimes in ...

After a rather heated UN Security Council debate, a majority of the 15-member council voted to extend the UN's peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for one year under the terms of the UN-brokered 1991 ceasefire agreement between Morocco and the Western Saharan-based Polisario Front independence movement. However, the resolution did not include provisions to monitor human rights -- sought by some on the council -- prompting a Polisario spokesman to condemn the ...

In a hearing on the administration's recently released budget request, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs invited Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to give testimony on particular budgetary items relating to U.S. diplomatic and development efforts abroad. Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) opened the hearing with an affirmation of the value of investing in international diplomacy; not only to promote American values, but also as a method of prevention in ...

Human Rights Watch blasts the recent convictions of Tunisian journalists Taofik Ben Brik and Zouhair Makhlouf after unfair trials. Middle East director of HRW, Sarah Leah Whitson, laments that since his sham electoral victory,  President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has been "on a vengeful campaign to punish the few journalists and human rights activists who dared to question his record."Meanwhile, Middle East Online observes that the hunger strike by Western Sahara activist Aminatou ...

Middle East Online reports that Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar has returned home after starting a hunger strike over a month ago. Police stated Haidar fulfilled entry requirements by signing a form that she was "arriving in Morocco." In response to the news, Secretary Clinton said she was "pleased" to hear about Haidar's return.

Amnesty International has called for Morocco to allow Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar, who is currently on a hunger strike after being denied access to her homeland, be allowed to return to the Sahara.  In a petition to Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi, Amnesty called on the “authorities in Morocco to allow her immediate and unconditional return to Laayoune and give her back her passport” and unblock her bank ...

As we reported earlier, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) has released a comprehensive and thorough report, called "Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform," on the state of human rights throughout the Arab world. The full report in Arabic spans 254 pages and chronicles in detail the backsliding on human rights in the region while also identifying a few points of optimism. In addition to the full report, CIHRS has ...

The BBC reports that Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar has once again been refused entry into Morocco from Spain as her hunger strike to protest her treatment enters its fourth week.  At a time of increasing Spanish and Moroccan tensions, Middle East Online reports Haidar was not allowed to fly to her home town in Laayoune in Western Sahara from Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands because she refused to identify herself ...

The Daily Star reports that Moroccan King Muhammad VI has called for action against traitors who threatened the country’s “territorial integrity," a direct warning to Western Sahara independence campaigners. Morocco is currently offering the territory limited autonomy, but the Algerian backed Polisarios are holding out for a referendum offering independence. In a speech on Friday the king asked, "would any democratic country accept the use of democracy and human rights as ...

Western Sahara's independence movement threatens to pull out of talks with Morocco unless seven detained activists are released from jail. At a press conference, a spokesman for the the Polisario Front stated, "the detention of the seven Sahrawi activists and human rights abuses in the occupied Sahrawi territories are a threat to peace and to the negotiations with Morocco." The seven activists were arrested after disembarking from a plane in ...

Aminatou Haidar, an advocate for peaceful resistance in the Western Sahara, won an international peace award from the Train Foundation on Wednesday. Morocco annexed the Western Sahara in 1975, leading to a bloody guerilla war that lasted for over 15 years. According to the Train Foundation, "Haidar is a courageous campaigner for self-determination of Western Sahara from its occupation by Morocco." Rabat has offered autonomy to the region, but regards its ...

Freedom House has just released its Worst of the Worst report, a survey of the most repressive societies as outlined in the Freedom in the World 2009 report. Of the 17 countries and 4 territories profiled in Worst of the Worst, 4 reside in the Middle East; they include Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Western Sahara in Morocco.

The Daily Star reports on the continued push for Western Sahara independence, quoting fears that the territory's autonomy will be sacrificed for a broader Maghreb unity and stability.