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HRW tells Morocco: stop mistreating detained Sahrawis

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 26 November 2010 14:33 GMT

* Moroccan police beat Sahrawi detainees-rights group

* Polisario wants independent probe into violence

* Morocco, rights group disagree over Nov. 8 shooting

RABAT, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch urged Moroccan authorities on Friday to stop what it called the mistreatment of Sahrawi detainees arrested after a deadly clash earlier this month in the disputed Western Sahara desert territory.

Moroccan Communication Minister Khalid Naciri, also the government spokesman, told Reuters he could not immediately comment on the New York-based rights group's report.

Rabat has said that 11 members of its security forces were among 13 people who died in violence caused by the breaking up of a protest camp in the outskirts of the territory's main city Laayoune on Nov. 8. [ID:nLDE6A70T6]

After visiting Laayoune, Human Rights Watch said at least 100 protesters were still under arrest, including nine who could face trial by a military court in Rabat.

"Moroccan authorities have to immediately stop mistreatment of the detainees and allow an independent investigation into the attacks," the rights group said.

HRW said it had evidence that Moroccan security forces had opened fire during clashes with protesters in Laayoune, Western Sahara's main city, on Nov.8.

It quoted the government as denying that its security forces had "fired a single bullet" in the clashes in the former Spanish colony, which was annexed by Morocco in 1975.

The region has been the centre of a dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement for decades.

This month's violence, some of the worst in years, prompted the Polisario Front to seek an independent U.N. investigation.

On Thursday, European lawmakers voted in favour of a U.N.-backed independent investigation into the violence. [ID:nLDE6AO1JW]

HRW said it had met witnesses "with serious bruises and new injuries indicating that they had been beaten while detained".

"Hundreds of Sahrawis had been arrested by Moroccan security forces following the Nov.8 violence, more than 100 of whom are still detained," it said in the report, which also quoted some detainees as saying police had threatened to rape them.

The government said its security forces had dealt with the protesters in a "deliberately peaceful manner", blaming what it had called pro-Polisario militias for the violence.

It called EU lawmakers' vote for an independent investigation "hasty, biased, unjust and not objective", and said Spain's main opposition Popular Party had swayed the EU parliament because of what it called a "colonial grudge". (Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; editing by Tim Pearce)

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