- Mohammed Daddach
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Sidi Mohammed Daddach
سيدي محمد دداشBorn 1957
Guelta Zemmur, Spanish SaharaResidence El Aaiún, Western Sahara Ethnicity Sahrawi Known for Human rights defender, Political activist Religion Sunni Islam Children three Parents Enguia Bakay Lahbib (mother) Awards Rafto prize, Badajoz Bar Association Human Rights Award Sidi Mohammed Daddach (Arabic: سيدي محمد دداش) (b. 1957 in Guelta Zemmur, Western Sahara) is a Sahrawi human rights defender & political activist, and former political prisoner for 24 years, being the second longest-condemn of a political prisoner in Africa, after Nelson Mandela. For that reason he's often called "North African Mandela"[1][2] or "Sahrawi Mandela".[3][4]
Imprisoned for more than two decades by the Moroccan authorities, Daddach has become an important symbol of Western Sahara’s struggle for self-determination, as the Sahrawi activist who has spent more years in Moroccan prisons. He has spoken forcefully about Morocco’s human rights violations, and drawn the world's attention to the hundreds of Sahrawis who have "disappeared" after the Moroccan invasion in 1975.
In 1973 he joined the Polisario Front, the Western Sahara national liberation movement.[5] In early 1976, as the Moroccan & Mauritanian troops invaded Western Sahara, Daddach fled with some friends trying to reach Tindouf to join the Polisario Front troops (Sahrawi People's Liberation Army), but their jeep was gunned & intercepted by Moroccan troops near Amgala. After two years of imprisonment (first in a militar base in Marrakech, then in a subterranean cell), he was forced to join the Moroccan Army.[4]
Daddach was again arrested & badly injured in August 1979, when he tried to defect with other soldiers, and sentenced to death on April 7, 1980 for alleged "high treason".[1] He was imprisoned in Kenitra prison. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1994.[5] On November 7, 2001, he was released by a royal amnesty,[6] after years of campaigning for his liberation by Amnesty International (who declared him prisoner of conscience in 1997) and other human rights organizations, such as the Sahrawi group AFAPREDESA.
In 2002 he was awarded the Rafto Prize for his efforts,[7] and after some difficulties obtaining a passport, he was finally able to go to collect the prize in Norway, where he also met his mother for the first time since 1975 - she presently lives in exile in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria -.
In 2009, he was awarded with the Human Rights Award of the Badajoz Bar Association, for his defense of Human Rights. The prize was given by Guillermo Fernández Vara, president of Extremadura.
He is one of very few leading human rights-activists who have not been jailed during the political protests that began in May 2005, dubbed the "Independence Intifada" by Sahrawi sympathizers. Still, he has been repeatedly pressured and harassed by Moroccan security services since his release.[8][9][10]
See also
External links
- Sidi Mohammed Daddach, Activista Saharaui:«Me han robado mi vida, pero me incentiva que no haya sido en vano»(Spanish)
- Interview with Sidi Mohammad Daddach - by Afrol News
- Letters of gratitude from Mohammed Daddach & his mother to the EUCOCO(Spanish)
- Campaign for the release of Mohammad Daddach and all Sahrawi political prisoners - old homepage
References
- ^ a b "España niega el visado para viajar a Canarias a un símbolo de los derechos humanos en el Sáhara". Archipielagonoticias.com. 26-06-2008. http://www.archipielagonoticias.com/content/view/10719/28/. Retrieved 01-10-2011. (Spanish)
- ^ España asegura que Daddach no presentó la documentación necesaria para obtener el visado (Spanish)
- ^ "La posición del Gobierno español no se puede entender" (Spanish)
- ^ a b "Sidi Mohamed Daddach: "Canarias debe evitar invertir en zona ocupada"". La Opinión. 05-01-2009. http://www.laopinion.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2009010500_7_191208__Internacional-Sidi-Mohamed-Daddach-Canarias-debe-evitar-invertir-zona-ocupada. Retrieved 28-12-2010. (Spanish)
- ^ a b Nicolien Zuijdgeest (February 2002). "Pardon for Mohamed Daddach". ARSO (Wordt Vervolgd - Amnesty International Dutch section). http://www.arso.org/NicoDaddach2002.htm. Retrieved 28-12-2010.
- ^ Amnesty for Sahrawi political prisoners and Mohamed Daddach
- ^ 2002: Sidi Mohammed Daddach (1957) Rafto Foundation for Human Rights
- ^ Occupied territories - Harassment ARSO
- ^ Occupied territories ARSO
- ^ Saharawi Human Rights Activists Communiqué ARSO
Categories:- 1950s births
- Living people
- Sahrawi democracy activists
- Sahrawi human rights activists
- Sahrawi rebels
- Human rights activists
- Victims of human rights abuses
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