WESTERN SAHARA: Norwegian delegation deported

A delegation of Norwegian nationals was deported on July 5 by Moroccan authorities from the long-contested Western Sahara region. The delegation, led by Arne Lynngard, chairperson of the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, included representatives of the Norwegian Labour Party, the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees, as well as the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara. It had planned to monitor the trial of 16 young Saharawi political activists, but was taken by force from a hotel in Laayoune and sent to Agadir, some 600 kilometres away. In recent months there have been several pro-independence protests in Western Sahara and other foreign nationals have been deported. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, but the Polisario Front has since been win the Saharawi nation's independence.

From Green Left Weekly, July 13, 2005.

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From GLW issue 633