Jean-Paul Lecoq, Communist deputy from Seine-Maritime was expelled from Casablanca (Morocco) on November 8. He was trying to reach El Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara occupied by Morocco, where the Sahrawi population undergoes a crackdown reminiscent of the dark hours.
Since 1993, the City of Gonfreville l'Orcher is twinned J'Refia with a Saharawi refugee town in the Algerian desert because of the occupation of Western Sahara the Moroccan invader. So it's not on a whim that Jean-Paul Lecoq (PCF deputy mayor of the town) tried to go to El Aaiun Sunday night as an "observer". Present at Le Mans in late October for the 36th Conference of the Committee support the Saharawi people (EUCOCO), a member member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly has been warned about the ongoing violence in the occupied territories.
Upon arrival in Casablanca airport on Sunday evening, Jean-Paul Lecoq has been available to a welcoming committee muscular. " I was arrested by police who told me that the area was prohibited. I was asked for my passport. Two hours later, I have been restored with a direct return ticket to Paris. It is unacceptable that prevents parliamentarians to see what's happening in El Aaiun , "said the member who was also surprised not to have had contact with the Embassy of France during his short stay in Morocco. The Quai d'Orsay has raised no objection ... " Was I a member as embarrassing for Morocco for France "asks the Parliament.
Meanwhile, alarming news always arrive in El Aaiun, where clashes have left several people dead. Concern is also great for Camp Freedom Gdem Izik (located east of El Aaiun), where the Moroccan forces intervened on Monday to destroy the tents where approximately 20,000 Sahrawi. Helicopters dropped tear gas and water cannons have attacked people protesting peacefully. It is difficult to obtain accurate information. Fear and censorship throw a lead weight on the region. As elected foreign journalists are unwelcome there. English reporters were turned away these days. That the Moroccan government wants to hide?
Western Sahara occupied by Morocco since 1975, when the Green March commanded by Hassan II. Western Sahara is now the only territory not decolonization of Africa. Beyond the repression that crushed the Saharawi people for decades, Morocco illegally plundering the natural resources of Western Sahara with the complicity of European countries, including France.
The French government should cease its unconditional support to the Moroccan government and must act to ensure that the UN organized a referendum on self-determination as it has engaged in ... 1991. " What is happening today is the result of non-compliance with the fundamental right of the Sahrawi people to freely choose their destiny ", recently explained Mohamed Abdel Aziz, President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and Secretary General of the Frente Polisario.
Jean-Paul Lecoq was reached on November 9 at the National Assembly to request an emergency meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.
Paco, 11/11/10
