Western Sahara activist taken to hospital

Aminatou Haidar, who has been battling for the independence of Western Sahara, was taken to hospital after a month-long hunger strike at a Spanish airport.

AFP - Western Sahara independence activist Aminatou Haidar was taken to hospital at her own request early Thursday from the Spanish airport where she has been staging a hunger strike for more than a month, one her aides said.
   
The aide, Edi Escobar, said Haidar was taken to hospital by ambulance  shortly after midnight to be examined by doctors after suffering severe nausea and abdominal pains.
   
Hospital sources said she had also vomited blood. They said she is severely dehydrated but remains conscious, and emphasised that there were no plans to force-feed her.
   
Escobar said Haidar plans to maintain the hunger strike she began on November 16 to force Morocco to allow her to return home.
   
Haidar launched the protest in Lanzarote airport, in Spain's Canary Islands, days after Rabat denied her entry to her native Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco in 1975.
   
The 42-year-old mother of two, a leading activist for the independence of Western Sahara, was returning to her hometown of Laayoune after a trip to receive a human rights award in the United States.
   
She was taken to hospital just hours after her sister, Laila Haidar, flew to Lanzarote to visit her.
   
Earlier Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told parliament the government "has worked and is working every hour, every minute to resolve this situation. We hope it can be resolved quickly and favourably."
   
Haidar has already turned down a Spanish offer of citizenship or political asylum, vowing to return to Western Sahara "dead or alive, with or without my passport."
   
Morocco says it will not allow Haidar to return, saying she had rejected her Moroccan nationality and passport, an account she has denied.
   
Morocco annexed the Western Sahara following the withdrawal of colonial power Spain in the dying days of the regime of right-wing dictator Francisco Franco, sparking a war with the Algeria-backed Polisario Front movement.
   
The two sides agreed a ceasefire in 1991, but UN-sponsored talks on its future have since made no headway.
   
Morocco has pledged to grant the phosphate-rich territory widespread autonomy, but rules out independence.

 

Date created : 2009-12-17