[fund] persecution of opposition

WLUML's solidarity letter to human rights defender, Aminatou Haidar. The Moroccan government is blocking Ms. Haidar from returning to her home in Western Sahara. She is in the fourth week of a hunger strike at Lanzarote airport. (For regular updates on her critical situation, please go to: http://freesahara.ning.com/)

Today the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies released its second annual report on the state of human rights in the Arab world for the year 2009.  The report, entitled Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, concludes that the human rights situation in the Arab region has deteriorated throughout the region over the last year. The report reviews the most significant developments in human rights during 2009 in 12 Arab countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen. It also devotes separate chapters to the Arab League and an analysis of the performance of Arab governments in UN human rights institutions.

Aminatou Haidar, who is 42 and has two children, was detained at Laayoune airport, Western Sahara on 13 November when she returned from a month-long trip, to countries including the USA, where she accepted the 2009 Civil Courage Prize, which is awarded every year "for steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk." She was questioned about why she had given her home as "Western Sahara" rather than "Moroccan Sahara" on her landing card; she was also asked about her travel, as well as her political opinions and affiliations.

Media Hobbled and Mobile Communications Shut Down; Moussavi and Karroubi Feared Under House Arrest: Massive Iranian security and paramilitary forces are tear-gassing, beating, and arresting students on university campuses taking part in National Student Day demonstrations, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported today.  The crack-down is taking place as authorities have forbidden international journalists from observing the events, and shut down internet and mobile-telephone communications, in an apparent attempt to suppress the flow of information and to thwart coordination of the protests.  Leaders of the reform movement have been prevented from joining protesters.