Spain in quandary over Western Sahara activist

Nov 23, 2009, 12:12 GMT

Madrid - Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Monday rejected criticism over the government's handling of the case of Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar, who went into her eighth day of a hunger strike at the airport of the Canary Island of Lanzarote.

There was no other solution than Haidar accepting Spanish refugee status or a new Moroccan passport, Moratinos told a parliamentary commission.

Haidar, who has won several human rights awards, defends the independence of Western Sahara, which Morocco annexed after 1975.

The current situation with Haidar began on November 13, when she flew to the Western Saharan capital Laayoun from the Canary Islands.

Morocco barred her entry, because she declared her nationality as Saharan instead of Moroccan. The Moroccan authorities confiscated her passport and put her on a plane to Lanzarote.

The Spanish authorities said she could not travel back to Laayoun, because she had no passport.

The hunger strike of the activist drew support from Spanish film directors, actors and Portuguese Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago.

Haidar reiterated on Monday that she rejected Spain's offer to resolve the situation by granting her refugee status in order to allow her to travel.

Haidar also rejected the possibility of getting a new Moroccan passport.

The Moroccan ambassador to Spain said earlier that Haidar might get her passport back if she admitted to being a Moroccan national.

Omar Azziman accused Haidar of being an 'agent' of the Western Saharan independence movement Polisario Front.

Moratinos has discussed the case with his Moroccan counterpart Tayeb Fassi Fihri.

Morocco is offering autonomy to Western Sahara instead of the referendum on independence proposed by the United Nations in 1991.

Morocco is seen by many observers as stepping up pressure on Saharan separatists, with King Mohammed VI warning that those who were not 'patriots' were 'traitors.'