Spain asks UN chief Ban to resolve situation of Sahara activist

Dec 1, 2009, 14:26 GMT

Lanzarote, Spain - The Spanish government has asked United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to resolve the situation of Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar, a senior foreign ministry official said Tuesday.

Agustin Santos spoke at the airport of the Canary Island of Lanzarote where Haidar's hunger strike went into its 16th day.

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

The Canaries regional government meanwhile urged Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government to find a solution 'within hours' as Haidar's health worsened.

Many prominent Spaniards and Portuguese Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago have mobilized in support of Haidar, who flew to the Western Saharan capital Laayoun from the Canary Islands on November 13.

Morocco barred Haidar entry, because she announced her nationality as Saharan instead of Moroccan.

Moroccan authorities confiscated Haidar's passport and put her on a plane to Lanzarote. Spain let her in, but said she could not travel back to Laayoun because she had no passport.

Spain later discussed the case with Morocco, but Haidar has rejected proposals to grant her Spanish nationality or a new Moroccan passport to allow her to travel.

Pressure has mounted on Spain to solve the case of the activist, whom Moroccan representatives have described as being an 'agent' of the Western Saharan independence movement Polisario Front.

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