Tension mounts in Western Sahara - boy reported killed

Mon, 25 Oct 2010

Madrid - Tension is mounting in Western Sahara after Moroccan soldiers killed a 14-year-boy participating in a large-scale protest movement, Spanish media reports said Monday.

Soldiers fired at the vehicle the boy, identified as Nayem el-Gareh, was traveling in, when it did not stop at a checkpoint. Several other people were injured and taken to hospital.

Thousands of people have set up a protest camp at about 15 kilometers east of the Saharan capital Laayoun to demand better housing, jobs and other improvements for the desert region, which Morocco annexed after the colonial power Spain withdrew in 1975.

The protest was not officially associated with the Western Saharan independence movement Polisario, the daily El Pais said. The daily described the protest as the biggest in Western Sahara since 1975.

Morocco had sent officials to negotiate with the protesters, reports said. Moroccan government spokesman Taieb Fassi-Fihri accused Polisario of trying to politicize social questions.

The protest was launched about three weeks before Morocco and Polisario were due to relaunch their UN-sponsored negotiations in New York in early November.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350208,-boy-reported-killed.html.