Socialists take note of pro-Sahrawi sentiments from rank and file

Two weeks after Moroccan security forces broke up "Camp Dignity," set up by the Sahrawi people on the outskirts of Laâyoune, the capital of Western Sahara, the Socialist government is taking stock of the cost of refusing to condemn Morocco for its actions.

At a party executive meeting on Sunday various high-ranking Socialist Party members said Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero should make renewed efforts to explain the government's position to Spanish society. While falling short of questioning the government's "prudence," they insisted that the Spanish public should be made aware that the party is one of the Sahrawi people's only true allies.

Zapatero repeated the government line that Spain must act with caution to be a credible mediator between the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front, the political movement for independence for the former Spanish colony, which was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Socialist Party executive member Elena Valenciano, responsible for International Policy, is due to meet with representatives of Sahrawi campaign groups on Thursday.

Activists have been keeping up the pressure. On Monday, dozens burst into government offices in Valencia to protest.

The pro-Sahrawi group spokeswoman Nadira Mohamed said they were protesting against the "silence of the Spanish government."

Meanwhile, the family of the man with Spanish nationality Baby Hamday Buyema,who died after the camp's destruction, has lodged a suit with the High Court against Moroccan Interior Minister Taib Cherkaui for crimes against humanity and "murder." This is the second suit filed at the High Court for the events in Laâyoune on November 8, when three days of riots allegedly claimed the lives of as many as 19 people, and hundreds more were arrested.

The first suit was brought by the Spanish Human Rights League against the Head of Moroccan special forces.

Hamday's brother, Lammad Mulud Ali, has called Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez as a witness and is demanding that Laâyoune's governor be taken into preventative custody.