By Colin Murphy
Morocco won control of half of the former Spanish Sahara 33 years ago, and later annexed the rest. Several generations of Saharawis have continued a struggle to be independent, and free of the Moroccan colonial powers. It has cost them everything, but they are not prepared to give up or give in.
Hassan was walking through town one afternoon, killing time, when he bumped into a friend near the football stadium, who said “I’ve got some spray paint.” They agreed to meet later that night, by the bakery.
They met at 12, and walked a short way into a residential quarter. At one end of a long, narrow street, they started spraying in black and red paint. “Down with colonial occupation” and “Viva Polisario”, they wrote, in letters 70cm high. They worked quickly but carefully; they wanted their work to be legible, not artistic. They covered 100 metres of the street with slogans, and by ten past twelve they had finished. On a high, they celebrated with a coffee in the nearby Café Alaska.
That was in May 2007. In October Hassan found himself in a cell in the police station, naked, watching another man being raped with a bottle, by police. He was told that if he didn’t confess, the same would be done to him. He confessed to a crime he says he knew nothing about, the torching of a police car. Later, when he was presented to the chief of police, he refused to repeat his confession, and was taken back to the cells. This time, he was given the faroj or “roast chicken” (a form of torture well-known in the region, he says). He was put in a foetal position with his feet bound and his arms bound around his legs. Then a pole was pushed through behind his knees, and lifted so that he swung from it, upside down, like a chicken on a spit. For three days he was tortured, beaten and insulted, though his interrogators took care not to scar him. He was shown photos of the graffiti and made to write out the same slogans on paper, so that his writing could be compared.
Brought to trial, he entered the courtroom making the victory sign and shouting “No place for colonial justice!” He threatened to go on hunger strike. The judge replied: “You can suffocate yourself if you want; it won’t do you any good.” He was found guilty on the charge of torching the police car and sentenced to 10 months, which he completed in August.
“I’m sure, after your departure, I’ll be arrested again,” he says, and smiles. There is a twinkle in his eye.
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