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December 18, 2009

Haidar Returns Home After Month-Long Hunger Strike
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The Western Sahara independence activist Aminatou Haidar has returned
home after a more than month-long hunger strike that brought her close
to death. Haidar began her hunger strike after Moroccan officials barred
her from returning to Western Sahara unless she recognize Moroccan
sovereignty over her homeland. On Thursday, Morocco relented under a
deal brokered with France and Spain. Haidar was released from intensive
care and flown to the Western Sahara city of Laayoune earlier today.
Haidar called her return “a triumph for international law, for human
rights, for international justice and for the cause” of Western Sahara.



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