Washington D.C., June 18, 2010: Sahrawi Pro-independence activists continued to be detained and harassed by the Moroccan Authorities, and the conditions on the ground for most Sahrawis remained poor, according to Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2010 Survey Release.

As the occupying force in Western Sahara, Morocco controls local elections and works to ensure that independence-minded leaders are excluded from both the local political process and the Moroccan Parliament.

El-Aiun Western Sahara / Thursday, June 17, evening, a Moroccan police patrol abducted Hasana Aalaia in a public street in the city of El-Aaiun - Western Sahara

The Saharawi activist was beaten and interrogated before being released in a deserted place far from the city.

According to Hasana Aalaia, 22 years old, the patrol police elements surrounded him in the street on 24 November while he was accompanied by his colleague, Mohammad Hali, 23.

 They punched and forced him to ride the patrol car.

Laayoune, June 14, 2010: Seven Sahrawi citizens were injured in the occupied city of Laayoune, when the Moroccan authorities intervened violently to suppress a peaceful demonstration demanding the right to employment and benefit from their plentiful resources, according to the Ministry of Occupied Territories and Communities Abroad.

A 30-year-old refugee population, tens of thousands of settlers, a 1,000-mile minefield, a stalled peace process.

New York, June 12, 2010:  A new book, Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, has been published recently on the question of Western Sahara as one of the world’s last vestiges of colonialism, by authors Stephen Zunes and Jacob Mundy, providing valuable insights on the importance of enabling the people of the Western Sahara to determine their own future through a democratic referendum.

Casablanca (Morocco), June 12, 2010: The judicial Police in Casablanca arrested Friday Dr. Abbas Mohammed Sheikh Sibai, whom observers considered a prominent and active in the defense of human rights in southern Morocco, particularly in the region of M'hamid El Ghizlane.

Sibai has been arrested from a hotel in the city, where he was taken to police headquarters before being handed over to a special task force of the Moroccan gendarmes, with his family unable to know the reasons for his arrest, according to human rights sources.

Sydney (Australia), June 10, 2010: The Sydney Centre for International Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney organised Wednesday a public Seminar under the title: The Unfinished Business of Decolonisation: West Papua and Western Sahara as Occupied Territories, according to the Polisario Front Representation in Australia.

Oslo (Norway), June 10, 2010:  Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP) announced June 1, that it has excluded two new corporations from its investment portfolio, American-Canadian PCS and American-Spanish FMC Corp, for purchasing their raw materials from the occupied Western Sahara, the company indicated Monday in a statement.

Laayoune, June 10, 2010: International observers have condemned Tuesday the " persecution and harassment" by a large number of Moroccan police officers, most of them in plainclothes, of nine Sahrawi human rights activists during their reception on their return to the occupied city of Laayoune from a family visit to the Saharawi refugee camps.

Russia has now signed a fisheries agreement with Morocco, permitting the Russian fleet to fish occupied offshore Western Sahara. The indigenous Saharawis have not been consulted, and the agreement is thus in violation of international law.