Sahrawi Prisoners End Hunger Strike

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Seven Sahrawi men who launched a hunger strike last month at a jail in Moroccan-annexed Western Sahara have ended their protest after being promised better conditions, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Citing witnesses, the London-based watchdog said on September 19 that the men had been beaten in front of other detainees at the prison in Laayoune after being arrested at a demonstration in early 2014.

The Moroccan authorities flatly dismissed the allegations.

Amnesty said Wednesday that six of the men ended their hunger strike on September 22 after the authorities "pledged to improve their detention conditions" following complaints their relatives lodged about "torture and other ill-treatment".

The seventh man was transferred to Ait Melloul prison 600 kilometers (370 miles) away from his family in Laayoune.

He ended his hunger strike on September 25 after the authorities said they would seek to move him to a jail closer to home.

The prison in Laayoune filed a complaint against the seven, "alleging that they assaulted prison guards, claims which they reject," said Amnesty.

On Tuesday the Moroccan justice ministry said an investigation into the case completely exonerated the authorities.

Morocco, which annexed Western Sahara in the 1970s, is highly sensitive to criticism of its policies in a region that is disputed by Algeria.

The kingdom is strongly opposed to extending the mandate of the United Nations mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) which has mainly been charged with monitoring a ceasefire since 1991.

Western Sahara has mostly been under Morocco's control since Spanish colonizers left in the 1970s, but it is claimed by the Algerian-backed separatists of the Polisario Front.

Rabat has proposed autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty for the vast desert region, which has fewer than one million inhabitants, while Polisario wants a referendum on the territory's status.

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