Moroccan police, students clash

RABAT- Moroccan riot police, wielding truncheons, clashed yesterday with stone-throwing students demanding independence for Western Sahara.

Saharawi students have staged a sit-in since Monday at Mohamed V university in the capital, Rabat. Yesterday morning, riot police chased students, who scattered into small groups, through university grounds.Students said that police later beat some of them with truncheons.Police and Saharawi students also clashed this week at Hassan II university in Casablanca, Morocco’s commercial centre and largest city, students there said.Morocco took over Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew.The Algerian-backed independence movement the Polisario Front resisted until a UN brokered cease-fire in 1991.Most Saharawis favour independence and stage regular demonstrations, which police often put down.Morocco has rejected a referendum but said it will hold talks with the Polisario Front on Western Sahara’s future under UN auspices.No date for the talks has yet been set.Nampa-APYesterday morning, riot police chased students, who scattered into small groups, through university grounds.Students said that police later beat some of them with truncheons.Police and Saharawi students also clashed this week at Hassan II university in Casablanca, Morocco’s commercial centre and largest city, students there said.Morocco took over Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew.The Algerian-backed independence movement the Polisario Front resisted until a UN brokered cease-fire in 1991.Most Saharawis favour independence and stage regular demonstrations, which police often put down.Morocco has rejected a referendum but said it will hold talks with the Polisario Front on Western Sahara’s future under UN auspices.No date for the talks has yet been set.Nampa-AP