Plan B - Executed

 Hi Friends and Fam,

I want to update you on what is happening to the Khaya family since Lacksana and I were deported and not able to get to the their home in Boujdour, Western Sahara. The local team (in Boujdour) implemented "Plan B" (which was at the ready since we knew from the beginning that there was a very good chance we would not get in.) Sultana Khaya and the two field volunteers (Ruth McDonough and Tim Pluta) that we were to replace, successfully made it to the Canary Islands. Sultana's sister Waari, her mother Mitou, and other family members will be joining her soon. 

Sultana, Ruth, and Tim were greeted at the airport by thousands of supporters that gathered to honor Sultana, a prominent Saharawi human rights defender whose work focuses on promoting the right of independence for the Saharawi people and ending violence against Saharawi women, through nonviolent activism.

Sultana will receive the medical care that she desperately needs. (We hope that the doctors can figure out what was in those injections.) When she is able, she will embark on a speaking tour. Sultana is committed to continue working for freedom for the Sahawari people. She plans to return to her homeland soon. 

In the meantime, we will be following the lead of the local Sahawari community for how to support them in their struggle for human rights and respect for international law. 

Love,

Wynd

Back in the Good Old USA

Sent Saturday, May 28, 2022

Dear Friends and Fam,

I hate to report that I am back in the good old USA (DC) after having been deported from Western Sahara by Moroccan Occupation forces. I never made it to the Khaya family home. Please see our latest press release.

I was the woman referred to in the press release whose breasts were exposed. (Noooooow are you going to click the link and read it? By the way, if you are interested, here are all the press releases since beginning of project.)

Apparently this tactic was the first type of sexual abuse used on the Saharawi womyn. Their tactics then escalated to sodomy and rape. In the conservative Muslim culture of Western Sahara, these things are never spoken of. Until Sultana Khaya. With no shame, she has proclaimed out loud and publicly, “I am not the first Saharawi woman to be raped by the occupiers. I am simply the first woman to speak publicly about it. I have to expose the reality of the occupation. And I need to pave the way for the next generation of Saharawi women.”

Sultana is probably one of the world’s most courageous, creative and brilliant activist and human rights protector. Her relentless persistence to the cause of Saharawi self-determination and her absolute commitment to nonviolence has left me in awe. In addition to the grief I have that our mission failed, I most regret not being able to meet this remarkable woman in person. Even on Zoom she is warm and loving, vibrant and charismatic.

So you may wonder, what is next? We will continue to fight to ensure that all nations in the world, including Morocco and our own, respect human rights and international law. We will work with the Sahawari people, taking their lead in the fight for liberation of this last colony in Africa. Because if Russian is wrong in its attempt to gain territory by force in the Ukraine, then the same principle must apply to Morocco’s attempt to acquire Western Sahara by force. (And while I’m at it I may as well throw in that we need to apply the same principle to Israel’s occupation of Palestine!)

Our first step will be a stop in Washington D.C. where some diaspora Saharawi activists are staging a demonstration to expose our own government’s complicity/enabling of Morocco’s human rights abuses. Amnesty International just issued a very powerful report on the situation.

Beyond that, we will continue to support the Khaya sisters and their community in Boujdour and all of Western Sahara. Please stay tuned. And consider just visiting Western Sahara yourself! Check out www.justvisitwesternsahara.org

Love,
Wynd

Deported

Sent Tuesday, May 24, 2002

Dear Friends and Fam,

Sadly, I must report that our team did not make it to the Khaya home in Boujdour, Western Sahara. Much like Israel, the Occupying Country of Morocco does not want international travelers witnessing the gross human rights abuses in their occupied territories.

The Moroccan agents, who refused to tell us their names and would not identify their positions beyond a vague reference to "local security authorities", said that we were not "welcome" in Laayoune, and they forcibly put on a plane back to Casablanca. We told them that if they were going to force us to leave, they needed to tell us why. They would not, beyond "you are political." In truth we are non-partisan Unarmed Civilian Protectors whose mission was to be Human Rights Defenders.  

We resisted our deportation at each step. We sat on the tarmac and read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the scores of Moroccan "security" agents. On the plane we loudly proclaimed to the crowded flight that we were being forcibly boarded against our will, that we just wanted to visit our friends who have suffered beatings, rape, poisoning, isolation, and hunger at the hands of the Moroccan Occupation Forces in Western Sahara. Just for nonviolently raising the flag of the last non-self governing territory in Africa. 

I've copied below the email that one of our partners sent out that gives additional information.

love,

Wynd

 

FROM NONVIOLENCE INTERNATIONAL 

Today, our US women's delegation visited Western Sahara and were forcibly returned on a plane to Casablanca, Morocco.  Lacksana Peters, Wynd Kaufmyn, and Adrienne Kinne, were seeking to visit the Khaya Sisters in Boujdour and to get to know the country and culture.

Unfortunately they were mistreated by unknown Moroccan forces and told that they could not come to Western Sahara. No legal grounds were provided. Our team members refused to sit down on the plane to prevent the plane from departing. They were eventually forcibly seated.

See our update page for more information.

Unfortunately, the Khaya Sisters are still at great risk. Their house is under renewed siege despite the continued presence of our US visitors Tim Pluta and Ruth McDonough.

The Moroccans have repeatedly threatened the Khaya Sisters with attacks when the American guests leave. Last week the Moroccans smashed a large truck into the house in an attempt to harm the residents and destroy the house.

We need renewed pressure on the Moroccan government to stop the siege on the Khaya home and their local community. Notify your relevant ministries to protest this continued repression of the Khaya Sisters and women human rights activists in the Western Sahara.

Sincerely,

Michael Beer
Director
http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/

P.S. We are calling this project justvisitwesternsahara.org.  We would like many of you to join us and go to the Western Sahara in the coming year to witness for peace and justice and learn about this amazing country. If you can't go, please become a monthly donor to NVI, the Project, or both.

Wynd Goes to Western Sahara

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Dear Friends & Fam,

Please welcome back WendyPalestine Google Group after a 10 year hiatus!

As those of you who were on this list back then know, (and to update you all who have come into my life in the last 10 years,) I used this Google Group to send reports from the ground in Occupied Palestine. (I also used a blog.) I stopped posting in 2012 when Israel deported me and banned me from returning.

For the last 10 years I have been in the struggle to save City College of San Francisco. Although there were many victories along the way, (and you can read about them in the book Free City,) sadly I must report that we lost the war. The City College provided education to all who could benefit is gone. Someday, I hope it will rise again.

Now my focus is with an Unarmed Civilian Protection project in Western Sahara. Not much news is reported on what is going on there so don’t feel bad if you are unaware that it suffers under a brutal occupation by Morocco, similar to (and different from) Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

So the name of this Google Group might more appropriately be called WyndWesternSahara. But really, I am fighting for the exact same things as before: Demanding respect for human rights and international law.

I leave today for Casablanca. I hope the next time you hear from me I’ll be in the Khaya family home in Boujdour, Western Sahara.

Love,
Wynd