NEW YORK - Aminatou Haidar, a champion of peaceful resistance in the disputed African territory of Western Sahara, won Wednesday a leading international peace award.
"This prize gives me the courage to pursue the non-violent struggle that I have been leading since I was 23," Haidar said after receiving the award in New York from The Train Foundation along with a check for 50,000 dollars.
"I have been threatened with arrest on my return," added the 42-year-old rights activist who lives with her two children in Laayoune, the main city in Western Sahara.
Morocco annexed the phosphate-rich northwest African territory after the withdrawal of colonial power Spain in 1975, leading to a bitter guerrilla war with the Polisario Front. It ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.
Rabat has proposed autonomy for the territory, but argues its sovereignty is a non-negotiable historical fact. The Algerian-backed Polisario demands a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options.
Haidar, a leading defender of the human rights of the Sahrawi people, was imprisoned for several months by the Moroccan authorities in 2005.
Given a Moroccan passport in 2006 thanks to intervention from Amnesty International and the US State Department, she has gone on to win a string of awards and was nominated in 2008 for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Haidar is a courageous campaigner for self-determination of Western Sahara from its occupation by Morocco, as well as against forced 'disappearances' and abuses of prisoners of conscience," The Train Foundation said.
"Regularly referred to as the 'Sahrawi Gandhi,' Haidar is one of Western Sahara's most prominent human rights defenders," it added.
The Civil Courage Prize, awarded to individuals who have demonstrated steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk, has been running since 2000.
Previous recipients include Myanmar rights activist Min Ko Naing, who is still in detention, and the late Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
The award is the brainchild of John Train, a New York-based investment advisor and author.
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