Aminatou Haidar, right. (Photo Courtesy Saharauiak)

The optimism that seemed to prevail over the weekend among the close-knit group caring for the ailing human rights activist Aminetou Haidar, fueled by an impending meeting in Washington between the Spanish Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State, today gave way to disbelief.

Instead of publicly asking Morocco to readmit Haidar back to her hometown of Layounne in the Western Sahara, from where she was illegally expelled a month ago, in a post-meeting press conference, Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos urged Haidar to abandon her hunger strike, which she began 29 days ago.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton stood at his side and said nothing about the situation.

Moratinos and Clinton met over a number of issues, including the situation in Afghanistan and Spain's upcoming presidency of the European Union. But expectations were high that the Spanish Foreign Minister would also urge his US counterpart to get more involved in pressuring Morocco to allow Haidar to return to her home, where her mother and two children await.

It is not yet known exactly what transpired between the two, but publicly, the pressure seemed to be on Haidar to give up her hunger strike, rather than on Morocco to meet its human rights obligations.

"We are asking her, not pressuring her, only suggesting to her, that her just and legitimate cause can be defended without the need of a hunger strike," Moratinos said as Clinton looked on. "We [the US and Spain] are two close allies, and that is what we agreed to do, to begin to work quickly" to convince Haidar.

"If I abandon my hunger strike, Morocco will expel many other Sahrawis just as they did with me," Haidar told the Spanish daily newspaper EL PAIS yesterday. "My case is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is happening in the Western Sahara. Seven Sahrawis, including the vice-president of Codesa, the human rights organization I direct, are about to be tried by a military court after visiting the refugee camps in Tindouf [in Southwestern Algeria] for collaborating with the enemy." The seven could face the death penalty.

Haidar also denounced that her family is under siege in their home, permanently surrounded by Moroccan police. "They have effectively been put under house arrest," she said. "But no government or institution is condemning that."

The social movements supporting Haidar have, in turn, stepped up pressure on the Spanish government to return Haidar home. Thousands of people from all over Spain are planning to attend a demonstration in Madrid this coming Saturday, and scores of smaller protests are taking place daily across the country. Some of Spain's top actors and film directors have produced a television spot urging Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has remained at the sidelines, to call Moroccan King Mohamed VI and request that Haidar be readmitted.

Haidar's hunger strike, almost a month long, is beginning to cause permanent damage to vital organs, according to a doctor who saw her but did not examine her yesterday. Frail but resolute, and wearing a bright yellow melfa—a traditional Western Saharan dress—she emerged this morning from the small room in the airport in Lanzarote where she spends most of her time and was taken by wheelchair to an airport pharmacy to weigh herself. Supporters say that she is determined to fight to the end, and that her spirits are high thanks to a visit from four of her first cousins who flew from Layounne yesterday to spend a few hours with her.