Bir Lehlu ( Liberated Territories) Feb05,2013(SPS) President of the Republic , Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, has called on Chairperson of the African Union Mrs. Dlamini Zuma, to intervene against Moroccan decision to bring 24 Saharawi political prisoners. Known as the Gdeim Izik group, before a military tribunal on next Friday.
“we renew our demand for your intervention to stop this crime that is being committed by Moroccan government against unarmed civilians, and to end the torture and moral suffering of the prisoners and their families as a result of the intimidation and threats of military court sentences and the chauvinistic inciting campaign waged by the occupation authorities against all that is Sahrawi” reads the letter of the President to the African Commissioner.
Here is the full text of the Message which a copy reached SPS
Mrs. Dlamini Zuma
Chairperson of the African Union Commission
Mrs. Chairperson,
In spite of repeated calls and continuous warnings, Moroccan government went on bringing a group of Sahrawi civilian political prisoners before to a military court, at the commencement of the twenty first century.
In the early morning hours of Friday, February 1, 2013, and under a strong siege, in which all Moroccan security forces took part, the group of Gdeim Izik were brought to the military tribunal, under severe military guard by forces of the army, the gendarmerie and masked units.
After more than two years in an arbitrary unjust detention, without trial, and after two delays, the Moroccan military court deliberately postponed the unfair trial again until Friday, February 8, 2013.
When a group of Sahrawi citizens, including families of the prisoners, human rights defenders and their supporters, tried to demonstrate and express peacefully their demands for the prompt release of the group, Moroccan authorities surprised us by sponsoring, inciting and managing a demonstration in which they used police and security agents in plain and Sahrawi traditional clothes, mainly to provoke the Sahrawi citizens with the language of violence, inducement, vengeance and aggression it bore against the prisoners and that is Sahrawi.
All this was accompanied by actions of brutal repression against other Sahrawi civilians merely for demonstrating peacefully in the towns of occupied Western Sahara and southern Morocco, in solidarity with the political prisoners and in rejection of the military trial, claiming tens of victims among the unarmed demonstrators.
Mrs. Chairperson,
We would like to remind you that the arrest of this group took place after Moroccan military attack, with aggressiveness and ruthlessness, on the camp of Gdeim Izik, east of Aaiun City, the capital of the occupied Western Sahara, in the darkness, at the dawn of November 8, 2010, sowing death, terror and devastation in a camp home to about 30 thousand Sahrawi innocent displaced, including children, women, elderly and people with special needs, whose wounds aren’t healed yet.
Moroccan decision to bring Saharawi civilians before a military court is an illegal and unethical act, that contradicts, as the UN Secretary General stated in his report of April 2012, the standards of doing justice in a fair, impartial and independent manner, and that prolonging the period of their arbitrary detention and the repeated adjournment of their unfair trial reflects disregard and disrespect by Moroccan Government to the requirements of the international humanitarian law, disdain for the human feelings and negligence from its part to the health, moral and physical conditions of the prisoners and their families.
Moroccan government’s insistence on inciting Moroccan general opinion and fueling detestable racism, including the use of different media outlets for the abetment and aggression against all that is Sahrawi, under the siege and the heavy military and security deployment, all that represents a dangerous orientation, of which consequences we warn again and demand your intervention for the protection of the innocent Sahrawi people against the policies and practices of Moroccan occupation state.
The Saharawi Republic, proceeding from the resolutions and Chart of the African Union, calls on you to intervene and take the necessary and urgent measures to ensure the security and safety of the unarmed Sahrawi citizens by accelerating the organization of the self-determination referendum and the establishment of a United Nations mechanism that gives the MINURSO the mandate to protect, monitor and report on the respect of human rights in Western Sahara.
In this context, we renew our demand for your intervention to stop this crime that is being committed by Moroccan government against unarmed civilians, and to end the torture and moral suffering of the prisoners and their families as a result of the intimidation and threats of military court sentences and the chauvinistic inciting campaign waged by the occupation authorities against all that is Sahrawi, and as a result of the delaying and postponement and repeated adjournment, and thus, we demand that you act urgently to release this group and all the Sahrawi political prisoners, as soon as possible, and to have the fate of 651 disappeared sahrawis disclosed.
Accept, Mrs. Chairperson, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Mohamed Abdelaziz,
President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
Secretary General of the Polisario Front(SPS)
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