Bir Lehlou (Sahrawi Republic) 3 September 2021 (SPS) - The President of the Sahrawi Republic and Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr Brahim Ghali, addressed a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, regarding the extremely serious situation of human rights activist, Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya, and her family in the city of Bojador in the territories of Western Sahara under the Moroccan illegal occupation.
In his letter, of which an identical copy was addressed to the current President of the Security Council, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Ireland, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, the President of the Republic noted that the latest information and reports received from the family of Sid Brahim Jaya indicate that Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya, and her sister, Umm al-Muminin Sid Brahim Jaya (Bouta), have been infected with COVID-19 at the hands of security agents of the occupying state of Morocco.
The President called upon the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council to act urgently to save the lives of Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family and to provide protection to all other Sahrawi human rights activists and political prisoners who are languishing in the jails of the occupying sate of Morocco in deplorable conditions.
The full text of the letter as received by SPS.
H.E. Mr António Guterres
United Nations Secretary-General
United Nations, New York
Bir Lehlou, 3 September 2021
Mr Secretary-General,
I am writing to you with great urgency and concern to draw your attention and the attention of the members of the Security Council to the extremely serious situation of human rights activist, Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya, and her family in the city of Bojador in the territories of Western Sahara under the Moroccan illegal occupation.
According to the latest information and reports received from the family of Sid Brahim Jaya, Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya, and her sister, Umm al-Muminin Sid Brahim Jaya (Bouta), have been infected with COVID-19 at the hands of security agents of the occupying state of Morocco.
As reported by the family, on 22 August 2021, the house of the family was again broken into and ransacked by a group of Moroccan security agents. During the attack, a security agent violently grabbed Sultana and forcibly placed a rag over her mouth and nose. She was almost asphyxiated because of this brutal action. Afterwards, Sultana started feeling ill and having muscle pain, dyspnoea, and other symptoms associated with COVID-19. Her sister Umm al-Muminin Sid Brahim Jaya (Bouta) suffers from the same symptoms, and it is most likely that other members of the family are also infected.
As we have drawn your attention and the attention of the members of the Security Council in our previous communications (S/2021/162; S/2021/475; S/2021/698, among others), the house of the family of Sid Brahim Jaya in the occupied city of Bojador remains under tight siege since 19 November 2020. Moreover, we have vehemently denounced the continued terrorising actions carried out by Moroccan security agents against human rights activist Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family on account of their peaceful protest and raising the national flag of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) daily over their house.
Mr Secretary-General,
The house of the family of Sid Brahim Jaya has been under a forcibly imposed “quarantine” and tight restrictions on freedom of movement since 19 November 2020. The only elements who frequently and forcibly access the house of the family are the agents of the Moroccan security services and state-sponsored thugs who often spill and spray foul-smelling substances all over the house, purposefully exposing the family to serious health hazards. The authorities of the occupying state of Morocco are therefore guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of deliberately perpetrating this recent criminal act against human rights activist Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Front-Line Defenders, among others, have also been sounding the alarm about the situation of Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family as they continue to endure daily the most horrific forms of physical and psychological violence at the hands of Moroccan security agents. Moreover, the situation of Sahrawi political prisoners, including Gdeim Izik Group, continues to be highly alarming because of the inhumane and degrading conditions in which they are being held in the prisons of the occupying state of Morocco where they are deprived of their basic rights, including their right to medical care and family visits.
The UN Secretariat and the Security Council cannot therefore maintain their passive complicit silence and continue to simply stand by in the face of the criminal and atrocious actions perpetrated daily by the occupying state of Morocco against defenceless Sahrawi human rights activists and defenders in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.
Mr Secretary-General,
The life-threatening situation of Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family is becoming worse and worse with each day that goes by as they continue to suffer the most acute consequences of COVID-19 without any access to necessary medical care because of the siege imposed on the house of the family by the authorities of the occupying state of Morocco since 19 November 2020. Their life is in real danger unless the situation is urgently addressed.
We therefore call upon you and upon the Security Council to act urgently to save the lives of Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family and to provide protection to all other Sahrawi human rights activists and political prisoners who are languishing in the jails of the occupying sate of Morocco in deplorable conditions.
In concluding, the Frente POLISARIO affirms once again that no peace process will ever be possible as long as the occupying state of Morocco persists, with complete impunity, in its atrocious actions and retaliatory war against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists, in addition to its attempts to forcibly impose a fait accompli in the Territory. We hold the occupying state of Morocco fully responsible for any consequences to which its criminal acts may lead in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.
I should be grateful if you would bring the present letter to the attention of the members of the Security Council.
Please accept, Mr Secretary-General, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Brahim Ghali
President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO". (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)