Washington, 16 October 2021 (SPS) - The Polisario Front representative in the United States, Mouloud Saeed, expressed on Thursday his satisfaction with the letter addressed by ten American senators to the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in which they questioned him on the human rights situation in Western Sahara.
The Sahrawi diplomat indicated in an official statement that "a number of senators have written to Secretary Blinken about the human rights situation in Western Sahara calling on the administration to ensure that the human rights monitoring component is included in the mandate of MINURSO (UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara).
The diplomat expressed on behalf of the Saharawi people "his gratitude to the American senators for their position".
Ten US senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, in which they questioned him on the alarming human rights situation in Morocco and occupied Western Sahara.
The letter was signed by, among others, the Chairman of the Senate Defense Committee, James M. Inhofe, the Senator from Vermont, a candidate for the Democratic primary, Bernard Sanders and the senior member senator and former chairman of the Judicial Committee of the Senate Patrick Leahy.
"We urge you to reaffirm the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination, advocate for the release of political prisoners and protect freedom of expression for every Moroccan and Sahrawi," the senators pleaded.
Calling on the Secretary of State to focus on human rights violations against Sahrawi activists in occupied Western Sahara and Morocco, the senators stressed the need to include a human rights monitoring component in the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
"As the UN prepares to renew Minurso's mandate, we call on you to do what is necessary to allow the UN to monitor human rights conditions in the region and to continue to support self-determination," they stressed.
In December 2020, former US President Donald Trump recognized Morocco's alleged sovereignty over Western Sahara going against American positions on the issue. This proclamation has been widely criticized in the world as well as in the United States and even within the Republican Party to which Donald Trump belongs.
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