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President Mohamed Abdelaziz appeals to Ban Ki-moon to intervene to save lives of Saharawi prisoners on hunger strike

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Bir Lahlou, June 14, 2011 (SPS) – The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called on the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, to immediately intercede to exert the necessary pressure on the Moroccan state, to save lives of Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons, in a letter Monday .

The President of Republic stressed that the Moroccan government continues to ignore the “grave situation” of Sahrawi political prisoners in its jails, despite their deteriorating health conditions, as a result of hunger strikes that some of them exceeded two months, in the absence of the simplest conditions of health care.

He warned that the “Moroccan government with such misconduct does not serve at all any serious and sincere progress towards a just and final solution to the conflict.”

President Mohamed Abdelaziz held the Moroccan government fully responsible for an imminent catastrophe, calling on the United Nations to shoulder its responsibility in ensuring the safety and physical and psychological integrity of Sahrawi political prisoners and citizens in general, pending accomplishing its mission, as soon as possible, in the decolonization of Western Sahara and to enable its people to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and independence through a free, fair and impartial referendum.

He renewed the call for the necessary steps and sanctions to make the Moroccan government releases all Saharawi political prisoners and reveals the fate of more than 651 missing Sahrawi in the hands of the Moroccan State, emphasizing the need to expand the powers of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, to include the protection, monitoring and reporting on human rights. (SPS

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