Dusseldorf (Germany), Oct 5, 2011 (SPS) - The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (EJDM) called Tuesday on Morocco to respect the civil rights of the Saharawis and accept their peaceful means of protest, expressing its deep concern on the heinous repression by the Moroccan occupation forces against a peaceful protest recently held in the Saharawi occupied city of Dakhla, according to a statement of the Association.
The statement demanded an immediate halt of the arbitrary and barbaric repression practiced against the Saharawis, noting that Morocco through its arbitrary repression of the Saharawi demonstrators “despise not only the human rights but also violates the basic rights of Saharawi citizens.”
It indicated that these serious abuses “are part of a systematic repression practiced by the Moroccan authorities in denial of the Sahrawi people's right to freely express their legitimate claim of self-determination, which has been reaffirmed by a number of UN Security Council resolutions.”
The Association considered in this regard that Morocco derogates the various agreements of the international law that has ratified, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, calling for establishing a neutral international investigating commission of inquiry to shed light on the circumanstances that lead to the death of young Saharawi and to prosecute those responsible.
It asked the EU to pressure the Moroccan government to release all the Saharawi political detainees, calling for respecting the obligations relating to human rights contained in the Lisbon agreement on foreign trade, and thus temporarily suspend the economic cooperation with Morocco.
The lawyers condemned the illegal exploitation of the Saharawi natural resources by Morocco, especially the EU fisheries agreement with Morocco.
They therefore requested the Security Council to support the extension of the MNURSO mandates to include the protection of human rights in the occupied part of Western Sahara.
“EU must effectively support the process of direct negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco in order to conduct a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people,” the statement concluded.
Moroccan settlers and security forces heinously attacked on September 25 a peaceful protest held in the occupied city of Dakhla, leaving the death of the young Saharawi, Maichan Mohamed Lamin Lehbib, seven seriously injured and twenty‐five are still missing. (SPS)
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