Wilaya of Smara (refugee camps), April 15, 2012 (SPS) - The Saharawi Students Union (UESARIO) organized Saturday an international demonstration in the Saharawi refugee camps, occupied territories and in front of the French embassies in more than 12 European countries as well as Australia and U.S. to demand that France stop rejecting the inclusion of monitoring of human rights abuses in Western Sahara to mandates of MINURSO.
In a letter delivered to the French Embassies at the end of the demonstrations, the Saharawi Students Union confirmed that the demonstration comes at a time “when Moroccan security services continues, in a systematic way, to violate to several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”
The participants denounced the intransigent attitude of France which frequently and repeatedly impedes such decision, urging France to support a UN mechanism to monitor human rights in Western Sahara, considering at the same time that French complicity with the crimes committed by Moroccan occupation on the Saharawis “a mockery to the principles of liberty, fraternity and equality.”
The demonstrators raised banners painted with monkeys wearing blue hats like those worn by members of MINURSO “the first does not see, second does not hear and third does not speak”, which represent the way in which the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has turned a blind eye to human rights abuses the Territory, most notably, France.
The initiative was launched by the Saharawi Union of Students in collaboration with German and European organization and associations of youth.
On other hand, the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon said, in latest report on Western Sahara submitted to Security Council for discussion on current April 17, the United Nation Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is facing difficulties in fulfilling its mission, pointing to several reports on human rights abuses committed by Moroccan authorities against Saharawi people. (SPS)
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