El Aaiun (occupied territories), March 24, 2013 (SPS) - UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy Christopher Ross met Saturday in occupied El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara, with members of the Committee of Families of Gdeim Izik Detainees, in the context of his second visit to the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
Representatives of the Committee informed Mr. Ross about the procedures of the unfair trial and heavy sentences pronounced by Moroccan martial court in Rabat against the Saharawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik.
The meeting focused on the situation in Western Sahara, including the serious human rights situation and systematic looting of Western Sahara wealth by Morocco.
The Committee in this respect held the UN responsible for these issues, urging Mr. Ross to pressurize Moroccan state in order to release all the Saharawi political prisoners and to work for allowing the Saharawi people to exercise his inalienable right to self-determination.
They therefore asked him to work for extending the powers of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include the monitoring and report about human rights abuses. (SPS)
090/089/TRA