Bir Lahlou, 22 July 2019 (SPS) – President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO, Brahim Ghali, has addressed a letter to Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, calling on him to conduct an independent international investigation in order to reveal the circumstances of the heinous crime that claimed the life of young Sahrawi Sabah Othman Hameida and dozens of unarmed Sahrawi victims, only for celebrating peacefully the victory of the Algerian team in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
"The presence of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) on the spot without interfering with these dangerous developments will only make it a passive witness to a full-fledged crime," said the President of the Republic in his letter to the UN Secretary-General on Saturday.
"In the light of the United Nations responsibility for Western Sahara, as a country that has not yet fully exercised its right to self-determination and independence, we reaffirm the urgent need for the MINURSO to be empowered by an effective mechanism for the protection, monitoring and reporting of human rights in Western Sahara," added the President of the Republic.
He demanded lifting the siege imposed on the occupied territories of Western Sahara, providing Sahrawi citizens with their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, movement and peaceful demonstration, and accelerating the commitment to enable them to choose their future freely and transparently through a referendum on self-determination. (SPS)
062/SPS/TRA