New York(USA), October, 14 2015 (SPS) - The Fourth Committee of the UN in charge of decolonization continued hearing testimonies and intervention on the question of Western Sahara in its meeting.
Petitioners from around the world, including the Western Sahara diaspora, political, journalist, writer, representative, students, committee of friendship with the Sahrawi people calling for UN fourth committee to push for the holding of the referendum to allow the Sahrawi people to decide their destiny.
Ahmed Bujari,Frente Polisario representative to UN, said that after 16 years of bloody warfare, the United Nations had put forth a peace plan including a referendum in which the people of Western Sahara could choose between independence and integration.
He also however, recalled that, during a speech on 6 November 2014, the King of Morocco had said Western Sahara would forever be a part of Morocco, ignoring the United Nations and “spitting on” the Saharans’ human rights.
Sahrawi diplomat intervention has witnessed various points of order from the participants.
Several legal scholars and European Parliamentarians said that Western Sahara was still a Territory that fell under Spanish administration, and although Spain had failed to protect the Sahrawi people,
A Sahrawi refugee, Fatma Hossein Chajai, of the Femme et Jeunesse sahraouie en Belgique, said she stood before the Committee because of freedom of speech, a right she had gained after fleeing her own country, which could not guarantee her rights. Too many people had been killed or tortured, she stressed, adding that she was “terrified” to return home. “We want peace, we want freedom, and we want equal rights for everyone,”
Several petitioners called for the return of independent human rights monitors to the region or for the expansion of the mandate of United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include oversight.
Craig Brown, of the Western Sahara Action Forum, said MINURSO was the only peacekeeping mission in the world without a human rights monitoring mechanism. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had called for an independent, impartial understanding of the human rights situation in Western Sahara and human rights monitoring was as important step to help MINURSO fulfil its mandate.
Giuseppe Romanini of the Intergroup of the Italian Parliament of Friendship with the Sahrawi People, said he saw first-hand how precarious and dangerous life was in the camps, and how human rights abuses committed by Morocco went unpunished, fuelling resentment and frustration, particularly among youth. “The sirens of Boko Haram and ISIS could prove irresistible” to that disenfranchised group, he warned.
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Mula Ihfid sid Ahmed from the Sahrawi Students Collective Abroad, said his journey had started in the refugee camps, but he did not know where it would end. “Our future depends on this Committee,” he stressed, adding: “In Western Sahara, we believe in peace.”
It should be recalled that countries such: Algeria and south Africa several other Western Sahara petitioners, as well as independent experts and representatives of non-governmental organizations from around the world, also took part in the discussion. (SPS)
125/090