Birlehlu (Liberated Zones), April 20, 2015 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, has emphasized that the responsibility for the protection and safety of the defenseless Saharawi civilians in the occupied territories of Western Sahara is the responsibility of the United Nations, pending the decolonization of the territory through a fair and transparent referendum under the auspices of the United Nations.
In a letter, the second of its kind in less than one week, the President of the Republic drew the attention of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon to the savage repression by Moroccan forces in the occupied city of Smara after those of El Aaiun, Dakhla and Boujdour, despite the presence of a delegation from the UN High Commissioner for Human rights, sabotaging the credibility of the UN presence on the ground through its mission for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
"On March 17, the Moroccan repressive forces attacked a demonstration in Nasir neighbourhood in the occupied city of Smara, solely for peacefully demanded to allow Sahrawis to exercise their right to self-determination and independence through a free, fair and impartial referendum, stop the Moroccan plundering of natural resources and release Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons," recalled President Mohamed Abdelaziz.
"Serious injuries among the protesters reflect the indiscriminate repression of the Moroccan occupation forces, who did not hesitate to target sensitive areas of the body like the head, as the case of the former political prisoner and human rights activist Hamadi Nassiri and his son Hafed Nassiri who were transferred to a hospital outside the city because of their injuries," he added.
The President of the Republic called on the UN to take all necessary measures to stop the Moroccan oppression and torture perpetrated against innocent Sahrawi civilians, reiterating the need to rapidly expand the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to protect and monitor human rights, like all other UN missions in the world. (SPS)
062/090/TRA