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Party of European Left condemns passivity of international community vis-à-vis Western Sahara conflict

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Brussels, May 5, 2013 (SPS) - The Party of European Left has condemned “passivity” of international community vis-à-vis the conflict of Western Sahara, reiterating support to the just struggle of the Saharawi people for self-determination.


“We condemn the passivity of the international community in this conflict. We warn against the escalation of repression of the Saharawi population in the occupied territories. The Party of the European Left will continue to support the just struggle of the Saharawi people for self-determination,” stated a press release issued Sunday after the visit, from 26th to 30th April, of a delegation of the Party’s women to the occupied territories of Western Sahara.


The delegation is made up of the Vice President Ms. Maite Mola, Meriem Derkaoui, Municipal Councillor of the French Communist Party in the Paris region, Katerina Igglezzi, National Parliamentarian of SYRIZA (Greece), Cristina Simó, in charge of Women at the Spanish Communist Party, and Gitte Pedersen, Member of Board of the Red-Green Alliance (Denmark).


During their stay at the occupied Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation, they met with associations of Sahrawi civil society advocating for freedom of expression and against repression and human rights violations.


Upon her return, Vice President of the Party of the European Left Ms. Maite Mola condemned “the deplorable violence of Moroccan occupation forces that were discovered in the process of filling their cars with stones they use to attack Saharawi civilians and even destroyed Sahrawi houses by stones, such as the case of activist Sultana Khaya.”


At these protests, added Ms. Mola, the Saharawi flag was raised and slogans such as “no alternative to self-determination” and "Free Sahara, Morocco outside” were chanted.


The visit came in a particular context, following the vote by the UN Security Council on the renewing of MINURSO mandate (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) in the Saharawi occupied territories, but without extension to monitoring the respect of human rights. A large “frustration” and “disappointment” is felt by many people that the delegation met in Smara, as they were fed by an increasing hope for political advance, said the press release.


The vote, it added, sparked a popular mobilization in several Sahrawi cities, as soon as the information emerged, the protests have been held on Friday, Saturday and Monday, in a climate of tension and a large police deployment, a number of agents and vehicles around the main squares in the surrounding streets and along the main avenues.


The Delegation of Party of the European Left was witness to the repression perpetuated against demonstrators with force and chase by police men, in uniform and civil clothes, with batons in hands, concluded the press release. (SPS)


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