Chahid Al Hafed (refugee camps), April 13, 2013 (SPS) - Demonstrations organized today, Saturday, at the same time (14:00) outside the embassies of France in several European capitals, and in the Saharawi refugee camps to call upon the French government to stop opposing a UN permanent human rights monitoring and documenting mechanism within the mandate of MINURSO, when being renewed by the Security Council at the end of this month.
The symbol of this demonstration is three monkeys: one who can’t speak, another that doesn’t hear and the third doesn’t see, all dressed as blue helmeted soldiers of MINURSO who are ignoring the human rights violations.
The demonstration is an annual event jointly organized by the German youth Organization for Western Sahara “Projektgruppe Westsahara” and the Saharawi Students Union (UESARIO).
A group of Saharawi students, youth and citizens gathered today at the Saharawi refugee camps to celebrate the event, where they recalled to the deteriorating situation of human rights in the occupied Western Sahara.
They also urged France to stop opposing the establishment of a UN mechanism of human rights protection within MINURSO prerogatives.
At the same time, another group of German citizen and activists as well as Saharawis gathered outside the French Embassy in Berlin, where they handed the official letter of the demonstration to the ambassador of France Mr. Maurice Gourdault-Montagne.
The letter, a copy of it reached SPS, called upon the French government to “maintain its long-held commitment to the pursuit of justice and human dignity around the world, and to push for and stop being the obstacle on the way to include human rights monitoring and documenting in the upcoming resolution on MINURSO’s mandate.”
It also drew Montagne’s attention to the systemic and unacceptable violations of the basic human rights of the Saharawi people including persecution, imprisonment, illegitimate trials, and violence exerted against Saharawi peaceful demonstrators in the occupied territory of Western Sahara is being simultaneously witnessed and ignored by MINURSO.
The letter went on saying that the Saharawi human rights activists and defenders “do not have the right to assembly and register their organizations,” adding that civilians “have been put before military trials and unjustly sentenced to life imprisonments.”
“MINURSO’s main responsibilities include the realization of a free and fair referendum for self-determination in the region of Western Sahara and to safeguard the cease-fire agreed upon by the two parties in the conflict in 1991. However, without the monitoring of human rights violations in the region, both of these aims remain elusive, stated the letter, adding that without the protection of civil liberties in the region, the ceasefire is not offering the environment of peace and security pre-requisite for the exercise of a fair and free process of self-determination.
“It is, furthermore, clear that Morocco has in previous years, exerted undue influence on Security Council members on the subject of MINURSO’s mandate. This year it is essential that international human rights law determines the content of the resolution, rather than the political agenda of any member state,” it added.
They also asked all members of the UN Security Council to take immediate action to ensure monitoring of human rights violations in occupied Western Sahara, adding that the UN has a “clear opportunity to observe its legal and moral obligations to protect the human rights of the Saharawi people, and to take steps towards the final resolution of this drawn-out territorial conflict.”
The letter signed by Saleh M. Sidi Mustafa, UESARIO International Secretary. (SPS)
090/089/TRA