United Nations (New York), Oct 5, 2011 (SPS) - The Spanish Oscar-winning actor, Javier Bardem, has called on the United Nations to enable the Saharawi people to express their aspirations through a free and fair referendum, in an address delivered Tuesday to the UN Decolonization Committee’s session.
Mr. Bardem urged the UN Fourth Committee to put an end to the human rights abuses in the territories of Western Sahara which is currently occupied by Morocco, and strongly criticized the positions of France, Spain and the United States, saying “they were helping Morocco to block efforts to hold a self-determination referendum and to add a human rights monitoring mandate to the UN peacekeepers forces in Western Sahara.”
“The people of Western Sahara are suffering under repression inside the occupied territory; they are suffering in refugee camps, where they have been forgotten for decades,” Bardem said in a statement distributed to reporters during a conference held before the intervention.
“The Saharawis were promised a referendum on the future of their country twenty years ago. Today they are still waiting for this chance to declare their views” he added. (SPS)
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