New York (United Nations) 10 November 2021 (SPS)- The Permanent Representative of Frente Polisario at the UN, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar, called yesterday on the UN Security Council to opperationalise legal and moral responsibilities in the protection of Sahrawi civilians suffering Moroccan retaliation and abuses in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
The Saharawi Ambassador stressed, in a letter he addressed yesterday to the members of the UN Security Council, on the need to protect Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists, such as Ms. Sultana Sidi Brahim Jaya, who is under constant Moroccan assaults along with her family.
He indicated that “the Security Council and relevant UN bodies are therefore called upon to take practical measures to protect the Sahrawi civilians, including through the establishment of a permanent UN human rights monitoring mechanism in the Occupied Western Sahara as an essential component of the UN responsibility towards the Sahrawi people in line with UN resolutions and practices.”
Following is the full text of the Letter.
H.E. Mr Juan Ramón de la Fuente
Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations
President of the Security Council
New York, 9 November 2021
Your Excellency,
I am writing to you with great urgency and concern to draw the attention of the Security Council to the extremely serious situation of human rights activist, Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya, and her family in the city of Bojador in the territories of Western Sahara under the Moroccan illegal occupation.
According to the latest reports received from the family of Sid Brahim Jaya, at 4:00 am on Monday, agents of the Moroccan security forces stormed the house and violently assaulted human rights activist Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family. After spraying foul-smelling substances all over the house, as they often do, the agents forcibly injected Sultana with an unknown substance, which has so far had harmful effects on her health.
The Frente POLISARIO strongly denounces this new coward and criminal act targeting human rights activist Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family as well as the terrorising and retaliatory actions carried out daily by Moroccan security agents against Sahrawi civilians, human rights activists, and journalists in the Sahrawi Occupied Territories.
As we have indicated in our previous communications, the house of the family of Sid Brahim Jaya in the occupied city of Bojador remains under siege since 19 November 2020 as Sultana and her sister, Al Waara, continue to raise the national flag of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) daily over their house as an act of peaceful resistance against Moroccan illegal occupation. Because of that, both sisters and their family are subjected daily to physical assault, sexual harassment, and other barbaric and degrading treatment at the hands of the Moroccan security agents and state-sponsored thugs.
The situation of Sahrawi political prisoners, including Gdeim Izik Group, also continues to be alarming because of the deplorable conditions in which they are being held in the prisons of the occupying state of Morocco and the degrading and retaliatory practices to which they are subjected by the Moroccan penitentiary administration.
The Security Council cannot maintain its passive complicit silence and continue to simply stand by in the face of the criminal actions perpetrated daily by the occupying state of Morocco against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists and defenders in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.
The UN General Assembly has been reaffirming every year in its successive resolutions the responsibility of the United Nations towards the people of Western Sahara as a territory subject to a decolonisation process.
The Frente POLISARIO calls urgently once again upon the Security Council and all relevant UN bodies to operationalise the legal and moral responsibility of the United Nations towards the Sahrawi people, particularly Sahrawi civilians living in the Occupied Western Sahara that remains under military blockade and media blackout.
The Security Council and relevant UN bodies are therefore called upon to take practical measures to protect the Sahrawi civilians, including through the establishment of a permanent UN human rights monitoring mechanism in the Occupied Western Sahara as an essential component of the UN responsibility towards the Sahrawi people in line with UN resolutions and practices.
I would be most grateful if you would bring the present letter to the attention of the members of the Security Council.
Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Dr Sidi M. Omar
Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United
Coordinator with MINURSO. “ (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)