New York (United Nations) 17 May 2022 (SPS)- Frente Polisario strongly condemned the recent Moroccan criminal and intimidating acts against Saharawi human rights activist, Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya, and her family in the occupied city of Bojador.
In a letter addressed yesterday by the Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations and Coordinator with MINURSO, Ambassador Sid Mohamed Omar, to the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, Frente Polisario reiterated “the strong condemnation of the continued terrorising actions and crimes perpetrated with full impunity by the occupying state of Morocco against 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.”
The aggressive act is even more dangerous because it is also directed against two US-based volunteers who are staying with the family in their house, including Mrs. Ruth McDonough, who is on a hunger strike since last 4th of May in solidarity with the family and the Sahrawi people. The Frente POLISARIO reaffirmed further “that no peace process will ever be possible while the occupying state of Morocco persists, with full impunity, in its terrorising and retaliatory war against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists, in addition to its attempts to forcibly impose a fait accompli in Occupied Western Sahara under the watch of the United Nations and its Mission in the Territory.”
Following is the full text of the letter as received by SPS:
Letter from the Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations and Coordinator with MINURSO to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
H.E. Mr António Guterres
Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations, New York
New York, 16 May 2022
Your Excellency,
Upon instructions from my Authorities, I am writing to you again to reiterate the strong condemnation by the Frente POLISARIO of the continued terrorising actions and crimes perpetrated with full impunity by the occupying state of Morocco against 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, on late 15 May 2022, the Moroccan security forces carried out another attack on the family by using a heavy truck that repeatedly crashed into the house. The new assault was clearly aimed at causing damage to the house and intimidating and terrorising the family members and the American volunteers staying with the family.
In mid-March 2022, US-based volunteers managed to travel to Occupied Western Sahara to show their solidarity with Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family in the occupied city of Bojador and to protect them from human rights violations and break the siege imposed on the house by the Moroccan security forces. On 4 May, one of the volunteers, Ruth McDonough, went on a hunger strike in solidarity with the family and the Sahrawi people.
The Frente POLISARIO strongly condemns this new cowardly act and assault on the home of the family of Sid Brahim Jaya. We reiterate our call upon you and the Security Council to assume your responsibilities and provide protection to Sahrawi civilians in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara, which remain under tight military blockade and media blackout.
Today’s premeditated attack on the home of the family of Sid Brahim Jaya leaves no doubt that the authorities of the occupying state of Morocco are bent on intensifying their terrorising and atrocious attacks against Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family and using all means to silence her.
As we have detailed in previous communications, the house of the family of Sid Brahim Jaya in the occupied city of Bojador remains under tight siege since 19 November 2020 while Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her sister El Waara continue their daily protest by raising the national flag of the Sahrawi Republic over their house as an act of peaceful resistance against the Moroccan illegal occupation.
As documented by pictures and videos shared on a large scale and reports of international human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International, the security agents and sponsored thugs of the occupying state of Morocco continue to subject all members of the family, including their elderly mother, to heinous acts and unspeakable, inhuman, and degrading practices.
Moreover, the Moroccan security agents, permanently stationed around the family house, have repeatedly stormed the building ransacking it and destroying its belongings including food supplies. They have also dropped chemical substance into the water tank, the main source of water for the family, and have frequently sprayed foul-smelling substances all over the house to purposefully make it uninhabitable.
The case of human rights activist Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family in the occupied city of Bojador is just one example of the brutality, ill-treatment, and unspeakable cruelty to which Sahrawi civilians in general and human rights defenders in particular are being subjected daily in Occupied Western Sahara.
As we have also warned in previous communications, the situation of human rights in the territories of Western Sahara under the Moroccan illegal occupation is alarmingly worsening, especially in the aftermath of the act of aggression carried out by the occupying state of Morocco against the Sahrawi Liberated Territories on 13 November 2020, which has led to the breakdown of the 1991 ceasefire.
Ever since its violation of the ceasefire on that day, the occupying state of Morocco has also been engaged in a parallel, retaliatory war against Sahrawi civilians, human rights activists, journalists, and bloggers who are being subjected to all sorts of physical and psychological violence because of their peaceful activism and public defence of the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.
Moreover, the situation of Sahrawi political prisoners, including Gdeim Izik Group, continues to be alarming because of the deplorable conditions in which they are being held in the prisons of the occupying state of Morocco. We call upon you once again to act urgently to end the suffering of all Sahrawi political prisoners and their families and to ensure their immediate and unconditional release so that they can re-join their homeland and be reunited with their families.
The deafening silence of the United Nations and its relevant organs as well as the international community in the face of the continued crimes perpetrated by the occupying state of Morocco in Occupied Western Sahara is tantamount to complicity and particularly deplorable given the fact that the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has been on the ground in the Territory since 1991.
In concluding, the Frente POLISARIO reaffirms that no peace process will ever be possible while the occupying state of Morocco persists, with full impunity, in its terrorising and retaliatory war against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists, in addition to its attempts to forcibly impose a fait accompli in Occupied Western Sahara under the watch of the United Nations and its Mission in the Territory.
Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Dr Sidi M. Omar
Ambassador
Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations
Coordinator with MINURSO.” (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)