San Sebastian (Basque), 17 July 2023 (SPS) - President of the Sahrawi Body against the Moroccan occupation (ISACOM), Aminatou Haidar, reviewed at length and in detail, in a conference organized in the Basque region, Spain, the various gross violations of human rights in the occupied part of the Sahrawi territories, by the Moroccan occupation forces.
ISACOM reported on its account on Facebook, the conference dedicated to the presentation of the latest human rights report on Western Sahara organized at the Museum of San Telmo, in the Basque province of San Sebastian, amid a large presence of politicians, human rights defenders, Basque solidarity movement and the Sahrawi community, as well as a delegation of Sahrawi women from the refugee camps.
The report documenting Morocco's human rights crimes during the period from September 2020 to December 2022, affirmed that the Moroccan occupation authorities practiced various types of human rights violations against Sahrawis, especially human rights defenders, under a military and media siege imposed on the occupied territory, by the Makhzen regime, to obscure the truth of what is happening from international public opinion.
In this context, she highlighted that these grave violations have increased very significantly in light of the determination of the Sahrawi people to exercise its right to freedom and self-determination, as guaranteed by international legitimacy, criticizing the silence of the international community, in the face of these violations, which encouraged the occupying state to continue to oppress the Sahrawi civilians and Human Rights Defenders.
Ms. Haidar also presented examples of grave violations against human rights defenders due to their peaceful struggle to expose the reality of the occupation, including members of ISACOM, who are subjected to close surveillance and excessive restrictions that have greatly affected their lives.
On the occasion, the human rights activist called on Basque civil and political society to redouble efforts to defend the right of the Sahrawi people to freedom and self-determination, and to condemn the crimes committed by the Moroccan occupation against Sahrawi civilians, reminding them of the suffering of Sahrawi political prisoners, in the prisons and cells of the occupation, and their deprivation of their most basic internationally guaranteed rights, such as the right to treatment.
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