Bir Lehlou (liberated territories), Feb 4, 2013 (SPS) - The President of the Republic and Secretary General of the POLISARIO Front Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz called the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the immediate intervention to release Gdeim izik group and the rest of Saharawi political prisoners currently incarcerated in Moroccan jails, in a letter sent Sunday.
“Moroccan government’s decision to bring Saharawi civilians before a martial court is an illegal and unethical act, incompatible, as you pointed out in your April 2011 report contradict, with terms of establishing justice in a fair, impartial and independent form. Prolonging the period of arbitrary detention and repeated postponement of the unjust trial reflects Moroccan government’s disrespect and underestimation to requirements of international and humanitarian law, as well as a disdain to the human emotions and disregard to the health, physical and psychological conditions of the detainees and their families,” wrote President Mohamed Abdelaziz to UN Secretary General.
He, in this respect, reiterated his call on Mr. Ban Ki-moon to stop this crime being carried out by Moroccan government against the defenseless Saharawi citizens, urge him to intervene for the release of the Gdeim Izik detainees and all the Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons, in the shortest possible time.
President Mohamed Abdelaziz, therefore, urged the UN Secretary General to “take the necessary and urgent measures” to ensure the safety and security of the unarmed Saharawi citizens in a territory under the responsibility of the United Nations pending decolonization.
In this context, he reiterated the call for the need to expand the powers of MINURSO to include the protection of human rights in Western Sahara, like other UN peacekeeping missions in the world. (SPS)
090/089/TRA