Occupied Bojador (Saharawi Republic) 20 November 2021 (SPS)- Saharawi Human Rights Defender, Ms. Sultana Chaya, called on the UN and the ICRC to assume their responsibility in protecting her life and that of Saharawi civilians under Moroccan occupation, in her statement before the Webinar of Solidarity with Sultana Khaya, organized Yesterday by Saharawi Commission of Human Rights (CONASADH).
“I repeat it and call once more for a protection of these unarmed civilians living under the yoke of the Moroccan occupation. We call the international community to assume its responsibility in the protection of the Saharawi people,” she said.
She denounced various types of violations she suffered during a whole year of siege and house arrest she was subjected to illegally by the Moroccan authorities in the occupied city of Bojador.
She further declared that “no matter how much we are tortured, raped, or even killed, we are resisting because this is a very small sacrifice for the sake of our homeland. So we have to understand well today that we are in the mid of a struggle for liberation, a struggle that requires sacrifice in order to liberate this country for which if we die we will die as martyrs.”
Following is the full text of her statement of which SPS received a copy:
SULTANA KHAYA
Bism Allah Arrahman Arrahim
I would like first of all to convey you a greeting of resistance and high esteem for the glorious martyrs of ours struggle, in this day that commemorates the siege. One whole year of siege and oppression committed by the Moroccan forces of occupation against us as a family, a people and a cause.
Today, I am hailing highly the Saharawi Republic, and the Saharawi camps of dignity and glory, and I am saluting on my name and on behalf of my family all people from all over the world who supported us during this year. A year of sufferings, torture and abuses, this years of barbarous acts that we suffered from the Moroccan occupiers who are using all means including toxic substances, rape, torture, assassination attempts, abuses of mothers like our mother that we helplessly see tortured and she sees us abused by this group of Moroccan occupiers’ thugs, a group that has been exercising during this past year all sorts of torture, while the international community is looking to our suffering without voicing a single reaction, while the UN is practicing another kind of occupation against us because as a people we have never seen the UN defending us, not even monitoring or reporting about the different violations committed against us as a people.
We therefore consider the UN totally responsible about this situation, we also hold the UN Human Rights Council and the International Committee of the Red Cross responsible. It is unacceptable that we are victims to all these sorts of violations for a whole year, as a family and as a people, simply because we are asking for our right to self-determination. It is unacceptable that no one visits us to observe first hand our suffering as a family, and to observe the abuses exercised against us such as deprivation of sleep, violation of the sanctity of our home, violation against our properties, not to talk about throwing toxic substances on us by masked agents in black clothes, who handcuff and torture us, and despite all this, to this date the international community remains mute deaf and blind, so we consider the International Commission of the Red Cross and the UN fully responsible for our situation and we recall them that our lives are in danger.
I salute the organizers of this conference, and I salute the CONASADH and all its members, but also all Saharawis all over the world, and my final message to all is that “no matter how much we are tortured, raped, or even killed, we are resisting because this is a very small sacrifice for the sake of our homeland”, so we have to understand well today that we are in the mid of a struggle for liberation, a struggle that requires sacrifice in order to liberate this country for which if we die we will die as martyrs. And I repeat it and call once more for a protection of these unarmed civilians living under the yoke of the Moroccan occupation. We call the international community to assume its responsibility in the protection of the Saharawi people.
All the homeland or martyrdom.” (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)