SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 14/06/2005 (SPS) The President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called UN’s Security Council to protect Saharawi population in occupied territories from Moroccan repression, after the repressive reaction of Moroccan colonial authorities against Saharawi demonstrators during the last week of May in many Saharawi cities, southern Moroccan cities and in Moroccan universities.

The Head of the State sent a letter to the President of UN’s Security Council, el French Ambassador Jean Marc de la Sabliere, after a first missive sent to his predecessor, Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Løj, on the current situation in occupied territories of Western Sahara.

Here is the complete text of the letter, originally written in Arabic.

"
His Excellency Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere,
President of the Security Council,
United Nations
New York

Bir Lehlu, June 12th 2005

Excellency,

For the second time, I am writing to your honourable Council following my first letter that was addressed, on 26 May 2005, to your predecessor, Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Løj, in order to express anew our deep concern about the serious situation in the territories of Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation, particularly since 21 May 2005.

Recalling the content of the previous letter, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the situation in those territories is still fraught with highly alarming tension. The Moroccan authorities continue to pursue their repressive policies while placing the entire territory under siege and a total information blackout. Moreover, they have deployed large numbers of their army and police unities and other security services all over the occupied Saharawi towns and villages, while bringing more forces from other posts including the forces stationed along the Moroccan defensive berm, which constitutes a crime against humanity as it continues to divide both the Saharawi people and their territory.

This massive military presence and the tight surveillance under which all Saharawis have been put are not the only facets of the repressive policies pursed by the Moroccan Government.

On 5 June 2005, a delegation arrived at the airport of El Aaiun, the Saharawi occupied capital, comprising a group of local parliamentarians and officials from the region of Madrid in Spain together with representatives of the media and human rights organisations. The prime objective of the members of the delegation was to assess the situation on the ground and to collect information from various sources in order to acquaint themselves firsthand with the realties in the Territory with regards to what was being reported by various international Medias and press on the situation there.

The Moroccan authorities however refused to allow the members of the delegation to enter the airport, while considering them “personas non grata” despite the fact that they had gone there only to demand justice and respect for the international principles and conventions on human and peoples’ rights.

On 8 June 2005, the Moroccan authorities anew intercepted another delegation including members of the local parliament of Catalonia and from the Spanish parliament in addition to some journalists and representatives of civil society. It has also been reported that the Moroccan authorities continue to harass representatives of international media and have even expelled some of them.

We reject the arguments advanced by the Moroccan authorities to justify their refusal to deal with “non-governmental organisations”, because they are completely incompatible with the spirit of democracy and respect for fundamental freedoms, which are inconceivable today without the existence of an active civil society of the same kind that was denied access to the Saharawi town of El Aaiun by the Moroccan authorities.  

It is indeed surprising and alarming for us that, while many international medias were reporting on the Moroccan authorities’ denying international delegations access to the Territory, despite the fact that the Moroccan presence there is essentially an illegal colonial occupation, the international community chose to not react against this blatant act of intransigence and the attendant policies of blockade and procrastination.  

Excellency,

Moroccan authorities’ denial of access to the Saharawi occupied territories to representatives of civil society, parliamentarians and representatives of non-governmental organisations and independent media, who only wanted to assess the situation on the ground, is indicative of a deliberate act of procrastination that betrays the existence of some hidden agenda and devious objectives Moroccan authorities are trying to achieve. It won’t be surprising that one of these objectives may be an attempt to veil the consequences of their repressive practices and therefore hide facts from the international public opinion.

The prevailing situation in the Territory is now marked by a complete Media blackout together with a brutal and inhuman blockade. These practices are inconsistent with the principles of freedom and democracy as cherished by the entire world and as the Moroccan Government itself is claiming to respect. It has already led, among the Saharawi citizens, to the deepening of feelings of the heavy weight engendered by the blockade and the associated repression of fundamental freedoms by the Moroccan Government, which -in the absence of any international intervention- continues to act in line with the logic of illegal occupation and in total disregard for international principles and conventions. If it were to persist, this situation will only lead to increasing the tension already on the rise in the region. 

In view of the current situation and the information blackout imposed persistently by the Moroccan authorities on the Territory, the Frente POLISARIO is deeply concerned about the fact that the Moroccan authorities may be planning to perpetrate gross crimes and massacres against the Saharawi defenceless and innocent citizens.

Whilst denouncing vehemently the information blackout imposed by the Moroccan Government on the Saharawi occupied territories and with a view to advancing towards a rapid and earnest completion of the decolonisation of Western Sahara, we urgently call upon you to ensure the immediate release of all Saharawi prisoners of conscience in the Moroccan jails and the accounting for those who have been missing.

We further call upon you to ensure that the Saharawi citizens, in the territories under Moroccan occupation, be provided with the necessary conditions for exercising their fundamental freedoms, through the dismantling of the huge military apparatus that is constantly weighing heavily on them, and opening up the Territory for independent observers and media. Of equal importance is also the urgent need to denounce the Moroccan policy of blockade and information blackout, to put the Minurso in charge for the protection of Saharawi citizens in occupied territories and to compel Morocco implement all UN’s Security Council’s pertinent resolutions, especially the resolution 1495 so as to enable the Saharawi people exercise their right to self-determination and independence through the holding of a free, fair and just referendum.


I should be grateful if your Excellency would have the content of this letter brought to the attention of the members of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Mohamed Abdelaziz
President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
Secretary General of Frente POLISARIO". (SPS)

060/090/100 142302 June 05 SPS