El Aaiun (occupied territories), 16/10/2005 (SPS) The Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA- in French) concern, on Monday, about the "alarming situation" of the human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, calling on the international community to "pay all needed efforts so as to put an end to the Saharawi people’s sufferings".

The CODESA also called on the UN "to assume their moral responsibilities towards the Saharawi people through the enlargement of the competences of the UN Mission for the referendum in the Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include the human rights", indicated a press release publicised by the Collective on Monday, of which SPS received a copy.

The text reported new campaigns of arrest that targeted dozens Saharawi citizens, who were submitted "to the most barbarous physical and psychological methods of torture" in the Moroccan police station, in "reaction to the publication of the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on its mission to the Western Sahara on May and June 2006".

The Saharawi NGOs also asked for the nomination of a Special Reporter on the human rights situation in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, which reached "a very critical extent" since the beginning of the Intifada of independence last May 2005.

The CODESA finally asked for the implementation of the Peace Plan for the Self-determination of the People of the Western Sahara, which was approved by the UN Security Council last July 2003. (SPS)

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Pretoria (South Africa), 16/10/2006 (SPS) "After the last report of the UN High Commissioner for the Human Rights, the prerogatives of the MINURSO should be enlarged to include the protection of human rights in the Western Sahara", Saharawi Ambassador to South Africa, Oubi Bouchraya, in an interview publicised by the South African magazine "Mail & Guardian" in its October 13 to 20 edition.

"The prerogatives of the MINURSO should be enlarged to include the protection of the human rights in the Western Sahara, in which the violations were revealed by this report", the ambassador underlined.

"The Saharawi party is satisfied about the content of this report, which concluded an ad-hoc an investigation mission in the region dispatched by the United Nations between May and June last year", he said.

He also stressed hat the investigation mission has noted "the organic ties between the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and the systematic human rights violations committed by the Moroccan authorities in a sense that the permanent denial of this right to self-determination is the essence of this objective, balanced and realistic report".

The Saharawi Ambassador to South Africa considered this report as "an important progress" in a sense that it was able to prove and confirm that the human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara were "systematic an daily".

The Saharawi diplomat finally promised that "the Saharawi Government will support the UN so succeeding this enlarging of the mandate". (SPS)

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