Chahid El Hafed, 21/12/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called on the UN’s Security Council on Tuesday, for a UN’s "real engagement"  so as to fully "assume" its legal and moral responsibility in the protection of the defenceless Saharawi civil population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

 

In a letter he addressed to the President of the UN’s Security Council, Sir. Emry Jones Parry, Mr. Abdelaziz warned that "any further delay on the part of the United Nations in assuming its legal and moral responsibility in this regard will open the Territory to dangerous possibilities and further tension", and may easily be used by Moroccan authorities in pushing their 20.000 soldiers dressed in civil clothes to perpetrate "massacres on a large scale".

 

He also "firmly warns" against this possible scenario, adding that would probably push the territory in a "civil war" between the Saharawis and Moroccan settlers.

 

Here is the complete text of the letter, of which SPS received a copy:

 

 

Sir Emyr Jones Parry,

President of the Security Council,

Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the UK to the United Nations,

One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 885 Second Avenue (between 47th & 48^th streets) New York, NY 10017

 

                                             Bir Lehlou, 19 December

2005

 

Mr. President,

 

Persisting in acting in ways that may have serious repercussions on the future of a peaceful and just settlement, and on the situation of  human rights in Western Sahara and the stability of the region, the  Moroccan authorities committed yet another terrible crime against the  Saharawi demonstrators in La Aiun on 16 December 2005. In addition to  its conventional repressive forces (the Royal Gendarmerie, Royal  Armed Forces, Intervention Mobile Companies (CMI), the auxiliary   Urban Security Groups (GUS)), the Moroccan authorities also deployed,  for the first time, hundreds of men in plain clothes to repress the Saharawi peaceful demonstrators. This is just the first group to arrive from a larger number of more than 20,000 military men in plain clothes whose task would be to suppress the Saharawi towns and sow discord and trigger civil war between the Saharawis and Moroccan settlers. We have already warned against this fact in a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General, dated 14 December 2005.

 

The Moroccan authorities resorted to this unprecedented, brutal repression in response to a mass demonstration conducted within the context of the peaceful movement of protest that has been launched by the Saharawis since 21 May 2005. The demonstration, which began at noon, involved almost all streets and neighbourhoods of the occupied town of La Aiun, including the neighbourhoods of Fatah, Inaash, Desheira, Boukraa, Askeikida, Maatala, and gathered many Saharawis: men, women, school children and students. The demonstrators hoisted the flag of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and shouted peaceful slogans calling for the implementation of international legality and denouncing the unfair sentences passed against the Saharawi prisoners of conscience on 13 December 2005. The Moroccan authorities reacted immediately by brutally dispersing the demonstrators using tear-gas bombs, and many were arrested and tortured indiscriminately by security agents in plain clothes. The notorious PCCM broke into houses ransacking their properties and detaining many families who were brought to the police station to be savagely tortured, and then disposed of in distant places where some of them were found unconscious, while others remain hitherto missing.

 

The provisional balance of this bloody day in Western Sahara is 80 detainees, 57 injured, 15 houses ransacked with their owners tortured, in addition to a large number of people who remain uncounted for (please find attached the provisional detailed list of the victims).

 

Mr. President,

 

The Saharawi occupied towns in general and the capital, La Aiun, in particular, have been put under tight siege and massive repression to which we have repeatedly drawn the attention of the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council. However, the situation has become highly serious since 16 December 2005, as a consequence of the decision taken by the Moroccan authorities to resort to blind and diversified repression and enact a state of extreme emergency in order to terrorise the Saharawi civilians. 

 

Mr. President,

 

The occupying authorities are intensifying their repressive practices on daily basis against our peaceful citizens, including abduction, detention, torture and even assassination whose victims so far have been two Saharawi young men: Lembarki Hamdi Salek Mahdjub and Leklifi Abba-Cheik Ould Mbarek Ould. Ali. All these unjust practices and gross violations of fundamental human rights as well as the potentially explosive situation, which are taking place under the very eye of the United Nations, as the responsible for the Territory by virtue of the presence in the filed of its mission (MINURSO) that is charged with supervising the cease-fire, holding the self-determination referendum and completing the decolonisation process, all these are utterly unacceptable, and may even lead one to think that there is complicity with the occupying power.

 

In view of this, I address your Excellency as President of the UN Security Council, and call on you to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council, and to take all the necessary measures to provide MINURSO with all required prerogatives and means so as to be able to protect Saharawi civilians against the untold repression of Moroccan authorities, and to guarantee their civil rights to free expression, free movement and demonstration, pending the holding of the self-determination referendum.

 

Mr. President,

 

Any further delay on the part of the United Nations in assuming its legal and moral responsibility in this regard will open the Territory and the entire region to dangerous possibilities and further tension that may soon involve massacres on a large scale resulting from communal strife between Saharawi civilians and Moroccan settlers. 

 

Please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration.

 

Mohamed Abdelaziz,

President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic,

Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO." (SPS)

 

020/090/100 211120 Dec 05 SPS

ANNEXES

I- Preliminary list of the Saharawi families whose houses were ransacked, and properties robbed

1-     Ehl Boudebouss

2-     Ehl Bouchalga

3-     Bachir Meidane

4-     Hamdu Arabi

5-     Sidi El Arabi

6-     Mohamed Embarek Seilamou

7-     Ehl Boujemaa

8-     Hamdi Lefdil

9-     Embarek Khalil

10-   Ehl Sallama

11-   Ehl Deida

12-   Hamaidi El Arabi

13-   Alioune Deida

14-   Mohamed Ould Aouereb

15-   Mahmoud Najem

 

II. Preliminary list of wounded Saharawi civilians:

1-   Fatma Bouchelga

2-   Bachir Ould Sidi Mohamed

3-   Bounane Moustapha  (serious case)

4-   Mohamed Bachir Meidane

5-   Aziza Bachir Meidane

6-   Mbarca bachir Meidane

7-   Ghleila Bachir Meidane

8-   Kaziza Mohamed  (serious case)

9-   Menina Boudebouss

10- Deida Kaziza (serious case)

11- Lemgheibila Meidane

12- Mariem Boudebouss

13- El Amari Samia

14- Mouniha Boudebouss

15- Maeida Mohamed

16- Mariem El Ansari

17- Farrah El hallab

18- Larabass Deich

19- Bachir Aghlajilha

20- Benina Deida

21- Ayach Zahra Ali Salem

22- Alouat Dahi

23- Fatma Ghalaoui

24- Fatma Ali Lefdil , femme très âgée

25- Redouane Mohamed Ali

26- Toumena Sallama Lefdil

27- Salama Lefdil

28- Cheikh Sidi El Arbi

29- Azouha Bachir Meidane

30- Toufik abdelhay

31- El Farrah Hassan Omar

32- Mahmoud najem

33- Dbeidebat Sidi Houssine

34- Khoueya Sidi Houssein

35- Mounina Sidi Houssine

36- Hellab Mettou

37- Hellab Zehra

38- Hamadi El Mahjoub

39- Helab Messaoud

40- Hellab Minetou

41- Mohamed Najem

42- Sida Zerouali

43- Aleoua Ali Beiba

44- Chia Alouat

45- Lekouara Aicha

46- Ali Salem Lemahad

47- Meina Bouamoud

48- Meidane Mohamed

49- Fatama Khreiriz

50- Samia Oumri

51- Cheikh Ould Sidi

52- Farrah Hasssena

53- Zahra Said

54- Houria Ali Deida

55- Mohamed Lekhal

56- Mouloud Soudani

57- Mouloud Aliyen

 

III. Preliminary list of arresttees

1-   Sarir Fatma Allal Lefdil

2-   Chein Bachir Meidane

3-   Brahim Sah

4-   Njourni baha

5-   Boudebouss cheikh

6-   Moustapha Salek Youssef

7-   Brahim Salem Farrah

8-   Farah Oumar Hallab

9-   Baha Mohamed Seilamaou

10- Oualda baba Mohamed

11- Deida El Houria

12- Zahra Mohamed Vall

13- Mohamed Salem Abdelfatah

14- Taki Rguibi

15- Taki Seif

16- Embarek Khalil

17- Hellab Oum saad

18- Cheikh El Arabi

19- Meidane Said

20- Mohamed Najem

21- Malouma Arabi

22- Malouma Lehklifa

23- Zerouali Sidi

24- Hellab Ghalia

25- Mohamed Chein

26- Cheikh Meidane

27- Toumana Hellab

28- Mohamed fadel baba Ahmed

29- Bouchalgha Raghia

30- Salek Chein

31- Douedat Boudebouss

32- Leytim Mohamed

33- Fatma Ailal

34- Aghla Lemnat Meidane

35- Mettou Brahim Khalil

36- Bousoula Zahra Laroussi

37- Rabab Mohamed Hamel

38- Mrabih Boujemaa

39- Oum Fadli Lefdil

40- Saad Mbarek Khalil

41- Zein Dine Lehdeiha

42- Touelia Fall

43- Brahim Hammad Matala

44- Said Mouloud

45- Ouerib Dahba Mohamed Fadel (Mineure)

46- Lekhal Ould Mohamed Abdalla

47- Baba Ould Mohamed Salem

48- Babeit Khouna

49- Moustapha youssef

50- Redouane Lefdil

51- Lefkhir babait

52- Salek rguibi Mbeirik

53- Mohamed Hassan Mbeirik

54- Brahim Salem El Farrah

55- Bahi Mohamed Mbarek

56- El Haj Ould Chiaa

57- Bouida Mohamed Charfi

58- Haimouda Hamadi

59- Ali Salem Yahyaoui

60- Babeit Moustapha

61- Moustapha Meiri

62- Mohamed Mrabih Abdel jalil

63- Hadi Mouloud

64- Ahmed Teklbout

65- Chekouk Mbarek

66- Maidae Mohamed

67- Salek Rguibi

68- Hallab Minetou

69- Hellab Oum Saad

70- Alia Ment Khali

71- Fatam allal

72- Leitim Mohamed Saaid

73- Mahmoud najem

74- Said Maidane (état critique)

75- Alouat Mohamed

76- Chekla Fatma

77- Rabab hamdi Houmad

78- Chein Salek

79- Zahra Boussoula

80- Joueda Vall

up

 

 

Chahid El Hafed, 21/12/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called for the holding of an "extraordinary session" of the UN’s Security Council so as to give the UN’s Mission in Western Sahara all the means that would enable to protect the lives of the Saharawi population in distress, until the organisation of a fair self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people.

 

In a letter he addressed to the President of the UN’s Security Council, Sir. Emry Jones Parry, Mr. Abdelaziz warned that "any further delay on the part of the United Nations in assuming its legal and moral responsibility in this regard will open the Territory to dangerous possibilities and further tension", and may easily be used by Moroccan authorities in pushing their 20.000 soldiers dressed in civil clothes to perpetrate "massacres on a large scale".

 

 

The President of the Republic called for "a real engagement" of the UN so as to fully "assume" its legal and moral responsibility in the protection of the defenceless Saharawi civil population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and to preserve their rights to freedom of expression and movement.

 

He also "firmly warns" against this possible scenario, adding that it would probably push the territory in a "civil war" between the Saharawis and Moroccan settlers.

 

Mr. Abdelaziz indicated that the stillness, passivity and the disengagement can be interpreted as a "guilty silence", that borders complicity with the occupier, in reference to Moroccan authorities resuming to murder an to serious human rights violations in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

 

The State of exception imposed on the occupied territories of Western Sahara in general and in El Aaiun in particular "stressed the sufferings of the population that is subjected to all sorts of discriminations, humiliations and a systemised violence", which deprives it of its right to respect and to human dignity, he said.

 

The President of the Republic recalled that he did not stop warning against the "seriousness and the consequences" of such a situation, since last May the 21st, in many letters he sent, especially to the UN’s Secretary General and to the President of the UN’s Security Council. (SPS)

 

020/090/100/TRD 211650 Dec 05 SPS

up

 

 

Chahid El Hafed, 21/12/2005 (SPS) The Association of the Families of the Saharawi prisoners and Disappeareds (AFAPREDESA) and the Saharawi Union of Jurists (UJS) condemned on Tuesday the "new assassinations" that caused e death of three innocent Saharawi citizens in Dakhla, demanding the "bringing before an independent and impartial court" of the authors of these crimes, according to a joint press release publicised the two organisations the same day.

 

AFAPREDESA and UJS presented their "deep condolences" to the families and friends of the late victims who were killed Monday evening in Dakhla, after their car was run down by a Military truck.

 

They also called on the international community to "urgently intervene", warning the international opinion on the need to protect the Saharawi civil population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara conforming to the dispositions of the Geneva Conventions and international human rights laws.

 

The two NGOs further exhorted the Spanish Government to "really intervene" to put an end to flagrant human rights violations committed by the Moroccan State against the Saharawi population.

 

AFAPREDESA and UJS called on the Spanish Government to pay all necessary efforts for the organisation of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara in accordance with the international legality, which are "well defended in its speech".

 

On another hand, the two NGOs called on the international community to intervene vis-à-vis the Moroccan authorities for the release of Saharawi citizen, Mohamed Ali Ruimi, who was arrested since November the 24^th in Guelta in unknown circumstances.

 

Mohamed Ali Ruimi, born in Tan Tan in 1968 and father to a son, was arrested by the Moroccan colonial forces in the region of Guelta, and reappeared in the sinister secret detention camp, PC CMI, in El Aaiun after having spent a month under torture and ill-treatment, according to the joint press release by the two NGOs.

 

AFAPREDESA and UJS denounced "the forced disappearance" of Mr. Mohamed Ali Ruimi, adding that it constitutes a "crime against humanity that must be condemned by the international community ".

 

They finally asked international human rights organisations to intervene for the release of this Saharawi citizen and so as to bring the responsible of his forced disappearance before justice. (SPS)

 

020/090/000 211610 Dec 05 SPS

up