El Aaiun (refugee camps), 22/05/2006 (SPS) The delegation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCDH) arrived on Monday to the Wilaya of El Aaiun, where they had meetings with the Governor of the region, Mansour Oumar, who was accompanied with his regional Councillors, before visiting Olof Palme School where they met with the Chioukhs (notables working with the UN during the process of identification Saharawi voters to the referendum).

Mr. Mansour stressed "the colonial character" of the Moroccan presence in the Western Sahara and denounced "the successive waves of repressions against the Saharawis in the occupied territories", asking the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to "assume their responsibilities in the protection of the Saharawi civilians submitted to a vindictive occupier".

Concerning the Chioukhs, they expressed their "disappointment" vis-à-vis the UN, which is present on the ground for the last 15 years and did "not succeeded in decolonising the territory which is under its competence", to them the UN "is further keeping quiet in front o human rights violations of the fundamental rights in the zones still under Moroccan colonisation", indicated one of the notables to SPS.

The UN employees were invited for a launch by the Minister of the Occupied territories and Communities, Mr. Khalil sidi M'Hamed, in the Wilaya of El Aaiun, before heading to Chahid El Hafed where they visited the Centre of the Victims of War and Mines..

In the afternoon, the delegation will meet with the Saharawi Workers Union and the Saharawi Journalists and Writers Union before having a dinner with the President of the Saharawi Red Crescent, Bouhoubeini Yahya, it was indicated.

The Head of the UN delegation, Christophe Giraud, who visited the occupied territories from May the 17 to the 19 to investigate on the human rights situation in the territories under the Moroccan occupation, theatre to a popular uprising since May the 21th 2005, declared to the press in Chahid El Hafed, that his mission was "sort" and that the "people who wanted to meet with us had, sometimes, some problems that we resolved".

Mr. Mhamed Khadad, Member of the Polisario Front’s National Secretariat, Coordinator with the Minurso, affirmed to the UN delegation, that "the denial of law and justice" are the main causes of the prolongation of the Saharawi people’s sufferings from both sides of the Moroccan military wall that is cutting the Western Sahara in two.

Saharawi NGOs in the occupied territories had expressed their "deception" to see that the delegation "remained confined in its hotel in El Aaiun, while the Moroccan authorities were repressing peaceful demonstrations few meters from the delegation’s residence". (SPS)

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