PUSL letter to UN members warning about attacks on Saharawi civilians

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24th July 2023

H.E. United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres

H.E. Members of the Security Council of the United Nations

H.E. Members of the Special Committee on Decolonization

H.E. Mr. Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

H.E. Members of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

H.E. Ms.Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression

H. E. Mr. Nyaletsossi Clément VOULE , Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association

H.E. Ms. Tlaleng MOFOKENG , Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

H.E. Ms. Mary Taylor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

H.E. Members of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination

H.E. Ms. Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

Your Excellences, first we want to excuse ourselves to address this letter to all of you. It is a clear indicator of our desperation regarding the continues and grave human rights violations, war crimes, discrimination by the Moroccan occupier in the Occupied territories of Western Sahara and the complete absence of protection of the Saharawi population by the UN mechanisms.

We will not once again cite all the articles of International law, Humanitarian Law, etc because we have done so for the last decades and therefore there is no need to repeat what everybody knows, you received letters and complaints from organizations all over the world with all articles and pleas possible, communiqués and reports of international NGO’s as well as live testimonies of the victims.

The current situation is only due to the fact that the United Nations since November 1975 did never intervene to protect the Saharawi population from terrible war crimes, napalm bombings included, nor punish or hinder in anyway the Moroccan illegal occupier. Even the agreements for the holding of a referendum were never implemented. The Western Sahara issue is the posterchild of the United Nations complete and utterly disregard of Human Rights of an entire population when compared to other and more recent conflicts that have immediate action from the UN.

Moreover the Saharawi Republic and its legitimate representative in the UN , the Polisario Front not once infringed the agreements ratified in the believe that the UN would protect at least the civil population which never happened.

The Mandates that all of your Excellences hold where almost never executed. Neither scheduled visits, nor protection nor correct and fact-based reports can be found in the manner and amount dictated by your mandates. Some reports were never made public. You cannot report on what you don’t want to see or are not allowed to see or not allowed to speak of.

The Committee against torture has 5 cases (Mr. Naama Asfari, Mr. Abdallah Abbahah, Mr. Abdeljalil Laaroussi, Mr. Mohamed Bourial and Mr. Mohamed Bani) who have final decisions where it is clear that these political prisoners suffer from ill treatment, torture and isolation ongoing since their arbitrary detention, nevertheless the Moroccan Kingdom ignores the decisions and in four cases (Abbahah, Bourial, Laaroussi and Bani) the plaintive do not even had the right to read and receive a copy of the above mentioned decisions, nor does Maître Olfa Ouled, their legal representative have the right to visit them, having been expelled twice from the Moroccan Kingdom.

The violation and torture of Saharawi children women and men, the economic, social and political apartheid, the absence of freedom of speech, association and movement, the assassinations, the arbitrary detentions, the torture of political prisoners, the looting of the Saharawi natural resources, the destruction of the environment, the assassination of herds of camels and goats are all well documented over the years and in your dossiers and files, yet nothing is done. Morocco’s impunity continues and the Kingdoms “effort’s” are even praised in some of your reports which is incomprehensible.

We address you today in your capacities and the mandates that you have:

The Secretary-General contributes actively to the implementation of the responsibility to protect principle through his good offices….

In particular, the Secretary-General is mandated to bring issues or situations threatening the maintenance of peace and security, including those where atrocity crimes are likely to occur or are ongoing, to the attention of other United Nations organs.

UN Security Council to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations; to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights; and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.

C-24 mandate

In accordance with GA resolution 1654 (XVI), the C-24 was mandated to (i) examine the application of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (GA resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, hereafter referred to as the “Declaration”) and (ii) to make suggestions and recommendations on the progress and extent of the implementation of the Declaration. The C-24 commenced its work in 1962.

The C-24 annually reviews the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories to which the Declaration is applicable. It also hears statements from representatives of the Non-Self-Governing Territories at its annual sessions, dispatches visiting missions to Non-Self-Governing Territories and annually organizes regional seminars.

With the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), special procedures:

Undertake country visits

Act on individual cases of reported violations and concerns of a broader nature by sending communications to States and others

Contribute to the development of international human rights standards, and

Engage in advocacy, raise public awareness, and provide advice for technical cooperation.

Could you please act on your mandates? We do not ask for much, just that your mandates should be respected.

This week horrifying images once again appeared, several brutal attacks where denounced against Saharawi civilians and human rights defenders that were executed by settlers with machetes, by police with chemicals burning eyes and bodies and entire neighborhoods under military siege.

The Saharawi after dozens of years of presenting complaints to your mechanisms do not want do it anymore. Why? Because the reprisals are enormous. The current amount of Saharawi family houses under siege in El Aaiun, Dakhla, Smara can be verified by the MINURSO on the ground if they would do so, but they don’t. As they didn’t go to visit Ms. Sultana Khaya who for over a year was the victim of daily attacks as well as her family, another example of the brutality of the Moroccan occupier under the “watchful” eyes of the United Nations.

Even on the day of the violation of the cease fire MINURSO disappeared although it had been present for two weeks prior to the attack by Moroccan military against Saharawi civilians.

There is not one Saharawi that has any trust in MINURSO since they do not uphold their single mandate.

Apparently MINURSO is also unaware of the Moroccan Drone attacks against Saharawi civilians albeit the victims and the evidences on the ground.

Attached we send you the latest report of one of dozens of attacks, as said nobody wants to present any complaints since they are menaced with rape of their entire families, small children included and unfortunately, they know that the Moroccans go through with these threats unpunished. Also to go to a hospital to be treated is a real risk, hospital are under the constant surveillance of the Moroccan authorities even in the surgery rooms.

This letter is not nice nor in the “spirit of political correctness” as you would probably whish, but the desperation overcomes all political correctness and “realpolitik concerns”, what is “real” is that an entire population is being attacked under your watch and silence for 48 years.

It is a fact that Saharawi in the occupied territories are under a regime whose only goal is to exterminate them silently, it is a fact that although several donners of the UN mechanisms and ICRC are plundering directly and indirectly the natural resources of the Saharawi, the same Saharawi are dependent on a meager, insufficient and completely inadequate food “help” which consist of carbohydrates and resulted in chronical illnesses that where not present before.

This looting and corresponding quid pro quo for Morocco finance the agents who torture, rape, exploit, destroy, finance the drones and the war

We could go on and on. There is not one aspect of the Saharawi people’s life that has not been affected by the complete absence of protection from the International community.

Dear Excellences we urge you to:

Respect international law and uphold it
Holding of an Urgent Extraordinary meeting on the Western Sahara issue with presence and hearing of the legitimate representative of the Saharawi People, the Polisario Front.
Mediate the urgent release of the Saharawi political prisoners
Protect the Saharawi population in the occupied territories
Create the Mandate for a Special rapporteur on Western Sahara
Implement the holding of the referendum and the right to self-determination of the Saharawi People
Destroy the longest military structure known as the wall or the berm that was built over decades by the Moroccan Army with the advice, help and financing of several so called “democratic” countries and that is now almost 3000km long holding the Saharawi population in an open-air prison.

Respectfully,

Fito Álvarez
Conchi Fernández
Isabel Lourenço

PorUnSaharaLibre.org (PUSL)

Sultana Khaya: https://porunsaharalibre.org/?lang=en&s=sultana+khaya