PUSL.- On Friday 27, Sérgio Sousa Pinto president of the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities, received the Saharawi activist, Sultana Khaya in the Parliament, at the request of the Democratic Movement of Women.
Sultana Khaya is the visible face of a conflict which is silenced and of the serious abuses to which the Saharawi people are subjected in the illegally occupied territories of Western Sahara.
Sultana Khaya’s recounted the last 557 days of ordeal suffered by her, her sister and her elderly mother, isolated and surrounded in their house in Boujdour victims of night raids by Moroccan occupation forces who raped the daughters in front of their mother, beat them indiscriminately and watered and injected them with chemical substances.
The President of the Committee for Foreign Affairs said that the human rights abuses in the occupied territories were appalling and reaffirmed the commitment of the Portuguese government to continue to abide by the resolutions of the United Nations.
Sultana also mentioned the need for the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to have its mandate extended to include the protection of the civilian population.
Regina Marques of the MDM leadership called for a more active intervention by the Portuguese government especially with the United Nations, where she said “we cannot be mere spectators, but must contribute actively to speeding up the decolonization process of the last colony of Africa”.
Mih Omar, Polisario Front delegate also referred the important role that Portugal can and should play since it is an example at several levels and especially in the case of Timor.
