I come from a small country in Africa, the Western Sahara. It is a territory pending decolonization, and enrolled as a dependent territory, the Fourth Committee of the United Nations since 1965. The Western Sahara is currently divided by a stone wall, barbed wire and mines 2720 Km. Two thirds of the territory under Moroccan occupation. Since the beginning of the invasion, the October 31, 1975 , the Moroccan occupying forces took thousands of cases of enforced disappearances. Now Morocco is a party to the Convention but on the ground, victims remain without their rights, in particular the right to truth and justice. It is true that the Kingdom of Morocco has taken some steps in the good sense but really while family not recover the bodies of their relatives, ……. In December 2010, The Royal Advisory Council for Human Rights (CCHR) of Morocco published a report on the recommendations of the Committee Equity and Reconciliation which anexe1: “cases of enforced disappearances” it recognized that more than 351 Saharawi have died, including 144 people without specifying their identities or the exact circumstances of their death, and whether they were kidnapped or executed (115 persons in various military bases including 14 children aged from 3 months to 15 years, 43 people in the secret detention centers of “Agdez” and “Kalaat Magouna”, 23 people in El Aaiun, all these cases the report says, died in conditions of extreme suffering due to their treatment an incarceration, 13 people were executed by a martial court, in addition to other who died in different prisons ...). The report acknowledges that the perpetrators of these crimes belong to different Moroccan military corps, especially the army, gendarmerie and auxiliary forces. Reluctance to inform the families of the victims, who still have no access to all the truth related to their missing relatives, no details of their sufferings, nor the places of their burial or official recognition of the facts and of the dignity of the victims, no moral reparation and Justice, as required under the international humanitarian law and the United Nations’ conventions on forced disappearances and the right to reparation. In addition, Morocco only recognizes part of Sahrawi victims of enforced disappearances (Agdez group and Kalaat Maguna and the victims who died in different places, mainly in military bases), and deliberately excluded thousands other victims such as those forcibly displaced and forced to exile, thousands of survivors of arbitrary detention and disappearance and the rest of the still reported missing unaccounted for, (there are many groups of disappeared in El Aaiun, Smara, Dakhla, Bojador, Tan Tan, Zak, Goulimine, Meknes group, nomads, individual cases ...). During all these 35 years, the Moroccan government has been keeping this information secret, and now allegedly says that there has been a death sentence against 13 Saharawi civilians given by a court in 19 October 1976, and has been prolonging anxiety and pain of the relatives of the Saharawi victims of disappearance. In 1999, the Moroccan government was even pretending that those missing were living in the Saharawi refugee camps or other neighboring countries, mainly Spain and Mauritania. (Answer given to the Personal Envoy of Kofi Anan to the Western Sahara, Mr. James Baker, with regards to the list of victims he received from the Saharawis). Recommendations, the Moroccan state should: 1. Fully compensate the survivors and families of the victims of forced disappearance for the grave material and moral damage caused to them. Thus, it is required from the Moroccan government requires to: i. Perform a thorough, prompt and impartial investigation on the facts related to forced disappearance and other serious violations committed against the Saharawi citizens, and in particular to make known the whereabouts of all missing Saharawis and to identify the accountability of the persons who are involved directly or indirectly in the violations so as they receive the appropriate legal sanctions. This investigation cannot be credible without the participation of human rights organizations both Sahrawi, Moroccan and international. ii. To report on the circumstances of arbitrary detention and kidnapping of all the victims of disappearance the fate of the victims, and locate their tombs and return their dead bodies to the families to give them proper burials. iii. To give adequate compensation to repair the material and moral damage suffered by the families of the victims. And to recognize the State’s responsibility in the crimes and to give all needed guarantees of non-repetition of these violations as required in reparation under the international law and humanitarian international law and the principles of the right to compensation. iv. To allow the self-determination to the Saharawi people through the holding of a referendum on self-determination without more delays, as a way to end the phenomenon of disappearance and serious human rights violations that are continuously committed as a consequence to the continuity of occupation and impunity enjoyed by the persons accountable for crimes against humanity perpetrated in Western Sahara. By: Leaarousie Abdel Lahi Salec AFAPREDESA, ICAED Member-organization Western Sahara
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 05:43:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015