Mr. Abdelaziz calls on the UN Secretary General to protect the Saharawis human rights
29/05/2007- Sahara Press Service

The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, interpellated the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to intervene urgently vis-à-vis the Moroccan authorities so as to guarantee the respect of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Saharawi people in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, in the south of Morocco and in the Moroccan universities.

"We interpellate you, and through you the UN Security Council, to ensure the respect of the human rights of the Saharawi person and his most fundamental freedoms in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, in the south of Morocco and in the Moroccan universities", the Head of the Saharawi State wrote in a letter he addressed to Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.

Mr. Abdelaziz expressed deep concern, calling the attention of the UN official on the dangers of a set of iniquitous trials perpetrated by the Moroccan colonial courts since May the 22nd against 4 Saharawi political prisoners and human rights activists in the occupied city of El Aaiun, knowing that some of them were sentenced to 3 years firm imprisonment, according to the letter of which SPS received a copy.

The President of the Republic called on the international community to assume its responsibility in the decolonisation of the Western Sahara, enable the Saharawi people to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and to draw the light on the fate of more than 151 Saharawi prisoners of war and more than 500 victims of disappearance since the illegal occupation of the Western Sahara by Morocco in 1975.

He also asked for the immediate and unconditional release of the Saharawi political prisoners, as well as the Saharawi students recently arrested in the Moroccan universities of Agadir, Marrakech and Rabat. (SPS)