Letter from President of Republic to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Chahid El Hafed, May 29, 2015 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Frente Polisario Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz on Wednesday sent a letter to the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, concerning the violations of human rights committed by Morocco against the Saharawi people and the visit conducted on April 2015 by a UNHCHR’s technical mission to the occupied Saharawi cities of El Aaiun and Dajla.
President Mohamed Abdelaziz reminded Al Hussein that Western Sahara “remains a non-self-governing territory, therefore, any denial of this reality violates the UN resolutions that recognizes neither Morocco’s sovereignty nor its administration over the territory.”
“We are extremely surprised for not having been contacted before the start of the Technical Mission and reject the fallacious pretext presented by some parties that the purpose of the mission is to strengthen the representation of the Moroccan Council for Human Rights,” writes the President of the Republic, noting that granting this status to such bodies “violates Paris Principles, as it is about a Moroccan national association has no legitimacy to play a formal role in the non-autonomous territory of Western Sahara.
“We are also extremely astonished that the meetings held by members of the Mission with Saharawi human rights did not take place at the headquarters of MINURSO, whose officials have always said they never refused to host such meetings,” underlined the letter.
“We expect answers to these observations to avoid any confusion in the future and ask that a report be published on what the Mission has heard and seen on the ground of the human rights violations, particularly police abuses the Mission members could assess during their visit,” concluded the President of the Republic, in his letter to the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights. (SPS