21/01/2007 – Denunciation of Moroccan human rights violations in Western Sahara in the World Social Forum     (Special Envoy)    Nairobi, (SPS)   The second day of the 7th World Social Forum, held in Nairobi from the 20 to the 25 January, was marked by an energetic condemnation of the flagrant Moroccan human rights violations   in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, in many workshops and by all the visitors of the Saharawi stand, in which photos of the Saharawi victims of torture and imprisonment are exhibited.

The members of the Saharawi delegation, who participated to the workshops of the Forum, which covered today themes like human rights, democracy, women, youth, childhood, pollution, immigration, civilisation dialogue, were able to unmask the real face of the Moroccan colonisation of the Western Sahara. 

A representative of the Moroccan Association for human Rights (AMDH), Mr. Said Tbal, strongly denounced the Moroccan crimes committed in the Western Sahara, revealing the existence of hundreds of Saharawi victims of forced disappearance and other human rights violations persist to be committed by the Moroccan colonial authorities in the Western Sahara, he said in his intervention in a workshop, “forced disappearance, struggle against impunity and the right of the victims to the truth, justice and reparation”.

Organised by “Disparitions forcés, groupe de contact” and “secours Catholiques/Caritas France”, this workshop was also marked with the intervention of M. Abdeslam Omar, President of the Association of the Families of the Saharawi Disappeareds and Prisoners (AFAPREDESA), who explicitly underlined the necessity of putting pressure of Morocco to sign and respect the Convention Against Forced Disappearance, and the need to bring the Moroccan accountable officials and torturers before justice.

 “Contrary to the Moroccan propaganda, the Moroccan system did not change, there are still Saharawi victims to forced disappearance, arbitrary detention and other human rights violations in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara”, Mr. Abdeslam stressed.

On another hand, the Saharawi stand, which exhibits photos of Saharawi tortured victims of Moroccan authorities, in addition to the pictures of the Moroccan wall that divides the Western Sahara and its people in two, has attracted the attention of the participants and actors of the world civil society who expressed their deep solidarity with the legitimate struggle of the Saharawi people for their independence.

Finally, it should be stressed, Moroccan agents of secret services and some Saharawi renegades tried, as usual, to spread confusion and disorder in the workshop. These persons action was widely condemned by the participants to the second part of the workshop organised in the afternoon. (SPS)

060/KENYA/000 212133 Jan 07 SPS 

http://www.spsrasd.info/en/infos/2007/01/sps-e210107-N.html