New York (United Nations), 14 November 2024 (SPS) - Dr Sidi Mohamed Omar, Member of the National Secretariat, Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations and Coordinator with MINURSO, yesterday addressed a letter to Ambassador Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and current President of the UN Security Council, in which he conveyed the Frente POLISARIO’s strong condemnation of the heinous crime recently committed by Morocco, the occupying state, against the Sahrawi citizen, Omar Bahia El Hassan, in the Occupied City of El Aaiún.
The Sahrawi diplomat reiterated the Frente POLISARIO’s urgent call on the Security Council to operationalise the legal and moral responsibility of the United Nations towards the Sahrawi people especially Sahrawi civilians in Occupied Western Sahara where the UN Mission continues to operate without any human rights monitoring capacity, noting that this also entails establishing an independent and permanent UN mechanism for monitoring and regular reporting on the human rights situation in the Territory to relevant UN bodies.
The following is the full text of the letter as received by SPS:
New York, 13 November 2024
Your Excellency,
H.E. Dame Barbara Woodward
Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations
President of the Security Council
I would like first to congratulate you on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of November and to wish you every success in your mission.
It is with great concern that I write to you to urgently draw your attention and the attention of the Members of the Security Council to the continued crimes perpetrated by the Moroccan occupying authorities in Occupied Western Sahara.
The Sahrawi Ministry of Occupied Territories and Communities Affairs has received information that the Moroccan occupying authorities had committed another heinous crime targeting the Sahrawi citizen, Omar Bahia El Hassan, who was murdered in the Occupied City of El Aaiún.
According to testimonies from members of his family, the victim was arrested by agents of the Moroccan occupying police on motorcycles shortly after he had left his sister’s shop on 3 November 2024. Following his arrest, the family repeatedly sought to know the fate of their son, but the Moroccan occupying police refused to give any information about his whereabouts.
It was only on 7 November 2024 that the family was told that their son, who had been held at the infamous “black prison” in the Occupied City of El Aaiún, was transferred to a hospital where the family learnt from some of the hospital staff that he had already been dead upon his arrival to the hospital. In a statement, the victim’s family held the Moroccan occupying authorities fully responsible for this heinous crime and demanded them to launch an urgent and fair investigation into the circumstances of the killing of their son and to bring to justice all those involved in his murder.
The Frente POLISARIO strongly condemns this despicable crime that adds to the record of the crimes committed by Morocco, the occupying state, against the Sahrawi people, including mass killing, interring people alive in mass graves, throwing them off helicopters, subjecting them to arbitrary detention, torture and disappearance in secret centers in addition to bombing civilians with internationally banned weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus munitions.
Despite all the evidence of its continued mass atrocities in Occupied Western Sahara, Morocco, the occupying state, continues to enjoy full impunity and protection from certain quarters that oppose any international monitoring in the Territory for fear that the world will know about the unspeakable crimes perpetrated by the occupying state against the Sahrawi people and the veritable inferno in which they have been living under occupation since 1975.
As highlighted by the Secretary-General in his latest report on Western Sahara (S/2024/707), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was not able to visit Occupied Western Sahara for the ninth consecutive year despite multiple official requests and despite the Security Council urging enhanced cooperation with the OHCHR, including through facilitating such visits. Moreover, in its latest resolution 2756 (2024), the Security Council strongly urged enhancing cooperation with the OHCHR, including through facilitating visits to the region, and reiterated the call for enhancing this cooperation.
Nevertheless, the Moroccan occupying authorities continue to impose a military blockade and media blackout on Occupied Western Sahara. They also continue to deny entry to foreign journalists and independent observers and to deport those who manage to enter the Territory.
The latest deportees were four Norwegian nationals, Kevin Fossnes, Ingeborg Sævik Heltne, Maja Rønningsbakk and Vivian Kaulen Nedenes who were detained by the Moroccan occupying police and expelled from the Occupied City of El Aaiún early November. The four visitors intended to see first-hand the situation of human rights in the Territory, to meet Sahrawi human rights activists and to learn from Sahrawis about the occupying state’s massive plunder of Sahrawi natural resources, including renewable energy.
As we have alerted on previous occasions, the repeated expulsions by the Moroccan occupying authorities of international observers from Occupied Western Sahara share a common objective, which is none other than to try to hide the heinous crimes perpetrated by the occupying state against Sahrawi civilians who are living in the largest prison on earth where they are subjected daily to brutal repression, terror and collective punishment at the hands of the Moroccan repressive forces.
We reiterate our urgent call on the Security Council to operationalise the legal and moral responsibility of the United Nations towards the Sahrawi people especially Sahrawi civilians in Occupied Western Sahara where the UN Mission continues to operate without any human rights monitoring capacity. This also entails establishing an independent and permanent UN mechanism for monitoring and regular reporting on the human rights situation in the Territory to relevant UN bodies.
It is also imperative that the Security Council not only expand the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include monitoring and protecting human rights in Occupied Western Sahara but also exert the necessary pressure on Morocco, the occupying state, to ensure that UN bodies, international observers and media have unfettered, full and continuous access to the Territory.
In view of the deteriorating situation of human rights and the continued crimes committed by the Moroccan occupying authorities in Occupied Western Sahara, it is unacceptable ethically and politically that MINURSO remains an exception at a time when the promotion and protection of human rights is becoming a priority in all United Nations peace operations.
Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Dr Sidi M. Omar
Ambassador
Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations
Coordinator with MINURSO
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