The United Nations human rights watchdog has expressed serious concern about abuses in the Western Sahara, which is illegally occupied by Morocco, and recommends self-determination for the Saharawi people as the most effective remedy.
Until that can be achieved, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called for the situation to be more closely monitored both in the towns held by Morocco and in refugee camps in Algeria, which house close to 168 000 Saharawi refugees.
The recommendations are contained in a confidential OHCHR report to the governments of Algeria, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and Morocco, a copy of which has been obtained by Mail & Guardian.
The report is the product of a fact- finding mission sent to the region by the OHCHR in May this year, following the violent repression by Moroccan authorities of street protests by Saharawis demanding the right to self-determination.
“We are delighted with the recommendations of the OHCHR,” says Oubi Bachir, Saharawi ambassador to South Africa.
“It is the beginning of the international community deciding to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force [Minurso] in the Western Sahara to make it responsible for monitoring the respect for human rights both in the occupied territory and the refugee camps.”
“The Polisario Front has been calling for this for many years,” says Bachir, referring to the guerrilla organisation that fought the Moroccan occupation and which has become the ruling party of the SADR.
“We are ready and willing to cooperate with the UN in this new element of its work.”
By contrast, the Moroccan authorities have denounced the report, calling it “partial, biased and propaganda”.
Moroccan government spokesperson Nabil Benabdallah is particularly upset that only one paragraph of the report is devoted to Algeria, whose support for the Saharawi cause is a running sore in bilateral relations between the two North African neighbours.
The Moroccans have long maintained that the refugees are being kept in the camps against their will and are better off living in the ÂMoroccan-Âoccupied towns.
The report notes allegations of torture, illegal detention and oppression of free speech by the Moroccan authorities in Western Sahara.
The public airing of the report by the Geneva-based UN body is a second blow to Morocco this month.
Last week, Morocco came under criticism from the European Commission for refusing to allow a European Union fact-Âfinding mission to Western Sahara.
King Mohammed VI is trying to project an air of reform in Morocco — particularly with regards to the kingdom’s parlous human rights record. However, Rabat’s concessions on women’s rights and political freedoms have not extended to the Western Sahara.
After a history of coup attempts against his father Hassan II, Mohammed VI wants to keep troops occupied in the Western Sahara rather than idle in the capital.
Taking the OHCHR recommendation on board will entail increasing the size of Minurso — now the smallest UN peacekeeping force in the world at 300 people.