Campaigners welcome EU resolution on Western Sahara
Free Western Sahara Network | 24.11.2010 13:01
Campaigners across Europe are asking supporters to contact their MEP's to ensure they vote tomorrow on a resolution condemning recent Moroccan violence in Western Sahara
The day after it was announced that there will be a debate tomorrow on a resolution in the European Parliament condemning recent Moroccan in Western Sahara, campaigners are calling on people to contact their MEPs.
In the early hours of 8th November Moroccan security forces moved in to remove more than 12,000 Saharawi protesters from the makeshift protest camp where they had been living for a month. As the smoke cleared the death toll mounted with the Polisario Front claiming 19 Saharawis killed, hundreds wounded and 159 missing. However, Rabat dismissed these figures claiming that there had been 13 fatalities all but two of whom had been members of the Moroccan security forces. In the days following the incident there have been reports of large numbers of arrests and Human Rights Watch has reported the torture and mistreatment of detained Saharawis. With most foreign activists expelled and journalists barred it has been hard to establish the facts but whatever the exact human cost of the incident, the political fallout has been substantial.
The removal of the protest camp coincided with the start of UN-brokered talks in New York aimed at resolving a stalemate in which with the Polisario Front are unprepared to negotiate away their legitimate right to self-determination, Morocco rejects any proposal that contains even the possibility of independence, and the Security Council are unwilling to enforce their own resolutions to hold a referendum on self-determination. Although the first day of talks was cancelled the second day went ahead but little progress was made, the Polisario Front's UN envoy describing the Moroccan action as "a deliberate act to wreck the talks."
Campaigners from the Free Western Sahara Network are asking supporters to contact their MEPs today to ask them to attend the debate and support a resolution which:
· Condemns the violence against the Saharawi civilians
· Calls on the EU to send a fact finding mission to Western Sahara to investigate the violence
· Calls for UN human rights monitoring in Western Sahara
· Confirms its support for the Saharawi right to self-determination
In the early hours of 8th November Moroccan security forces moved in to remove more than 12,000 Saharawi protesters from the makeshift protest camp where they had been living for a month. As the smoke cleared the death toll mounted with the Polisario Front claiming 19 Saharawis killed, hundreds wounded and 159 missing. However, Rabat dismissed these figures claiming that there had been 13 fatalities all but two of whom had been members of the Moroccan security forces. In the days following the incident there have been reports of large numbers of arrests and Human Rights Watch has reported the torture and mistreatment of detained Saharawis. With most foreign activists expelled and journalists barred it has been hard to establish the facts but whatever the exact human cost of the incident, the political fallout has been substantial.
The removal of the protest camp coincided with the start of UN-brokered talks in New York aimed at resolving a stalemate in which with the Polisario Front are unprepared to negotiate away their legitimate right to self-determination, Morocco rejects any proposal that contains even the possibility of independence, and the Security Council are unwilling to enforce their own resolutions to hold a referendum on self-determination. Although the first day of talks was cancelled the second day went ahead but little progress was made, the Polisario Front's UN envoy describing the Moroccan action as "a deliberate act to wreck the talks."
Campaigners from the Free Western Sahara Network are asking supporters to contact their MEPs today to ask them to attend the debate and support a resolution which:
· Condemns the violence against the Saharawi civilians
· Calls on the EU to send a fact finding mission to Western Sahara to investigate the violence
· Calls for UN human rights monitoring in Western Sahara
· Confirms its support for the Saharawi right to self-determination
Free Western Sahara Network
Homepage:
http://www.freesahara.ning.com
