CEZAYIRLI
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“Targeting Saharawi civilians is a new war crime for which the King of Morocco bears responsibility”
SPS 16/11/2021 - 15:02
Chahid El Hafed (Sahrawi Republic) 16 November 2021 (SPS)- The President of the Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH), Mr. Abba El Haissan, considered in a statement to SPS that Moroccan forces of occupation attacks against several civilian martyrs, mainly Algerian and Saharawi merchants and travelers crossing the liberated areas of Western Sahara, is a new war crime committed by Mohammed VI’s regime, in a clear violation of the international humanitarian law, especially the four Geneva Conventions that prohibit targeting civilians in war zones.
The Saharawi jurist stressed that all elements of war crimes are met in these attacks, especially because they were executed by Moroccan Drones, given that this apparatus are well equipped to define the nature of their targets, and thus can easily identify that the targeted victims are civilians not armed forces.
Abba ElHaissan stressed that the current King of Morocco is following the footsteps of his father, Hassan II, who committed thousands of crimes against humanity and war crimes such as bombing civilians with napalm and white phosphorous, killing innocents and burying them alive in mass graves recently discovered, in addition to the systematic practice of kidnapping, forced disappearances, and torture, all of which are classified as crimes against humanity.
He recalled that the Moroccan state of occupation is still practicing these same crimes with impunity under the supervision of the current King, Mohammed VI, and on his orders as he is the absolute ruler of Morocco.
He further condemned the shameful siege imposed on the Saharawi human rights defender, Ms. Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya, and her family, considering the occupation regime’s use of torture, sexual harassment and rape against Saharawi women as a weapon of intimidation and oppression, as another crime against humanity, for which the King of Morocco bears the total responsibility.
On the other hand, the President of CONASADH criticized the failure of the United Nations bodies to honor their responsibilities towards the people of Western Sahara, despite their knowledge of the systematic violations, which were documented by several UN officials, such as the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and several special rapporteurs who called for the protection and monitoring of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, in addition to dozens reports compiled by prestigious international organizations such as Amnesty International, Front Line and others.
In the same context, Abba ElHaissan condemned the failure of the International Committee of the Red Cross to protect Saharawi citizens in accordance with its field of competence based on the requirements of the Fourth Geneva Convention related to the protection of civilians in war zones.
He recalled that the same committee broke all hell loose during the past decades to pressure for the release by Polisario Front of thousands Moroccan military prisoners, while it did nothing about the Saharawi military prisoners still unaccounted for, nor helped to reveal the fate of hundreds disappeards and kidnapped, nor even visited Saharawi political detainees currently in Moroccan prisons.
Aba ElHaissan called on international human rights organizations to rid out of the suspicious silence that characterizes its approach whenever it comes to human rights violations in Western Sahara, considering their excuse of been unable to establish facts about the violations because of the Moroccan ban on visiting the occupied region as a mere flimsy justification considering the presence of eminent Saharawi human rights defenders with international credibility on the ground, and given that Saharawi human rights organizations and institutions, such as CONASADH, spare no effort to document and monitor these violations in an accurate and permanent manner.
It should be recalled that the Moroccan state of occupation has for some time been using drones to target Saharawi and non-Saharawi civilians traveling through the liberated areas of Western Sahara, even in areas far from the Moroccan Wall of Shame and in known routes used by traveling civilians and traders.
The Moroccan bombing also targeted some wells and areas known to be inhabited by nomadic civilians. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
