The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr Staffan de Mistura, has arrived in Western Sahara on his first visit to learn firsthand about the situation on the ground in the Sahrawi Territories under illegal Moroccan military occupation.
In a Press Release, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic’s Ministry of Information, it noted that more than once the occupying state of Morocco obstructed, with complete impunity, the visits of the Personal Envoy to the Territory, including the visit that he intended to conduct in July 2022, through a set of “preconditions” that the UN envoy rejected, which led to the postponement of the visit.
The release said, the occupying power has yielded to the conditions of the United Nations and its insistence on the need for the visit to take place in line with the same criteria that governed the visits of previous UN envoys to the Territory.
See full Release below:
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Ministry of Information
Press Release on the Visit of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara to Occupied Sahrawi Territories
Within the framework of the mandate entrusted to him by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr Staffan de Mistura, arrived today in Western Sahara on his first visit to learn firsthand about the situation on the ground in the Sahrawi Territories under illegal Moroccan military occupation.
More than once the occupying state of Morocco obstructed, with complete impunity, the visits of the Personal Envoy to the Territory, including the visit that he intended to conduct in July 2022, through a set of “preconditions” that the UN envoy rejected, which led to the postponement of the visit. Today the occupying power has yielded to the conditions of the United Nations and its insistence on the need for the visit to take place in line with the same criteria that governed the visits of previous UN envoys to the Territory.
The Frente POLISARIO reiterates its strong condemnation of this “anomalous” situation in which UN envoys need the “consent” of the occupying state of Morocco to visit the Territory that is subject to a decolonisation process under the auspices of the United Nations. In the meantime, the Frente POLISARIO underscores that the visit of the Personal Envoy to Occupied Western Sahara did not take place as a “gift” from anyone, but rather as a result of the struggle and steadfastness of the Sahrawi people, especially in Occupied Western Sahara, and the firm position of the Sahrawi side that any visit to the region that does not include Occupied Western Sahara would be meaningless and unnecessary.
Since Western Sahara is a Territory pending decolonisation under the auspices of the United Nations and where the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has been deployed since 1991, the visit of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General to Occupied Western Sahara should be seen as a normal event that is consistent with the responsibility of the United Nations towards the Territory and its people as well as the functions and role of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General.
In this context, the Frente POLISARIO stresses that the visit of the Personal Envoy to Occupied Western Sahara should not be an end in itself, but should constitute a real opportunity for the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General to have direct and unfettered access to witness firsthand the repression and siege, especially the one imposed on the occupied Cities of El Aaiún and Dajla, as well as the systematic pillaging, the flagrant violations of human rights, the barbaric and inhumane practices and the unspeakable cruelty to which Sahrawi civilians in general and human rights defenders in particular are subjected on a daily basis in Occupied Western Sahara on account of their peaceful activism and their public defence of their people’s right to self-determination and independence.
The Personal Envoy should also witness firsthand the situation of Sahrawi political detainees and prisoners in the prisons of the occupying state of Morocco and the torture and the degrading and vindictive practices to which they are subjected as well as their being deprived of the most basic rights and take action to ensure their immediate and unconditional release and enable those deported to return to their homeland and reunite with their families.
In view of the tightening of the military siege imposed on Occupied Western Sahara by the occupying state of Morocco and the deployment of more of its security and police forces in several Sahrawi cities in anticipation of the visit of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, the Frente POLISARIO holds the occupying state fully responsible for the consequences of the new campaigns of repression and escalation that it may carry out during the visit of the UN envoy, and calls on the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General to shoulder their responsibilities in protecting the defenceless Sahrawi civilians.
The Frente POLISARIO also calls once again and urgently on the United Nations to operationalise its international, legal and moral responsibility towards the people of Western Sahara, in particular Sahrawi civilians in the Territories under illegal Moroccan occupation, and to take the necessary measures to ensure the protection of their physical and moral integrity, including the establishment of an independent and permanent UN mechanism for protecting human rights and submitting regular and on-site reports on the situation in the Territory to relevant UN bodies.
