SCANDAL: OHCHR INTENDS TO MEET WITH VICTIMS OF MOROCCAN REPRESSION IN A HOTEL THAT HONORS THE OCCUPATION | WSHRW
The Saharawi associations for the defense of Human Rights regret and condemn the disinterest shown by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Navi Pillay, in the framework of her visit to the occupied city of El Ayoun from April 29 to May 1, to find out about the serious human rights violations in Western Sahara.
According to the Sahrawi associations and after having requested meetings to denounce the countless violations of human rights committed by the Moroccan repressive apparatus against the Saharawi people, the High Commissioner Navi Pillay decided to promote the said meetings at the “Al Massira” hotel (“The Green March ”), this place with a clear political connotation with the Moroccan occupation regime and symbol of the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara. Even the hotel “Al Massira” is well known for being the place of the busy city of El Aaiún where the high ranks of MINURSO are housed during their mission in Western Sahara, and consequently one of the hotels most guarded by services. Moroccan secrets in an attempt by the occupation regime to control the activities of the Ministry of Public Administration on a daily basis.
In a letter addressed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, dated May 10, the Committee for the Defense of the Right to Self-Determination of the People of Western Sahara (CODAPSO) rejects “these practices of use of symbols
politicians in the programs to promote the situation of human rights in the territory and the fact of receiving human rights associations in this space that is considered a black point in the history of the people of Western Sahara. “
In the condition of being a Committee that defends the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, CODAPSO considers
that the stay of the UN High Commissioner “in the Al Massira hotel -in place of the MINURSO headquarters in El Laayoune /
Western Sahara, a legitimation of the existence of the Moroccan occupation system in the territory ”. CODAPSO also demands that Mrs. Navi Pillay, representing “an international institution that intends to disseminate, promote and protect human rights” , must not “obey the dirty plans of the Moroccan authorities”.
Likewise, CODAPSO will reject – as there has been rejected in the past“Any program of the High Commissioner carried out in the spaces used by the Moroccan State to legitimize its presence in Western Sahara” and that the holding of work meetings at the “Al Massira” hotel evidences the success of the Moroccan occupation authorities to the time to destroy the work of the High Commissioner, forcing the meetings to be held there.
The unfortunate conduct of Mrs. Pillay occurred days before the death of the former deputy chief of MINURSO and
American ambassador , Frank Ruddy, who on January 25, 1995, appeared before the House of Representatives of the Congress of the States United to publicly denounce serious irregularities in the Minurso and its complicity with the Moroccan occupying power to torpedo and
block the referendum process, manifested in unfortunate events that are too similar to those of Ms. Pillay.
