HRW: UN should begin monitoring rights in W.Sahara

Human Rights Watch accused Morocco on Friday of beating and torturing independence campaigners in Western Sahara and said U.N. peacekeepers should start monitoring human rights in the territory. Morocco invaded and took control of Western Sahara in 1975 when the territory’s “de iure” colonial power, Spain, hastily withdrew without decolonising it. After more than 16 years liberation war, waged by the Saharawi people under he leadership of POLISARIO Front, the legitimate representative of the people of Western Sahara, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991 and sent in peacekeepers to monitor the agreement and to organise a referendum on self-determination as the name of the mission suggests (La Mission de l’ONU pour un Referendum au Sahara Occidental- MINURSO). HRW said Morocco bans and disperses peaceful protests in the territory and denies recognition to Saharawi human rights organisations. It accused Moroccan police of beating pro-independence demonstrators and torturing people in their custody. "Morocco uses a combination of repressive laws, police violence and unfair trials to punish Saharawis who advocate peacefully in favour of independence or full self-determination for the disputed Western Sahara," HRW said. The rights group urged Morocco to decriminalise speech or political activity deemed to be affronts to its "territorial integrity" and end impunity for police abuses. HRW said the U.N. Security Council should ensure the U.N. presence in the region included regular human rights monitoring. "Virtually all U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world include a human rights component and ... this region should be no exception," it said. The report also stressed that Saharawi refugees do not face problems in travelling from the camps towards Morocco, if they wish, and that they can travel from the camps to neighbouring Mauritania to reach the occupied zones.