AFAPREDESA
The Association for the Families of Saharawi Prisoners and the Disappeared
Letter written to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
Bir Lehlou, 25 June 2006
Mr. Secretary-General,
A group of Saharawi families living the occupied territories of Western Sahara have communicated to us their deep concern about a serious development relating to the dossier of the 15 Saharawi young people who had gone disappeared when Moroccan authorities kidnapped them under suspicious circumstances on 25 December 2005.
It is the cases of Sid Ahmed Abdelwadud ELALEM - Jalihana Elbachir Mohamed ERRAIS - Habibu Alah Sidi Mahmud Mohamed Salem LEJLIFI - Said Laarusi Kraita - Mustafa Mulay Ali Mohamed Fadel ELYUSFI - Saddiq Sid Ahmed Laarusi BUTENGUIZA - Abderrahman Sidi Mahmud Mohamed Salem LEJLIFI - Sid Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed LAKWARA - Laarusi Mbarek Abdellah SWAYAH - Lahbib Elbakkay Mbairik HALAB - Sid Brahim Elmojtar Mohamed Fadel ELYUSFI - Ali Salem Lefdil Mahmud MUL DAR - Ahmed AZMIR - Mohamed Dine Saleh Mohamed Elfadli ELBATHI - Abderrahim ESSEMLALI.
On 17 June, the committee of the mothers of the 15 Saharawi disappeared transmitted to us alarming and suggestive information. The committee had a meeting with the Moroccan authorities represented by the Minister of Justice and the Public Prosecutor of the Court of Appeals of the occupied city of La Aaíun. The officials informed the committee that four bodies were found in the area during January and March 2006, and that one of them could appertain to one of the missing Saharawi young men. The committee members expressed their astonishment at why the officials chose this particular time to inform them about some decomposed body at the same time as the statements emanating from the Mayor of the occupied city of La Aaíun and the Public Prosecution were denying the existence of any information.
The Public Prosecution had asked the families to proceed with a DNA test to identify the body, but the committee members were suddenly ordered by the Minister of Justice to postpone the test ad infinitum.
It is to be noted that the Moroccan authorities summoned the families very late at night, with no formal notifications and without allowing them access to the minutes of the meetings.
The ambivalent attitude on the part of the Moroccan authorities has given rise to profound concerns amid the families of the disappeared who saw in this ambivalence an indication that the disappeared young men may be held by a Moroccan security service. It also signals a serious intention on the part of the Moroccan authorities to shy away from taking responsibility for this tragedy, which may even lead to eliminating the disappeared.
Acting in this way, the Moroccan authorities have confirmed the well-established fact that they are still engaged in a systematic ethnic cleansing targeting the Saharawi young people who have openly declared their opposition to the authorities’ policies aiming at entrenching the Moroccan character of Western Sahara.
In the face of these alarming developments and in response to the urgent calls of the mothers and families of the disappeared, I would like to address this letter to call on you to do your utmost to uncover the truth in this case, and to intervene with the Moroccan authorities to account for the fate of the young men. I would also like to take the occasion to renew our call on you to create the conditions of security and protect the fundamental freedoms of the Saharawis in the Saharawi territories occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco in anticipation of the early exercise of their legitimate right to self-determination by means of a free, fair and just referendum.
Please accept, Mr. Secretary-General, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Mohamed Abdelaziz,
Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO