El Fórum Canario Saharaui exige a la comunidad internacional mayor control respecto a los Derechos Humanos en los campamentos de Tinduf

The Fórum Canario Saharaui has demanded from the international community a greater control and observation of the protection of human rights in the Tindouf camps. In an official statement, the Forum also denounced the aggressions against members of the family of the Secretary General of the Movement Saharawi for Peace, Hach Ahmed, committed by members of the Polisario Front.

The statement of the Fórum Canario Saharaui is reproduced below:

FÓRUM CANARIO SAHARAUI COMMUNIQUÉ

From the Fórum Canario Saharaui we demand from the international community more control and observation of the respect for human rights in the Tindouf camps.

After the recent events in the Tindouf camps during the previous days, where the relatives of the Secretary General of the Movement Saharawi for Peace, Hach Ahmed, were brutally attacked by members of the Polisario Front, and the subsequent wave of protests against these events, from this Fórum Canario Saharaui we declare the following:

Undoubtedly, these aggressions have been nothing more than the straw that has broken the camel's back of the patience of the inhabitants of the camps. Indeed, this has been the last act of repeated similar episodes that we have already denounced in previous communiqués, either against members of the MSP or against the Saharawi population in general who publicly disagree with their rulers.

Thus, within this violent context of indiscriminate repression, we are alarmed by the exponential increase in the vulnerability of many Saharawis in the Tindouf camps. Indeed, the worsening situation is manifested in the fact that not only are those who choose to publicly disagree with the official Polisario line being repressed, but, in the height of indecency, their relatives, innocent women and elderly people are being punished, as has happened in this recent case.

These Saharawis face daily persecution, threats and criminalisation, being exposed to aggression and arbitrary arrests. Therefore, from the Fórum Canario Saharaui, we strongly condemn these violations of rights, and affirm that these acts show the systematic increase of violence and reprisals deployed against those who defend an alternative and possible resolution to this dispute, as opposed to the permanent journey to nowhere, perpetuated over time, in which the Polisario leaders have embarked their exhausted population.

On the other hand, and more concretely, we have no doubt that this increase in violence towards the MSP, its main leader and his entourage, is nothing more than a continued settling of scores following the international successes of this movement. An even greater violence after the success of the conference held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria last September and its wide media coverage. From here, we give our full support to the great family that makes up the MSP, as well as to its main leader, Hach Ahmed.

• That we must demand, especially from the UN, but also from the organisations defending human rights, greater control, observation, as well as the exercise of due pressure towards these behaviours of the Polisario, and by extension Algeria, in order to put a stop to these infamous practices towards the innocent civilian population, whom the Polisario represses only for exercising fundamental rights such as, among others, freedom of expression. We extend this demand to the EU, through its High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and its External Action Service.

• Indeed, it was some of these international organisations that, some time ago, drew attention to this issue in various reports. To quote a few excerpts from these, Amnesty International (2014, 2020) stated that "the refugee camps in Tindouf are opaque to human rights scrutiny". Human Rights Watch stated in its report "Off the Radar" (2014) that they "received credible allegations that dissidents have been persecuted by the authorities. The rights of civilians who were tried in military courts have also been infringed".

• That we should not forget how, recently, it was the Polisario's own youth who denounced their leaders, in their official media no less, demanding a "necessary generational renewal due to mistrust towards the Polisario leadership because of their irresponsible and harmful conduct".

• It was the Polisario Front itself which acknowledged cases of internal repression and human rights violations during its half-century of existence. It was Ghali himself who announced "reparations to the victims of past errors and abuses", in what appears to be an announcement made for the benefit of the gallery with the clear intention of self-aggrandisement. But an official acknowledgement of the facts, after all, some of which were widely denounced in Spanish courts.

• We must highlight one characteristic, perhaps the most important and worrying, in relation to the lack of protection in terms of human rights in the Tindouf camps. This is none other than the constant isolation of the population and the lack of regular external observation of conditions on the ground. Refugees remain exposed to human rights violations due to the remoteness and legal limbo of the camps. A situation that the Polisario takes advantage of to apply its own form of justice, exercising discretionary and arbitrary powers over the population. We must therefore denounce the government of the host country, Algeria (which, under international law, is responsible for protecting the rights of all persons within its territory), which has ceded the de facto administration of the camps to a movement that is not officially accountable for its conduct before the international human rights system. Algeria has effectively rejected any responsibility for these serious rights violations committed on Algerian territory. This cannot be allowed: the international community must hold not only the Polisario, but also the Algerian government, accountable for any violation of elementary rights committed within its borders.

From this Forum we once again raise our voice to put an end to this situation through this communiqué.