Basque Country’s MPs, Ombudsman denounce polisario’s human rights violations

The Speaker and Members of the Regional Parliament of the Basque Country have vigorously denounced, Wednesday in Vitoria Gasteiz, the serious violations of human rights perpetrated by the Polisario against the Sahrawi populations sequestered in the Tindouf camps.

This came at a meeting held at the headquarters of the Basque Regional Parliament with visiting civil society activists from Morocco’s southern provinces.
The delegation members, all victims of abuses they suffered in polisario jails, exposed their cases and those of their families and relatives, showing photographs and documents evidencing the ordeal they went through.

Members of the Regional Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, Gloria Sanchez Martin and Miren Gallastegui Oyarzabal, welcomed the visit by the Moroccan delegation as it allowed them to get firsthand information on the serious human rights abuses and crimes committed by the Polisario.

“The overwhelming testimonies presented to us by the delegation members, who are themselves victims of the polisario-committed crimes, allowed us to become acquainted with the various forms of torture and their impact on the lives of the victims, as well as the many cases of disappearance and abuse committed by the separatists,” Mrs. Sanchez Martin said.

The MPs from the Basque Socialist Party (PES) group strongly condemned the multiple forms of psychic and physical abuses committed against the sequestered populations that are denied their most basic rights.

They also reiterated their parliamentary group’s commitment to fight for the protection and defense of human rights, work for the release of the Sahrawis sequestered in the Tindouf camps and to inform all institutions concerned with the issue of human rights in the region on the cases of the victims of the polisario.

They also vowed to try to find the necessary mechanisms to support this cause.The visiting delegation members also held a separate meeting with the Ombudsman of the Basque Country, Manuel Lezertua Rodriguez, who condemned the “extremely serious” crimes committed by the polisario against the Sahrawis in the Tindouf camps.

The Ombudsman praised Morocco’s efforts to reach a solution to the artificial regional dispute over the Sahara, noting that the autonomy initiative put on the table by the Kingdom is an ideal solution to this issue.

Manuel Lezertua Rodriguez who highlighted the successful experience of the Basque Country as an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Spain, stressed that Morocco’s autonomy proposal is a viable and credible solution to the regional conflict.

The delegation included the President and members of the Association of Missing Persons of the Polisario (APDP) Dahi Aguai; Mrs. Jmaiaa Yassine; and Mohamed Mokhtar Al Alyin.