27 July 2006
The SACP delegation led by the General Secretary of the SACP, Cde Blade Nzimande met a Western Sahara deputation of Human Rights and Political activists on the 27th June, 2006. In this meeting the SACP received extensive and frightening testimonies of escalating human rights violations, stepped up by the Moroccan government in the occupied zones of the Saharawi Republic.
We further learned that the Moroccan authority still employs malignant and systematic torture. Methods used ranges from months of blindfolding, indefinite detention of activists without trial, widespread rape of young women, burying activists alive in common graves, abductions and forced disappearances.
In our view, the gravity of these violations amounts to virtual extermination of a people legitimately fighting for their right to self-determination against a brutal occupation that denies them basic democratic entitlements.
The SACP strongly condemns the upsurge in atrocious clampdown by Moroccan authorities on peaceful Saharawi resistance and calls for:
The immediate end of violence and reinstitution of the referendum process to bring to an end the illegal occupation of Western Sahara
The progressive international community to coalesce around active solidarity in the settlement of the Saharawi occupation, including an increased role by the African Union
All South Africans especially women and youth to intensify fraternal people to people solidarity activism based on respect for human dignity and demand social justice for the people of Western Sahara.
The SACP pledges its unflinching solidarity with the Saharawi people in their difficult struggle for decolonisation of Western Sahara.
Issued by: SACP
Contact:
Malesela Maleka
SACP Spokesperson
Cell: 082 226 1802
Tel: 011 339 3621
Fax: 011 339 4244
Email: malesela@sacp.org.za