SAID TEMSAMANI
Western Sahara refugees camp
Washington / Morocco News Board— Today Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights center delegation released its preliminary statement of their trip to Western Sahara. As expected, the report reflects delegation members perception of the human rights situation in the region.
Despite RFK Center delegation promises for an effective and unbiased reporting of the human rights situation on the ground. The delegation report stated “massive violations of human rights, starting from abduction to arbitrary torture prevails in the southern Moroccan provinces [Western Sahara]”, … and that there is an exemplary respect of basic human rights in the Algeria-Backed-Separatists-Tindouf-camps…
To develop objective measures of respect for human rights, one should rely on a centralized, frequently updated sources of information about the human rights practices on both sides. The most commonly used primary sources that contain consistent information about the human rights practices of most countries are the Amnesty International annual reports and the annually produced US Department Report on Human RightsPractices. Only the US State Department Reports systematically contain information about government respect for a wide variety of human rights aspects over a long period of time. To name only these two, their reports are carried over a long period of time, where the drafters make frequent trips to the region and meet with different groups without deliberate discrimination. These professional reports unanimously recognized the improvement of the human rights situation in the Moroccan southern provinces [Western Sahara] over the last thirteen years. Another example of a professional and effective human rights mission, Human Rights Watch, which has assessed the situation on both sides and came up with credible reports.
A pressing question is why the RFK delegation did not bring up the case of the Polisario dissident Moustapha Oueld Salma with the Polisario Camp bosses as well as other cases of Human rights abuses by the Algeria-supported separatist group.
Human Rights Watch when it reported on the situation inside the Western Sahara separatist Polisario camps listed the following violations :
1. Political Detentions in the Camps
2. Lack of Freedom of Movement
3. Ban of Travel to Mauritania, Morocco, and Moroccan-Controlled Western Sahara
4. Ban of Travel inside Algeria
5. Prevention of Dissident to Re-Enter Camps
6. Lack of Freedom of Information, Expression, Association and Assembly
7. Deplorable situation at Detention camps.
8. Continued Practices of Slavery within Separatist Camps
9. Lack of protection of former slaves from ex-“Owners”.
As promised by Kerry Kennedy on several occasions, her goal was to help activist Aminatou Haidar and her Polisario Allies, and as expected, she systematically ignored any criticism and/or abuses by the separatists side.
Ms. Kennedy, who has recently been arrested for drunk driving in upstate New York, is going through a turbulent personal period. The one-sided & amateurish “Fact-checking” Trip, that she has undertaken in the Name of the RFK Center in Western Sahara, is likely to add more questions about the credibility of both Ms. Kennedy and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
Said Temsamani is a political observer and consultant, who follows events in Morocco and North Africa. He lives in Maryland.
.
