Sahrawi refugees: Morocco criticizes UNHCR's pre-registration procedure
Morocco, Politics, 3/13/2001

Morocco has criticized the procedure adopted by the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) for the pre-registration of "Sahrawi refugees" as not credible and false from the start.

Morocco's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Nacer Benjelloun Touimi, described as "scandalous and unacceptable" the lack of accuracy marring the figures disclosed in the frame of the procedure.

Touimi who was addressing on Monday the 20th meeting of the permanent committee of the HCR program executive committee said it was "unacceptable and scandalous" that the HCR executives in charge of the operation did not deem it necessary to check the number and identity of the refugees nor the veracity of their family links with the persons identified by the MINURSO (UN mission supervising the holding of a referendum in the Sahara).

The figure of 119,698 mentioned in the report of the UN secretary general dated May 22, 2000 is therefore tentative and does not reflect the reality, the diplomat said, adding that the neglect is all the more serious as no census was ever conducted on the population of the camps and that the figures put forward had always been questioned by Morocco.

He recalled that since 1995, Morocco had repeatedly requested exact information on the size of this population and that it was only following several moves by Morocco that the HCR recognized recently that the number of 165,000 was put forward by the host country (Algeria) and retained by the HCR as such.

The Moroccan diplomat said the move is incomprehensible, especially as the HCR had pledged, as noted in the UN secretary general report of July 12, 2000, to conduct a census to determine the number and identity of refugees who were not mentioned in the lists of pre-registered persons, i.e. 40,000 refugees (the difference between 165,000 and 119,698) living in the camps while their country of origin is not known. This means that the figures given to the UN secretary general are inaccurate, the diplomat insisted.

Underlining pitfalls in the pre-registration operation, Touimi said the HCR executives have never met a family member of the persons listed on the MINURSO rolls, limiting themselves to believe all that is said during the interviews with the identified persons, at a time Morocco has been insisting that the populations sequestered in the Tindouf camps are not able to freely express themselves.

Such a move is contrary to the very spirit that must mark any settlement of the Sahara issue and that must enable only the genuine natives of the territory to be repatriated, the Moroccan diplomat said.

Touimi also voiced Morocco's concern over the persistent information on the embezzlement of the human assistance destined to the Sahrawi populations in the Tindouf camps throughout the HCR distribution system, stressing the need to adopt transparent procedure and more stringent checks at all the stages of the unloading, conveyance and distribution of the assistance to avoid any embezzlement.

The diplomat equally criticized the fact that the HCR is still relying on figures dating back to 1975 to distribute its assistance in the camps, favoring thus speculation.

In his address, the diplomat also denounced the blatant violations of human rights in the camps and the difficult access to these camps which are more like jails and where the arbitrary is the rule.

Previous Stories:
  King Mohammed impacted Morocco's economic development process, Egyptian daily   (3/8/2001)
  Morocco's FM hopes Moroccan-Algerian differences will be settled   (3/7/2001)
  Moroccan minister ties normalization with Algeria's respect to consecration of Moroccan rights   (2/28/2001)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search