EP recommends fact-finding mission to detect remains of mass graves in Western Sahara

Strasbourg ( France) (MAP) - The European Parliament has conducted an amendment to Mr. Tannock’s report on the human rights situation in Western Sahara and the Sahel, calling to send an international mission to study and discover the mass grave that has been found recently in Western Sahara by a group of medical and forensic experts.

The European Parliament asked, during a plenary session devoted to discuss and adopt Tannock’s report last Tuesday in Strasbourg, the Moroccan authorities to allow the entry of international organizations, such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Commission on Human Rights of the European Parliament in Western Sahara, to investigate the truth in this issue.

The European Parliament also stressed the need for MINURSO’s formal cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross and formation of fact-finding to the place where the mass grave was found to exhumate the corpses and return the remains to the families , following the discovery of mass graves during the investigation conducted by experts from the Basque, Spain.

For his part, Mr. Mohamed Sidati, member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, minister delegate in charge of Europe, asserted that the move " will enable the families of the victims to their rights , as well as a proper burial "

The Sahrawi official pointed to the remains of nine bodies have been identified since the Moroccan invasion of Western Sahara, 1976.

Mohamed Sidati added "this attention directed by a major European institution such as the European Parliament is " relief " for the victims and their families , reminding of the existence of more than 400 similar cases.

it should be recalled that according to Mr. Charles Tannock’s report, the European Parliament has considered that the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination is an " integral part " and a central goal to find a solution to the Sahrawi conflict.