CONASADH

19 November 2021

About Sultana:

Sultana SidBrahim Jaya is the President of the League for the Defense of Human Rights and against the Plunder of Natural Resources in Bojador and a member of ISACOM. She has participated in various international human rights fora, as well as peaceful manifestations en the occupied territories of Western Sahara calling for the Saharawi people’s right to independence and the freedom to all Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails.

Introduction

Sultana and Laura, two Saharawi human rights defenders and their 84-year old mother, Minatu Embeirik, as well as other members of the SidBrahim Jaya family have been de facto house arrest and besiegement for one year now. The two brave Saharawi women are an example and symbol of defiance against the systematic Moroccan oppression taking place in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. Since 19 November 20201, Sultana and her family have been under arbitrary house arrest by the Moroccan occupying forces and have been subjected to systematic physical, psychological and sexual violence.

Summary of crimes against humanity committed by the Moroccan occupying state since 19 November 2020:

The Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH), draws the below grave violations from personal accounts of the victims and their families, the working group of CONASADH, media groups in Bojador, publications on social media, press releases from national organizations like ISACOM, AFAPREDESA and RASD-TV, and international groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Front Line Defenders, IAJUWS, CEAS-Sahara, among others.

On 19 November 2020, Sultana SidBrahim Jaya returned, after a stay in Spain, to her family in their hometown of occupied Bojador in Western Sahara. She was detained, without justification or warrant, at a police checkpoint at the entrance of Bojador. She was then taken to a police station where she was interrogated and sexually assaulted. To further humiliate her, she was asked to undress and was then vaginally and anally searched.

On 20 November 2020, Luaara SidBrahim Jaya, while going to buy groceries, was beaten to the head by plainclothes agents that left her unconscious. The security agents prevented Luaara from seeking medical attention.

Since 21 November 2020, a permanent security presence of plainclothes intelligence agents and various bodies of Moroccan police has surrounded the SidBrahim Jaya family house. Around 20 agents have prevented anyone, including those that attempt to bring food and medication, from entering or leaving the house. Therefore, declaring an indefinite de facto house arrest of the family.

During the month of December 2020, every time Sultana and Luaara tried to walk out with the flag of Saharawi Republic, they were assaulted and physically dragged by plainclothes agents. This brutal aggression has caused fractures in the sisters’ fingers.

In the month of January of 2021, the sisters and the various Saharawis who tried to visit the family were physically and verbally assaulted by security agents.

During the month of February 2021, the daily assaults continued against the sisters. The police commissioner personally threw a rock aiming at Sultana’s left eye, which is the functioning eye given that she lost her right eye during a student demonstration in 2007. Sultana’s phone was confiscated by police and all data, including WhatsApp, contacts, photos and videos was erased.

On 05 February 20201, the European organization Front Line Defenders expressed its “Deep concerned regarding the unwarranted house arrest against woman human rights defender Sultana Khaya and her family.” The organization stated that “the human rights defender and her family are being harassed, physically assaulted, and under illegal house arrest solely as a result of Sultana Khaya’s peaceful and legitimate human rights activities.”

On 5 March 2021, security agents threw an unknown liquid substance at the family that caused Sultana’s prosthetic eye to melt.

On 8 March 20201, a number of Spanish organizations defending human rights in Western Sahara issued an appeal to alert the international community on the serious human rights situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and to denounce the repression of Saharawi civilians by the Moroccan occupying regime.

On 14 March 2021, the Asturian cultural association, La Ciudadana, awarded Sultana the first Human Rights Award in recognization of her non-violent resistance and defense of Saharawi people’s human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

On 21 March 20201, Sultana sent the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres a letter describing the human rights situation for Saharawi citizens in occupied Western Sahara as grave and unsustainable. On the same day, Amnesty International requests human rights defenders to send a letter to the Moroccan Prime Minister asking him to put an end to the house arrest of the Saharawi activist Sultana.

During the month of March 2021, the security agents cut off several times the electricity supply of the house. They also continued to throw an unknown dark toxic substance at the family.

On 9 April 2021, Amnesty International appealed to the Moroccan authorities to end the de facto house arrest and the arbitrary surveillance imposed since November 2020 on the Saharawi activist Sultana and her family.

During the month of April 2021, Moroccan security agents carried out several raids of the SidBrahim Jaya home; physically and verbally assaulting the women and threatening to rape them.

In the early hours of 10 May 2021, around 40 agents surrounded the house and forced entry through the roof. While a group of the agents raided the house and destroyed objects, another went to Sultana’s bed, assaulted her and forced her to inhale a toxic chemical. The agents confiscated the family’s mobile phones, laptops, television and approximately 1500 euros in cash. Her sister Luaara and their brother were beaten.

On 12 May 2021, also in the early hours of the morning, a group of masked men raided the house. The agents sexually assaulted Sultana by kicking her genitalia and her sister Luaara using a stick and metal object. The agents broke the windows, the solar system on the roof, the refrigerator and the washing machine. During the raid, the agents once again poured an unknown liquid substance throughout the house, including in the closets and toilets. After the agents left, Sultana discovered her passport, which was confiscated on 10 May 2021, in the trash bin.

On the same day, Sultana launched an appeal to the European Union Parliament and the international community to put pressure on the Moroccan occupying authorities to end the house arrest and military siege imposed on civilians in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, and their campaign of repression, torture and arbitrary detention.

On 15 May 2021, the international human rights lawyer Jared Genser announced that together with a team of an international legal team will defend Sultana Jaya. Genser is joined by an international team of jurists and lawyers with extensive experience in dense of human rights activists.

On 21 May 2021, in the early morning, Moroccan paramilitary agents raided the Jaya family home, destroying everything. They assaulted the sisters, taped their mouths suffocating them, beat them and raped them with sticks and metal bars.

On 2 June 2021, around 40 security agents surrounded the house while two agents, presenting themselves as judicial police, asked to speak with Sultana who refused to do so in the absence of her lawyer. One of the agents insisted that they wanted to speak to her regarding her contact with international organizations. After Sultana insisted on not speaking to them, most of them left. Some remained surrounding the house. Few days later, some agents climbed the roof with the help of crane to possibly install surveillance devices.

On 26 July 2021, a group of Saharawi women attempted to visit Sultana and her family to express solidarity. Immediately after their arrival, a group of 20 agents surrounded the area and blocked the street leading to the house. Sultana and her sister Luaara went out of their house to greet the women but were brutally beaten with metal bars and kicked by the agents led by an officer called Beinina. An agent tried to grab the sisters using a crane.

On 22 August 2021, Sultana was once again physically assaulted by the Moroccan occupying forces. They raided the house and brutally beating her, her sister, their mother and other family members. The brutal attack left injuries of Luaara and her mother, while Luaara’s son was tortured. Sultana stated to the Algerian Press Agency APS that “the Moroccan security forces have threatened to kill me if I continue to express my political opinions and try to break the blockade imposed by the occupying authorities in the occupied territories.”

On 25 August 2021, Sultana and her sister began to feel ill with headaches, muscle pain, fever and other symptoms associated with Covid-19. Soon after, other members of the family exhibited similar symptoms. It appeared that they have been infected with Covid-19.

On 24 August 2021, Sultana sent another letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres requesting the UN “to assume its responsibility towards the serious violations committed against her and her family at the hand of the Moroccan occupying authorities in the occupied city of Bojador.”

During the month of August, despite the harsh weather conditions, the raids continued and the electricity cut off. This meant that the family was completely dependent on other Saharawis to supply batteries to charge mobile phones and other domestic electronic appliances. This was also the case with their food supply and hygienic products.

On 5 September 2021, Sultana’s life was in danger given her situation and having contracted coronavirus, with a high fever, headaches, difficulty breathing and vomiting. Many Saharawi sources indicated that she became infected after raids by the Moroccan occupying forces to her house. Sultana and her sister tested positive only days after Moroccan agents forcefully placed a cloth on their mouths and noses.

On 2 October 2021, the Moroccan authorities expelled two Spanish lawyers and a Saharawi physician from the occupied territories of Western Sahara and prevented them from visiting the Saharawi activist Sultana Jaya in Bojador. The aim of the visit was to undertake a “medical and legal mission to Sultana and her family and to see firsthand the human rights situation.”

On 19 October 2021, the Moroccan occupying forces raided once again the house of Sultana SidBrahim and her sister Luaara. This time, the agents destroyed objects in the home and assaulted the sisters, beating them, dragging them on the floor and pushing them indiscriminately.

On 7 November 2021, a group of young Saharawis launched the campaign “candle for Sultana” with the aim to express solidarity with the activist Sultana SidBrahim Jaya and her family. The campaign was led by the civil society and supported by national and international organizations.

On 8 November 2021, in the early morning, the Moroccan occupying forces raided once again the Jaya family home in the occupied city of Bojador. Sultana, her sister and their mother were terrorized, beaten, dragged in the floor, their clothes ripped off and sexually assaulted. Sultana was then injected with an unknown substance and the house filled with a liquid with unbearable smell in an attempt to make the house uninhabitable.

Urgent demands to save the lives of Sultana and her family

With the serious events and developments outlined above, the Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights strongly condemns these crimes and urgently calls upon the international community, in particular the United Nations Security Council, the Human Rights Council, the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Committee of Red Cross, the African Union, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, the European Union, the European Parliament, concerned governments and all international human rights organizations to act immediately.

• The UN Security Council to establish permanent mechanism of human rights monitoring in occupied Western Sahara as part of the UN responsibility towards the Saharawi people and in line with UN resolutions and practices.
• The UN must respect the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and immediately hold a free and independent referendum that allows for the realization of human rights in Western Sahara.
• The International Committee of Red Cross has the responsibility to apply in Western Sahara international humanitarian law and the relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions relating to the protection of civilians under occupation:

• Call on State Parties to implement Article 1 of the four Geneva Conventions to ensure that the occupying state, the Kingdom of Morocco, complies with the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to non-self-governing and occupied territory of Western Sahara
• Send an impartial and independent medical mission to evaluate the physical and psychological state of Sultana SidBrahim Jaya and her family
• Send an urgent and permanent intervention to protect Sultana SidBrahim Jaya and her family from future aggressions
• Immediately lift the siege and de facto house arrest imposed since 19 November 2020 on Sultana SidBrahim Jaya and her family
• Open an extensive, independent, transparent and impartial investigation on grave human rights violations and crimes committed by the Moroccan colonial forces against Sultana SidBrahim Jaya and her family since 19 November 2020.

About CONASADH: Contact twitter: @conasadh Instagram : E mail : [email protected]

– The Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights is an independent institution established by Presidential Decree number 05/2014 of 8 March 2014. The Commission have a mandate of four years with the objective to protect, observe, promote and defend human rights in the Saharawi Republic.

• On 9 April 2016 through resolution 31 98 (XXIV), CONASADH was granted the status as observer member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights.