Dec. 10 – A life in refugee camps “within inhospitable territories,” a life that becomes harder whenever “the High Commissioner for Refugees is forced to reduce aid flows, making social organization harder.” “Adherence to the political solution is fading,” with serious international consequences. Besides, “we gathered evidence of human rights violations on the part of the Moroccan government, and we compiled a particularly dense dossier that Senators De Cristofaro and Ferrara will make available to the Commission on Human Rights,” commented Stefano Vaccari, President of the Intergroup Parliamentary Friends of the Sahrawi People, summed up the mission of a delegation of parliamentarians to the Sahrawi refugee camps. Vaccari accompanied Senators Elena Ferrara and Maria Spilabotte (Pd), Maria Mussini (mixed), Giuseppe De Cristofaro (Sel) and parliamentarians Patrizia Masters, Giuseppe Romanini and Renzo Carella (Pd). During the visit, which took place November 29-December 2, they met with Adda Hmeim, governor of Smara Wilaya, and with the local population; they also visited the refugee camps, the facilities (dispensary, kindergarten, primary school , provincial hospital), and the Wall of Shame build by Morocco in the 1980s. The delefation spoke with various ministers and with Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Saharawi Republic. The wall is “incomprehensible and unacceptable for us; it’s 2700 km with millions of landmines and a daily cost of $4 million,” says Vaccari. And on the government of the Sahrawi Republic, Vaccari commented: “President Abdelaziz asked us to keep alive the political option, to act within the EU to ensure that negotiations and talks can resume, and take steps push forward the diplomatic path, because military action worries everyone, and would open the doors to Islamist fundamentalism.” The risk is that of a new ISIS-style organization would emerge from the conflict, while the Saharawi people have already been waiting for years to express themselves in a referendum on two options: autonomy or Morocco. “We agreed on writing a joint letter to the High Representative Federica Mogherini to ask for a specific commitment from the EU, which could play a leading role in reaching an agreement on the referendum – insists Vaccari – The intention is to arrange for a visit to the occupied territories in 2015 to check on living standards. We invited parliamentarian representatives to come here in 2015, and we’re now preparing a motion to recognize the Polisario Front as the only official representative of the Sahrawi Republic.” Renzo Carella was very direct, in identifying the “guilty” of the current isolation of Sahrawi refugees: “The area is the only colony that survives to date (the territory was Spanish, ed); we have a moral obligation towards this problem: we cannot accept that France and Spain, with their interested and ambiguous attitude, an support Morocco. Religious fundamentalism is already a reality in the region, and we cannot risk that it starts recruiting in the area.”
