MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the United Nations to closely monitor and effectively report human rights violations in Western Sahara on Saturday.
"Regular, on-the-ground UN human rights monitoring and reporting would help establish the truth and protect both Sahrawis who live under Moroccan rule in Western Sahara and these isolated refugees," HRW official website quoted Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Middle East and North Africa director, as saying.
"There are cases of abuse, but there has also been exaggeration by some parties," Whitson added.
On Saturday, HRW published a detailed study of Sahrawi refugee camps near the Algerian town of Tindouf. The report is called "Off the Radar" and focuses on the human rights violations in the camps and in an adjacent narrow band of Western Sahara that is not under Moroccan occupation. The territory is administered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario).
The HRW researches "found no evidence of any patterns of serious abuse, they identified several areas of concern". Nevertheless, they recommend the UN Security Council to expand the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and to include human rights monitoring in the region or to establish another UN mechanism of human rights monitoring .
According to the report, the refugees in the area number between 90,000 and 125,000. However, the monitoring by impartial organizations and agencies in the region lacks consistency.
