Moroccan-Swedes Stage Sit-in to Protest Ban Ki-moon’s Statements

PERSISMA, Taroudant – Members of Sweden’s Moroccan community staged a sit-in on Friday, March 25, in Stockholm and strongly denounced the “biased and distorted” comments made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this month during his visit to the Tindouf camps in Algeria.

The protesters gathered in response to a call by a group of associations representing the community. Participants in the sit-in condemned Ban Ki-moon’s “irresponsible” actions during his last visit to the region, which “greatly affect the credibility of the international organization.”

“As Swedish citizens, we call on the consciousness of the Swedish people, as well as European and international public opinion to consider these harmful slides away from peace and regional stability,” representatives of the protestors wrote in a statement published by the Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).

The same statement added that the protestors have launched an appeal to end the suffering of the Sahrawi population living in the Tindouf camps in southern Algeria, calling on the Polisaro to allow them to return to Morocco.

Following Ban Ki-moon’s recent statement that the Western Sahara is under Moroccan “occupation,” Moroccans living both in Morocco and abroad have organized sit-ins to denounce the remarks.

On March 21, thousands of Moroccan-Americans, including members of the Moroccan Jewish community, gathered outside the United Nations in New York to protest the UN Secretary-General’s statement and advocate for US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara. (Larbi Arbaoui)