Brussels, 26/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a joint resolution adopted on Thursday 25 November in Strasbourg, the European Parliament firmly condemns the violent incidents that took place on 8 November during the dismantling of the Gdaim Izik protest camp in the Western Sahara. They call on the UN to conduct “an international independent investigation” into the events. The resolution, presented jointly by six political groups (EPP, S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, ECR) also calls for all parties to remain calm and to refrain from any further violence. Although the Moroccan parliament has set up a committee of inquiry on the 8 November incidents between Sahrawi demonstrators and Moroccan law enforcement forces, MEPs believe the UN is the most appropriate body for conducting such an investigation. The EP suggests, moreover, that the United Nations should set in place a human rights monitoring mechanism in Western Sahara. It also fully supports the efforts deployed by the UN to find a “just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution” which will allow the self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara. The European Commission is invited to allocate more financial support to humanitarian aid in order to provide food, water, shelter and medical care for Sahrawi refuges. The EP also deplores the attacks on press freedom, which have affected many European journalists, and calls on Morocco to allow free access and free movement in the Western Sahara for the press, independent observers and humanitarian organisations. A debate with representatives of all parties involved in the conflict is scheduled for 1 December at the EP foreign affairs committee. In a press release on 25 November, Nicole Kiil-Nielsen, Green MEP on the EP human rights sub-committee, said she was scandalised that a member state, in this case France, had opposed the request for a UN fact-finding mission on the serious events that took place on 8 November. She said Uganda's proposal during the meeting of the UN Security Council on 16 November had been legitimate and desirable. A definitive, just and consensual solution is absolutely necessary to bring the conflict in Western Sahara to an end, said Maria Muñiz de Urquiza of Spain, saying the conflict had already lasted 30 years and a solution must be found within the framework of the United Nations. (H.B./transl.jl)