SPS SADR/MOROCCO/MEDIA The President of the Republic
gives an interview to the Moroccan newspaper, "Al Bidaoui"
04.11.04
Chahid El Hafed, 04/11/2004
(SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, gave an
interview to the Moroccan newspaper, "Al Bidaoui", publicised
last Tuesday, in which he explained the Polisario Front's position on
the direct negotiations with Morocco, the perspectives of the solution
to the conflict, his vision of the future relations between Morocco and
the independent Western Sahara.
Here is SPS's translation from Arabic of the complete text of the
interview, of which the Moroccan newspaper only published four answers
of seven questions to which the President of the Republic has answered.
Question: Observers think that the current
situation of the Conflict of Sahara, characterised by the increase of
the tension between Morocco and Algeria, unveil the real stakes of the
conflict, and that the Polisario Front is no more than a toy behind
which Algeria hides its struggle with Morocco. What is your opinion?
The President of the Republic:
First, let me felicitate you, in the "Al Bidaoui" newspaper, for the
opportunity you offered us here to express our opinions directly to the
brothers Moroccan readers far from misinterpretations, insults and
other words that may be incoherent with the levels of the two peoples,
who are devoted to live together, hand in hand, in peace and in good
neighbourhood.
I would also like to present my warm salutations to the brother
Moroccan people, in the occasion of the coming of the last ten days of
the sacred month of Ramadan, God renew it for us an for other peoples
of the region and for the Islamic and Arab peoples with more happiness
and blessings.
To answer your question accurately, it would be necessary to recall
some realities, which were hidden to the Moroccan public opinion for
long times and which are necessary to understand the essence of the
conflict in Western Sahara, for about three decades already, between
the Moroccan Kingdom and Polisario Front.
You may know, as everybody around the world, that Polisario Front was
constituted in May 1973 to lead the struggle of the Saharawi people for
self-determination and independence, in a moment when Western Sahara
was under the Spanish colonial occupation.
And as a result to Saharawi people's struggle within the framework of
the "the Liberation Movement of the Sahara", which was aborted after
the bloody arising of Zemla in June the 10, 1970 that was repressed by
Spanish army, followed by Polisario Front struggle, Spain was forced to
abide by the will of the international community as expressed in the
texts of the General Assembly of the UN that called in the resolution
2072 of December the 16, 1965 to the necessity of the decolonisation of
Western Sahara. Spain then informed the UN's Secretary General, in
August the 20 1974, via a letter of the Spanish permanent
representative to the UN, Jaime de Pines, that "the Spanish Government
will organise a referendum, under the aegis and the guarantees of the
UN, within the first six months of 1975, in a date that would allow the
needed measures to be taken to make it possible for the inhabitants of
the territory to enjoy their right to self-determination in
absolute freedom, conforming to the resolution 3162 of December the
14,1973".
From then on, our brother in Morocco, helped in this in the then regime
of Ould Daddah in Mauritania, to manifest their aggressive intentions
towards the Saharawi people, what lead to the catastrophic war you all
know.
The war was imposed on our people despite of the obviousness of the
resolutions and the positions of the international bodies. It would be
important to recall here the content of the verdict of the
international Court of Justice of October the 16, 1975, which has
always been and still is a subject to deformation and misinterpretation
of certain Moroccan political circles.
In its resolution 3292 (1974) the UN General Assembly had in fact
seized, on demand of Morocco and Mauritania, the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) asking it to give its consultative opinion on the nature
of the relations between the territory of Western Sahara from one hand
and Morocco and Mauritania from the other and the influence of these
relations on the principle of self-determination.
The ICJ's verdict would be issued in October the 16, 1975, reaffirming
textually in the Chapter 162 of its verdict that " the Court’s
conclusion is that the materials and information presented to it do not
establish any tie of territorial sovereignty between the territory of
Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity.
Thus the Court has not found legal ties of such a nature as might
affect the application of resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonisation of
Western Sahara and in particular, of the principle of
self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will
of the peoples of the territory". I would let the Moroccan reader judge
by himself the real meaning of the text.
The same UN resolution (3292 /1974 -NDLR) had also dispatched then an
ad-hoc commission to Western Sahara and to the three neighbouring
countries, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania. The report of this
commission, publicised in October the 11, 1975, five days before the
verdict of the ICJ, reaffirmed in many passages that "the persons the
commission met with inside and outside of the territory had reaffirmed
their attachments o the objectives of the Polisario Front for the
independence of the territory". And before closing this historical
background, we should also mention the UN General Assembly's resolution
2983 of December the 14, 1972, which reaffirms Saharawi people's
inalienable right to self-determination and independence, conforming to
the resolution 1514 of the General Assembly, and in the mean time it
underlines on the legitimacy of the Saharawi people struggle for the
right to exercise this right to self-determination and independence,
calling all countries to provide material and moral support to its
struggle.
All these events happened while Algeria had no relation to the conflict
in Western Sahara, and these texts by themselves are enough to deny the
claims of those who works since the beginning so as to mislead the
brothers Moroccan people about the date of the constitution of the
Polisario Front and the history of its struggle for the liberation of
Western Sahara from the then Spanish colonialism and from the Moroccan
occupation after. We had never been and will be a toy in the hands of
none.
Starting from this historical and juridical background, the
international community reached today some clear conclusions and firmly
established facts:
1. Western Sahara question is a decolonisation
question that should find solution through the respect of the principle
of self-determination, via the holding of a free, just and fair
referendum for the Saharawi people by which it would chose its future
and decide on the final status of the territory.
2. Western Sahara conflict is between two parties
that are clearly defined in the UN and Security Council's resolutions
and documents, mainly Polisario Front and Morocco. The Bleu Berets,
that is to say the UN peace keeping forces, are now on the field to
interfere between two armies: Moroccan Royal Armed Forces and the
Saharawi Army. Their mission consists on supervising a cease-fire
within the framework of the mission of the MINURSO, an abbreviation
that means the United Nations Mission for a Referendum in Western
Sahara (Minurso in French).
3. Western Sahara question is an international
question and the Moroccan presence in the territory is a colonial
presence. That is why it continues to this day to be scheduled on the
agenda of the UN's 4th Committee, the decolonisation committee, and in
the agendas of the General Assembly and the Security Council. In
addition it should be mentioned that since this question was dealt with
since the sixties up to the last resolution adopted in October 2004,
all UN's resolutions and Security Council's reaffirm that the basis to
the solution to this conflict remains the decolonisation and the right
to self-determination.
The fans of war who are behind the increase of tension, and who work
hard, though in vain, to deform the conflict between Morocco and
Polisario Front on Saharawi people right to self-determination, do only
cause more sufferings for the two peoples, Saharawi and Moroccan, and
delay a common fate of brotherhood, complementarity, development and
democracy that binds them like the other peoples of the region.
Question: You led a set of secret and public
bilateral negotiations with Morocco inside the latter and outside it.
Did not these bilateral encounters encourage you continue in more
attempts to find a solution that could be acceptable to the two parties
and that would preserve honourable exit to everybody?
The President of the Republic:
In fact, our experience in negotiating with Morocco is not that
encouraging and despite this we had always been and we will remain open
to dialogue and negotiation. But we will continue to hope that the day
would come when the spirit of wisdom, openness, positivism and the real
political will of finding solutions prevail over the spirit of
marginalisation, chauvinism and denial of commitments.
You can simply review our experience in this respect to conclude that
we did not have real motivation to negotiate with Moroccan Government.
In 1978, with the mediation of former Malian President, Moussa
Traoré, we engaged negotiations with the Moroccan Government in
Bamako, what could have resulted in substantial achievements to the
point that Moroccan King, the late Hassan II, intervening to stop the
anger of one of his collaborators who wanted to insult a member of the
Mauritanian Government that replaced Ould Daddah's Government and who
wanted to inform Morocco that Mauritania renounced all claims on the
territory, the King said: "sometimes one should be flexible so as to
avoid been broken". Unfortunately, this positive spirit did not lasted
because of the death of President Houari Boumediene – God rest his soul
– in which our brothers in the Moroccan Government saw the end of the
struggle of the Saharawi people and harried up to put an end to the
negotiations.
Five years after, in 1983, we agreed on a meeting in Algeria. Again our
brothers Moroccans hurriedly boycotted because they succeeded in
signing the Treaty of Oujda of the Union with Libya, and which Rabat
had evaluated as the end of Saharawi people struggle, because Libya
stopped backing the Saharawis then.
The same scenario was also reproduced in 1989 in Morocco, proving thus
the lack of the needed political will to reach a solution, and the
continuous renunciation of the assumed commitments from the Moroccan
Government, an attitude that is the result of bad evaluations that
history proved unable to affect Saharawi people struggle for
self-determination and independence.
It would also be necessary to recall here that since the signature of
the UN Settlement Plan of 1991, which was reached after long and hard
direct and indirect negotiations, between the two parties, and after
the complementary Houston Accords in 1997, which also were the results
of many rounds of direct negotiations between the two parties under the
auspices of the former Personal Envoy, James Baker, after all this we
feel great deception of Moroccan rejection of the accords we reached.
Moreover, and after the recent letter South African President, Mr.
Thabo Mbeki, addressed last August the 1st 2004 to the King of Morocco,
His Majesty Mohamed VI, in which he announced the intention of his
country to recognise the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and
establish diplomatic relations with it, Moroccan Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Mohamed Benaissa, flew to Pretoria carrying a proposition from
the Moroccan Government about direct negotiations with the Polisario
Front. We accepted to travel to South Africa so as to lead direct
negotiations with a Moroccan delegation, under the supervision of
President Mbeiki and under the aegis of the UN. But we were surprised,
like everybody got surprised, of the renunciation of the Moroccan
Government of its commitments once again.
Question: Starting from the fact that the
latest development of the Western Sahara conflict lead to the deadlock,
what is your opinion on some direct bilateral negotiations between the
two parties to the conflict, Morocco and Polisario Front?
The President of the Republic:
As I have just said, direct and indirect negotiations had already taken
place between the two parties, Morocco and Polisario Front, secretly
and publicly, as a result to mediations deferent parties and under the
aegis of the UN. We signed the AUO/UNO Settlement Plan and the Houston
Accords. The international community succeeded recently, thanks to the
efforts of the Secretary General and his Personal Envoy, to the
conclusion that "the Peace Plan for the self-determination of the
Saharawi people", after all these years of negotiations, is the optimal
solution that takes into account the preoccupations of the two parties.
Thus, negotiations in themselves are not a goal.
What we need now is a real political will to find a just and final
solution to Western Sahara conflict, conforming to the principles and
to the international law, especially related to the inalienable right
of the peoples to self-determination. Then to start implementing what
we agreed upon as the two parties to the conflict and what was backed
by the international community.
I think that if we agree to listen to the voice of wisdom and measure
the long years of war, orphans it engendered and the trillions dollars
consumed to finance genocide, if we instead listen to the appeal of a
future of brotherhood and mutual assistance to which our peoples
aspire, the path to peace would be opened to everybody.
Question: To the Baker Plan many developments
and changes were introduced and the parties to the conflict had
expressed contradictory positions, rejecting it, accepting it or asking
for readjustments. What is your real position of this plan and are you
ready to live under the Moroccan sovereignty for an intermediary period
of five years?
The President of the Republic:
We had accepted the Baker Plan, "the Peace Plan for the
self-determination of the people of Western Sahara", adopted by the
Security Council in its resolution 1495 (2003). And to tell the truth
the way you put the question is not accurate when you say that there
are contradicting positions varying from acceptance, rejection and
request of readjustments. As far as we know, there are only two
positions. The position of Morocco, who rejects the Plan, and the
position of the entire world including Polisario Front, who consider
this plan as a balanced approach for the solution of the conflict.
I would like, however, to note that the Baker Plan answers many claims
of the Moroccan party more than those of the Saharawi in the sense that
it impose to the Saharawis a five years autonomy under Moroccan
authority in addition to a wide margin in the list of the voters who
should participate to the referendum compared to the lists of voters
already established by the UN commission of identification, who will
decide over the final status of the territory, added to that the plan
also adds a third question to the vote, giving the choice between
autonomy besides independence or integration.
The question that should be asked thus is not to what point are
Saharawis ready to go in accepting autonomy for five years, the
pertinent question is instead why does Morocco reject the Baker Plan
despite all these ? Why does not Morocco take profit of the opportunity
to create a new atmosphere of cooperation with the Saharawi party and
work to surmount the effects of this long war? Why does Morocco refuse
to give us an opportunity to work together so as to put an end to the
tragedy of division, partition and dismantle the Moroccan defensive
wall, which is filled with weapons and mines and which is dividing
Western Sahara and its people in two? Why does Morocco reject to abide
by the international legality as represented in the Baker Plan to put
an end to the tragedy of the detainees, prisoners and reported missing
all these 29 years? Why does Morocco insist in standing as an obstacle
in front of the path of opening a new page between the two neighbouring
peoples? Why, instead of answering the appeal for peace by accepting
the international peace solutions, does Morocco insist in bringing the
situation back to the first stage of 1975, when its forces has
militarily occupied Western Sahara? And above all these, what does
Morocco fears from the free and democratic expression of the
inhabitants of Western Sahara the international legality gives them
right to?
Question: Algeria expressed its support to the
proposition of partition what pushes us to think to the Madrid's
Accords of 1975. What is your opinion on these accords and on the
position of Algeria on these accords and on the partition of the
territory?
The President of the Republic:
The partition was what the Moroccan Government had accepted and
effectively executed through its signing of the partition of the
territory with the regime of Ould Daddah in November the 14, 1975.
Further it also signed with the Mauritanian regime complementary
accords on the then new borders. We categorically reject the Madrid's
Accords as we reject the colonisation of Western Sahara that started in
October the 31st, 1975 and we reaffirm our determination to change the
situation these two events had engendered. The Madrid's Accords were
the proof on the short term vision of the Spanish Colonial
administration and of our two neighbours from the north and the south
at that time, and who had marginalised our people depriving it from its
right to self-determination, and thus blatantly defying UN General
Assembly's resolutions, Security Council's and the report of the UN ad
hoc mission (1974) besides the verdict of the International Court of
Justice.
With respect to Algeria, nobody can believe that it supports an idea of
partition. If it had some claims in Western Sahara, it could have asked
for its part of the cake then, like the other neighbouring countries.
But Algeria does not accept that the Saharawi people be deprived of its
rights and it adopted since the beginning a position of principle in
harmony with the ideals for which it paid the martyrdom of one million
and half of its children. The refuge Algeria gave to thousands Saharawi
children, old persons and women who were running from war is a
honourable position that will be forever registered for it. Its support
to Saharawi people legitimate struggle to recover their rights is not
surprising as far as that was the same position of principle it adopted
on all the questions registered in the UN under the chapter of
decolonisation and self-determination.
Question: The conflict between Morocco and
Algeria goes back to the sixties of the last century. Do you think that
Algeria supports Polisario financially and with weapons and devote all
its diplomatic potentiality just for God sake? Does not Algeria have
goals on which Polisario leaders have to think seriously?
The President of the Republic:
One day in the year 1963 a war broke between Algeria and Morocco
because of the borders. Now, and thanks to God, that is part of the
past after the two countries reached an accord according to which the
borders inherited from colonialism should be respected, conforming to
the international law. I do not think there is interest for anybody to
nourish hatred and revive the past so as to kill the dreams of
tomorrow. We, like Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and the rest of the
peoples of the region have but the choice to agree and walk hand by
hand to take the challenges of the future and assume our historical
responsibilities for the sake of the future generations. And who knows?
Maybe the day will come – and will certainly come- when borders would
have absolutely no meaning. So, to build a strong basis to this period,
it is necessary to quickly resolve our problems on juridical and fair
basis, conforming to the era of democracy in which we are living. Thus,
any lateness in the implementation of Saharawi people human and
democratic right to self-determination will be a crime against the
common future we talk about.
I would, however, like to clarify to the Moroccan people that the
position of Algeria towards Western Sahara is not the result of
interest or any personal reasons. It is a position that conforms to the
international resolutions, which consider the question as a
decolonisation one that should find solution through the respect to
self-determination.
If we gave credit to rumours some Moroccan circles spread, according to
which Algeria have some interests in Western Sahara, we would not be
surprised to hear one day that Algeria has ambitions in other places of
the world where it had supported cases historically and judicially
similar to Western Sahara's, though they are far geographically like
South Africa, Namibia, Palestine, East Timor, Belize, Surinam and
others.
Question: If Western Sahara conflict was
resolved to the benefit of Morocco, would you resume to weapons against
it or would you go back home and integrate the new situation?
The President of the Republic:
To us Western Sahara case can not go but to the benefit of Saharawi
people who have the right to self-determination, and it is up to this
people to decide on what they want. We said that we will respect this
will. On another hand, we are disposed and able to continue our
struggle until our people enjoys its right to freedom and we are not
the only one to adopt this position.
The entire world stand by us, the international legality and law are on
our side since the UN's resolution of 1966 until the Security Council
resolution 1570 recently adopted days ago and which makes of the
self-determination the condition sine quoi non of any solution. We are
also re-comforted in this by the fact that no country in the world
recognise to Morocco sovereignty over the Western Sahara, which is
considered as a non-self-governing territory, as it was reaffirmed by
Mr. Hans Corel in his judicial verdict 161/2002 of January the 29, 2002.
No country in the world recognises to Morocco sovereignty over Western
Sahara, USA included, as declared by American Trade Representative, Mr.
Robert Zulick, last July the 20, 2004, who said that the US-Morocco
Free Trade Agreement "will not include Western Sahara" because "the
United States and many other countries do not recognize Moroccan
sovereignty over Western Sahara".
The Moroccan Government had lately adopted a dangerous position by
rejecting the referendum and Saharawi people right to
self-determination, knowing that it is the basis on which we had
worked, all of us: The parties to the conflict, Morocco and Polisario
Front, since the eighties, as well as the UN since the sixties. So,
does Morocco think that the Saharawi people, the international law and
the entire world would accept this dangerous and surprising setback,
and simply legitimise the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara? Does
The Moroccan Government or does it not realise that falling victim to
this illusion does only prolongs the tragedy and represent a threat to
the stability of the entire region?
The fairness of our case owed it the support of millions sympathisers
from all over the world and even inside Morocco, where the Moroccan
people aspire with optimism to build with us relations of good
neighbourhood, brotherhood and cooperation.
Speaking from your tribune I would like to launch an appeal to the
Moroccan elite, the men of culture and those who are enlightened to
refuse to spread lies and misinformation to the Moroccan people. I do
not think they will be mislead as normal persons can by the
mystifications and by the Medias siege that makes of Western Sahara
conflict a Taboo. I am sure they know the Western Sahara case by
details, and that they realise the Saharawi fact represented by the
Polisario Front as an irreversible political, social and international
reality. And on another hand, we would like to say to our brothers
Moroccan that this Saharawi fact is not a monster since it is a mature
movement that is attached to the principles of freedom, democracy and
legality, giving to the woman the right place it deserve and believing
in the positive co-existence between the people..
It is time to recognise this Saharawi fact and get rid of the
propaganda and misinformation Moroccan people are subjected to since
the beginning of the conflict, a propaganda that presented the Saharawi
State as a nuisance to the Moroccan national interests. We deny these
lies and reaffirm to our Brothers Moroccans that our project of the
Saharawi State is built on a vision that would guarantee the interests
of everybody, a State that would be able to positively contribute to
the promotion of the development and democratisation of the region.
And once again, allow me to express to the Moroccan people my deepest
sentiments of love and respect, taking profit of this opportunity to
express it on behalf of the Saharawi people our sincere sentiments of
brotherhood, wishing them prosperity and development, and hoping that
peace and stability would reign over these region to the benefit of the
region, its people and the Maghreb Union. (SPS)
SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE