SPS SADR/UN/DECOLONISATION Polisario affirms to the UN that Saharawi people is the only "depository of the sovereignty" over Western Sahara         07.10.06

 

New York (United Nations), 07/10/2006 (SPS) Polisario Front’s Representative to the UN, Boukhari Ahmed, affirmed before the UN’s Fourth Commission (for Special political question and decolonisation) that Saharawi people is the "only depository of the sovereignty" over the Western Sahara and warns Morocco that it is once again playing with fire.

 

In this respect Polisario Front "categorically" rejects the autonomy Rabat wants to impose instead of the Baker Plan, estimating that it is up to the Saharawi people, and "only to them, to decide on this fundamental question by means of a free and fair referendum on self-determination organised and supervised by the United Nations".

 

Voici le texte intégral de cette intervention parvenue à SPS:

 

STATEMENT BY THE FRENTE POLISARIO

BEFORE THE IV COMMITTEE

4-5 October 2006

 

Mr. Chairman, honourable Members of the Commission,

 

First of all, I would like to thank you, on behalf of the Frente POLISARIO, for giving me the opportunity today to address this important Commission on Decolonisation.

 

Mr. Chairman, 

 

The continuous colonial occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco constitutes a challenge to the principles of the United Nations Charter and the authority and credibility of this body.

 

In April of this year, the UN Secretary-General submitted a report to the Security Council contained in the document S/2006/249 on the situation relating to the decolonisation of Western Sahara. In the report, he reminded the Council that no state in the world has recognised Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over our country. At the same time, the Secretary-General considers that the United Nations cannot endorse any peace plan for Western Sahara that excludes—as Morocco wants—the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. The Secretary-General also expressed his concern about the deterioration of the human rights situation in Western Sahara.

 

In the first place, I would like to tackle this particular question.

 

In my statement you will find annexed graphic evidences of the barbarity and the unspeakable cruelty of the Moroccan repression against the Saharawi civilians. Dozens of Saharawi men and women have been imprisoned and tortured through medieval practices including dousing prisoners with petrol and setting them on fire, as demonstrates the case of the youngman, Salek Saidi, which appears on the second page of the annex. Committing such crimes is a shameful act unworthy of a Member State of the United Nations that is also a member of the Human Rights Council.

 

As a result of the repression, three Saharawi civilians died since may 2005. A Moroccan official body unearthed, in southern Morocco last year, the mass graves of 50 Saharawis who disappeared after being kidnapped by the Moroccan occupying forces following their invasion of our country. This could also have been the tragic fate of the rest of the disappeared among whom 526 Saharawi civilians and 151 POWs. The notorious Black Prison of El-Aaiun is still filled with Saharawi detainees, at the same time as 29 political detainees who have recently been given heavy sentences by Moroccan political courts, continue their hunger strike. On 23 September 2006, new peaceful pro-independence demonstrations took place in the city of El Aaiun, which were faced with brutal repression, resulting in several people injured and 40 detained.

 

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, following several attempts that were frustrated by he Moroccan Government, managed eventually to dispatch a delegation to the Saharawi territory in May this year. In its report, while highlighting the importance of the respect for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination, it brings to light the seriousness of the situation regarding the human rights in the occupied territories of our country. 

 

Morocco tries to cover these crimes derived from its illegal occupation through denying access to the territory to independent observers while resorting to a policy of disqualification of the adversary as the Apartheid did with the ANC and SWAPO,  searching, like all colonialisms,  for scapegoats in third countries to blame them, playing tricks like a thief crying “stop the thief” much of it we are going to see and witness right here.

 

Mr. Chairman,

Morocco has seriously complicated the peace process and has put the United Nations in an extremely delicate situation from which it should know how to break away if it wants to maintain its credibility. After having sabotaged the referendum process set in motion by the United Nations in 1991, Morocco is trying today to sell the idea of the possibility of a pseudo-solution to the conflict contrary to the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. To this end, it has launched a noisy campaign vis-à-vis certain capitals of countries members of the Security Council and others which the occupying power seeks to implicate in the process.

 

Morocco specifies that this solution is a so-called “autonomy” for Western Sahara in the framework of the purportedly Moroccan sovereignty. On the one hand, this pseudo-solution departs from the illusion of considering, beforehand, our country as an integral part of its territory. As the Secretary-General stated in his report of April, no one recognises for Morocco this sovereignty.

 

The idea is born dead and our rejection of it is categorical and is not open to appeal. And this is for the following factual reasons. The Saharawi people is the only depository of the sovereignty over the Territory  and it is up to them,  only to them, to decide on this fundamental question by means of a free and fair referendum on self-determination organised and supervised by the United Nations. If they decide to be part of Morocco, this would be their right, and it should be respected. On this assumption, whether Morocco grants or not an administrative autonomous status, this would be a Moroccan internal issue. However, if the Saharawi people choose to be an independent nation, their decision should equally be respected, and consequently, the form in which they would decide to organise administratively their state would be an issue that lies within their exclusive competence. This is the essence of the message and wisdom of the authors of the resolution 1514 (XV) that is called the Magna Charter of decolonisation.

 

On the other hand, this pseudo-solution involves serious consequences whose responsibility should be assumed by Morocco. The Moroccan Government should not lose sight of the fact that putting an end to the Settlement Plan and Baker Plan necessarily implies putting an end to the current cease-fire which was agreed on by the two parties as an inseparable element of the referendum process that was the very reason for the deployment of MINURSO in the Territory. Morocco is playing once again with fire, and using and abusing of its bilateral relations with some capitals could finally drive the Saharawi people and the region as a whole into a situation of extreme tension and risks that had so far been avoided.

 

As things stand at the moment, Mr. Chairman, our position regarding the solution to the conflict is clear and well-known. We are before a decolonisation problem on the agenda of both the IV Committee and the Special committee since the sixties. As such, the United Nations assumes a particular responsibility that it cannot renounce nor forsake for the siren songs of the so-called “realpolitik” chanted recently by the Moroccan Government to certain ears. 

 

The self-determination referendum stipulated in the peace plans approved by the Security Council was and remains the only mutually acceptable political solution and the only arrangement endorsed by the United Nations. Morocco solemnly and voluntarily accepted this democratic solution and had as witnesses the Security Council and the International Community. No one has forced it to do so, and no one led it into error. A State which respects itself must respect its own committeemen’s. For the Frente POLISARIO, the self-determination referendum is the way forward and, thus, something essential, inalienable and non-negotiable. 

 

The political logic, the need of preserving UN credibility and a decent vision of the future of the peoples of the region advocate the implementation of this principle, since no one, including the occupying power, should make the error of trying to determine unilaterally the future of a people subjected to colonial occupation without consulting this people in a genuine way. This great mistake was made in 1975 when Morocco militarily invaded and occupied the Western Sahara, an occupation whose tragic consequences are still enduring for both the Saharawi and Moroccan peoples as well as for the entire region. In the past, a great part of guilt was attributed to the Cold War, but today this will be unjustifiable. The just and lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara is essential for the security and stability of this region of North Africa that is open to globalisation and which is eager to progress in peace and freedom. Peace in Western Sahara passes by a self-determination referendum. The United Nations should not fear this principle enshrined in its own Charter and Morocco, if it is honest in its public statements, should cooperate, put an end to its policy of double standard, to its occupation and violation of human rights in Western Sahara and not fear democratic solutions endorsed by the International Community.

 

Thank you". (SPS)

 

010/090/100/TRD 071221 oct 06 SPS

 

up

SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/HUMAN RIGHTS/CENTRAL AMERICA The Parliament of the Central America denounces the interdiction by Morocco of the European Parliament’s ad hoc delegation

  

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 07/10/2006 (SPS) The Parliament of the Central America denounced on Friday the Moroccan refusal to authorise the visit of a European Parliament’s ad hoc delegation to the Western Sahara, which was planed for October the 5th to the 8 a long time ago, reported a press release publicised by this regional Latino American Parliament.

 

"We express our complete rejection of the attitude adopted by the Moroccan authorities in refusing the presence of such an important Parliamentarian mission that is in favour of peace and human rights", underlined the press release publicised by the President of the Latino American Parliament, who is undertaking a visit to the Saharawi Republic chairing an important delegation of his Parliament.

 

"The Parliament of the Central America considers that the international peace and the respect of the human rights are and remain themes that should be supported by the free peoples who are seeking their self-determination, justice, progress and democracy at a universal level", the press release, of which SPS received a copy, underlined.

 

The Latino American Parliament, which is visiting the Saharawi Republic following an invitation from the Saharawi Parliament, and is composed in addition to its President, of the Deputy Presidents: Nelson Licona from the Republic of Honduras, Juilo César Grijalva from Salvador and the Parliamentarian Miguel Oviedo from the Republic of the Dominica.

 

The ad-hoc delegation had expressed before, in a press release publicised by its President, that the composition of the delegation was "was absolutely fixed by the political groups of the European Parliament" and consequently it rejects the Moroccan orders that demand the "right to review the designation of each Member" of the delegation and henceforth wants to interfere in its composition.

 

On another hand, Members of the European Parliament (MEP), Raül Romeva (Greens/ALE) and Karin Scheele (European SP) expressed their "most absolute deception in the face of this lack of respect demonstrated by the Moroccan authorities" and charged the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, to transmit, on behalf of the European Parliament, this concern to the concerned bodies of Morocco. (SPS)

 

010/090/100 071017 oct 06 SPS

up

SPS SADR/UN/DECOLONISATION Ambassadors and petitioners denounce before the UN the persistence of the Moroccan colonisation of Western Sahara

  

New York (United Nations), 07/10/2006 (SPS) Many Ambassadors and petitioners denounced, in their interventions before the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Commission, the persistence of the Moroccan colonisation of Western Sahara and stressed the necessity of getting out of the impasse, underlining "the risks" this conflict is representing on the stability of the region and on the credibility of the UN.

 

In this respect, M. F. Al-ZAYANI from the kingdom of Bahrain recalled that the decolonisation is "based on the principles enshrined in the UN’s Charter", underlining that the anniversary of the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial peoples and countries is the occasion to review how to innovate so as to realise all its objectives, insisting on "the suffering of the people who are still living under the colonial yoke and foreign domination".

 

Liberia recalled that it "recognises the Polisario Front since the African Unity Organisation Summit of 1979 as a legitimate organisation, which had as an objective to obtain the liberation of the people of the Western Sahara". It exhorted the parties to the conflict, Morocco and Polisario, to "accept the holding of a referendum in this territory and to implement the principles of the UN’s Charter as tools for peace and dialogue between peoples".

 

The Ambassador of Guinea underlined that the process of the decolonisation of the Western Saharawis "still in the impasse", speaking of a "possible deterioration of the situation", while the Representative of Tanzania regretted that "the question of the Western Sahara is still on the Fourth Commission’s agenda. We were able to help other countries, she added, so why not the Saharawi people".

 

The Ambassador of the Burkina Faso, MICHEL KAFANDO, recalled that the question of colonisation "should not be hidden" because it has marked the peoples of Africa through the phenomenon of slavery. "After 30 years of the impasse, a solution should finally be reached on the question of the Western Sahara, he declared, stressing on the "role" the UN’s Mission to the Western Sahara (MINURSO) should play in the process.

 

"The lack of progress in the Western Sahara is particularly worrying" to Mr. TETE ANTONIO, Ambassador of Angola, who underlined the need for considering "Saharawi people’s right to choose their future".

 

Mrs. A. A. ABUSHAGOUR, Ambassador of Libya indicated that "the number of the inhabitants of the territory should in no way represent an obstacle to the accession to independence", deploring that "second decade for the finishing of the decolonisation was not on the level of the promises".

 

"The Saharawi people continues to be denied its right to self-determination and independence, the Kingdom of Lesotho deplored, on behalf of the Community of the Southern African States (SADC), exhorting the kingdom of Morocco to "accept the Baker Plan, the only solution to get out o the crisis" in the Western Sahara.

 

On its side, the Mozambique hailed the constant efforts of the UN’s Secretary General aiming at resolving the question of the Western Sahara and called to "the finishing of the decolonisation process under all its forms and in particular in the case of the Western Sahara", deploring "the impasse" that continuous despite "the two settlement plan adopted by the Security Council".

 

The UN General Assembly’s Fourth Commission must study the projects of resolution on the questions relative to the decolonisation, on Wednesday October the 11, UN’s sources indicated. (SPS)

 

010/090/666

 

up