SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

New York (United Nations), 08/10/2005, (SPS) General Assembly’s Fourth Committee on Special Political questions and Decolonisation, held debates on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and other points in relation with decolonisation, hearing petitioners on Western Sahara in October the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th in New York.

In this respect, many speakers and interventions were heard and all of them expressed an international concern about the disastrous situation Saharawi population is living under occupation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. Speakers condemned and denounced the recent Moroccan human rights’ violations against the Saharawi people, calling for a decolonisation of the non-self-governing territory conforming to the UN’s pertinent resolutions and in total respect of the universal principles and values enshrined in the UN’s Charter.

Sahara Press Service, SPS, will publish some significant interventions and present summaries of the petitions on the question.

My delegation congratulates you on your election as Chairman of the Fourth Committee. We take this opportunity to extend our appreciation to your predecessor for his work during the 59th session. We would also like to associate ourselves with the statement to be delivered by Botswana on behalf of the SADC Member States.

Like our sister countries in SADC, we also attach great importance to the issue of decolonisation and fully commend the Special Committee on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence on Colonial Countries and Peoples for its work in addressing the plight of those who still live under colonial domination and foreign occupation. Needless to add, our delegation would not be represented in the UN if it were not for the efforts of this Committee.

For this reason, we are concerned that the Saharawi people still cannot exercise their self-determination, which is guaranteed under the Charter of the United Nations. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reports that very little progress has been made with regard to the Saharawi people exercise the right to decide on their future.

For a number of years, the United Nations, the African Union and the rest of the international community have sought a solution that would afford the Saharawi people the possibility to freely choose their own future, in a referendum supervised by the UN. The Peace Plan for the Self-determination of the People of Western Sahara, prepared by the then Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Mr. James Baker III has provided a fair way of addressing this matter. However, the report of the Secretary-General contained in A/60/116 demonstrates that the endless efforts made by the international community to try and resolve this impasse have yet to be successful.

We are pleased that POLISARIO has continued to maintain its support for the peace plan. However, we are concerned that the Kingdom of Morocco has yet to reciprocate and accept the Baker Plan unconditionally.

My delegation would like to call on both the Government of Morocco and the Saharawi People represented by the Liberation Movement POLISARIO to redouble their efforts to find a way out of this impasse. The Baker Plan remains relevant and even the Security Council in its resolution 1495(2003), has confirmed its support for this peace plan that the Council described as “an optimum political solution on the basis of agreement between the two parties”.

We are encouraged that the Secretary-General has reported that in respect of other developments on this matter the first phase of the exchange of family visits programme between Western Sahara refugees living in the Tindouf area refugee camps in Algeria and their relatives in the Territory has been successfully implemented with the full cooperation of the parties, as well as Algeria as a country of asylum.

Apparently telephone links between Tindouf and Western Sahara have been established but the Moroccan side has expressed concerns about allowing normal mail service to resume under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Of greater significance, however, is the recent release by POLISARIO of the remaining Moroccan prisoners of war. We commend POLISARIO for this important and bold demonstration of the willingness and the flexibility to move toward resolving this impasse. We would hope that the Kingdom of Morocco would reciprocate with releasing the remaining Saharawi prisoners and extending flexibility in all the ways that could ease the living conditions of the Saharawi people. It is for this reason that we are concerned about the report of Amnesty International about the arrests by Morocco of six human rights defenders in Western Sahara who were demonstrating in the capital city of Laayoune for their independence. The allegation by Amnesty International that some of these Saharawi human rights defenders have even been tortured in the Moroccan jails is of great concern to my delegation. All these tragic events would end if Morocco were to allow a UN supervised referendum to take place as suggested in the Baker Plan.

The Saharawi Republic is a member of the African Union and we are pleased that more African countries have joined in recognising their independence. The Kingdom of Morocco is also an important and friendly African country and we have always carried the hope that these two nations would find a way to resolve this issue that remains a challenge for our continent.

We commend the role played by MINURSO under difficult circumstances to enforce the cease-fire agreement and finalise the identification process. We agree with the Secretary-General that reducing the size of MINURSO would not be advisable at this stage. MINURSO should be in a position to “provide an adequate response as needed and to ensure the effective monitoring of the ceasefire”.

My delegation welcomes the appointment by the Secretary-General of Ambassador Peter van Walsum as his Special Envoy and Francesco Bastagli as his Special Representative. We encourage the parties to work with the Special Envoy and Special Representative to resolve their differences.

The international community has a solemn responsibility to uphold the Charter of the United Nations and support the right of self-determination of the Saharawi people. We would hope that the United Nations would not be party to any plan to force the Saharawi people to be denied their fundamental right to choose their own destiny. A free and fair referendum conducted by the United Nations is the only way to make sure that this happens.

For our part, South Africa remains fully committed to sparing no effort in ensuring that the dignity of our fellow Saharawis is fully restored.

SPS
USA/SADR/UN/DECOLONISATION/COMPLETE TEXT

Moroccan new colonial weapons are "political manipulation and skilful use of lies" to keep Western Sahara under occupation (US Citizen before the 4th Committee)

New York (United Nations), 08/10/2005 (SPS) Mrs. Janet Lenz, a US citizen and President of a US organisation concerned with childhood, gave a striking testimony on Moroccan lies and propaganda "spread through the venues of media and the internet" aimed at distorting the truth about the brutal and illegal colonisation of Western Sahara.

"I come here because the war has not stopped; the cease-fire is not a reality. Morocco has not honored the agreement. They may not be using the bullets, bombs and napalm that they had showered on the people they invaded (Saharawi people). But they continue to attack. Now their weapons of warfare are political manipulation backed by limitless financial advantage; a skilful use of lies spread through the venues of media and the internet, where their propaganda finds its target anywhere in the world that has access, including within government leaders", Mrs. Lenz Said.

"After 14 years, the referendum you promised them has still not taken place. And yet, the Saharawi have cast their votes, loud and clear. They have voted with their own lives. Each “missing” Saharawi in their homeland, each Saharawi prisoner of war, each Saharawi in Morocco’s prisons because of their words of justice, each peaceful demonstrator risking their own and their family’s safety to express their convictions, and each Saharawi living in the refugee camps in the desert or in Spain, or anywhere else in the world outside of Morocco has cast their vote of self-determination, with or without a referendum. The Saharawi want NOTHING more than freedom. But TRUE freedom…back in their homeland under their own rule…the leadership they themselves formed. Not a freedom that means coming under the rule of the regime that forced them from their homes, spraying them with napalm, taking their fathers, uncles, brothers who gave their lives to win back their country and their freedom", she added.

Here is the complete text of her testimony that unveils the recent Moroccan attempts to mislead the American public opinion, led by Moroccan Ambassador to the USA, who is undertaking a campaign in the USA, giving false information and lies to the Medias and presenting a false version on the Moroccan violations of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, besides giving a false picture about the Saharawi culture and people.

"U.N. Address October 2005

My name is Janet Lenz. I have been personally going to the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria’s Sahara Desert since 1999. After 17 trips in the past six years, I have spent literally thousands of hours in the camps, freely speaking with anyone at any time, and I believe I have seen the true face of the people, their leaders, and their children. I have also personally led teams of almost 300 Americans from 10 states and 4 other countries to the camps. We have lived with their families in their tents and muddy houses, played with their children, eaten their food, shared their tea, and spent countless hours building relationships and crossing all the barriers between our two worlds, including cultural, religious, language and political differences. I have come to know them very well…from the inside out, and from the top down.

We have also been responsible for bringing almost 200 Saharawi children to the US for the past six summers, coordinating their stays with host families. They have come from a variety of family circumstances…everything from the Polisario leadership’s own children to a child victim of one of the millions of landmines planted by Morocco. Children talk…and their candid thoughts, feelings, experiences, and knowledge have done far more to educate us than any media articles could ever convey.

Our organization has also built an English school in the camps, as an on-going presence there, at the invitation and with the cooperation of the Polisario.

I come here today because I have the privilege to speak of what I know to be true….what I have seen, heard, and experienced of these refugees of Western Sahara… people who have no possibility to speak to this great assembly of nations of the world who hold the power to bring justice to their 30 years of suffering caused by Morocco. I come here because the United Nations stepped into the war that began with Morocco’s invasion of Western Sahara, and negotiated a cease-fire that would lead to a referendum in which the Saharawi people could determine their own future.

I come here because the war has not stopped; the cease-fire is not a reality. Morocco has not honored the agreement. They may not be using the bullets, bombs and napalm that they had showered on the people they invaded. But they continue to attack. Now their weapons of warfare are political manipulation backed by limitless financial advantage; a skilful use of lies spread through the venues of media and the internet, where their propaganda finds its target anywhere in the world that has access, including within government leaders; and in recent months, blatant human rights violations, including imprisonment and torture, to the Saharawi still living in the Occupied Territory. Thirty-seven Saharawi political prisoners are living in inhumane conditions of detention because they dared to use their voices to speak out against Morocco’s on-going cruelties to them and to their families. Thirty-seven men and women, choosing to demonstrate their deep commitment to the basic rights of life by refusing food for 51 days, only relenting because of the pleas of their families. These are the actions of people who have exhausted all other peaceful means of getting the attention of the world. These are not the actions of terrorists. Have they gotten your attention? Does this Body have the power to override Morocco’s refusals to allow truth-seekers to freely investigate the claims made by people willing to lay down their own lives for the sake of justice?

I have read the propaganda against the Polisario being regularly churned out through the internet and media, apparently a successful ploy to divert attention from the human rights violations Morocco is trying to hide. If the allegations in the publications were true, we would have seen, heard, or sensed it. To think that an entire people group of refugees could be “fooling” hundreds of Americans freely living among them over a period of 6+ years is unimaginable. What we have heard and seen again and again from everyone there with whom we have lived and spent time, is an amazing nation of people who have chosen to put aside their individual pursuits and identity…even their former tribal divisions…to preserve their national identity as the people of Western Sahara, and to prepare themselves to be able to return to their homeland with all the infrastructure and organization in place to again inhabit their ancient homeland as a democratic, peaceful Arab nation unlike any other.

They strive to keep that hope alive. This is an impossible hope that flies in the face of their unrelenting Moroccan aggressors, who continue to inhabit the land and homes of the Saharawi. The Moroccan government is the criminal here…the ones forcing a peaceful nation to have to choose either to live in “freedom” under their own leadership in an impossibly harsh desert, or to be forced to live under Moroccan domination, losing their identity as a nation, as a people, as individuals. As communication via internet now becomes possible between those Saharawi who have had to live under Morocco’s rule all these years and their dispersed families living in the refugee camps, the cruelty, persecution and inhumane treatment under which those who stayed in their homeland suffer is being exposed. And in truth, the severe conditions under which those Saharawi have suffered in the desert camps all these years is the fault of the Moroccan government. What the people themselves under the Polisario leadership have been able to accomplish in the midst of this tragedy is nothing short of miraculous. They have survived a situation that no human should have to bear. They have not only survived…but they have excelled as a peaceful people of character, intelligence, and integrity.

Is the Polisario perfect? No. Is it without corruption? Is any government or leadership on this planet without corruption? Of course not. But is it responsible for forcing its people to live as refugees in the desert? Never. That rests on Morocco’s shoulders…and all those nations that continue to look the other way and allow the lies of Morocco’s leadership to stand as truth.

Morocco’s invasion began a war. In war, prisoners are taken. On both sides. The fact that the Polisario has just released the last Moroccan prisoner of this war should be deeply respected. They have chosen to hand over their last “bargaining tool” in this war. In good faith. As a valiant effort to show the world their desire that injustice should be peacefully righted. To show the world that they have given everything that is theirs to give for the sake of peace and their freedom. Yet Morocco continues to imprison, torture, and cruelly control the Saharawi who are forced to live under their corrupt regime. Those hundreds of Saharawi who remain “missing” under Morocco’s authority have no voice calling for accountability by the world community. And their blatant human violations continue against the Saharawi as well as their own people.

After 14 years, the referendum you promised them has still not taken place. And yet, the Saharawi have cast their votes, loud and clear. They have voted with their own lives. Each “missing” Saharawi in their homeland, each Saharawi prisoner of war, each Saharawi in Morocco’s prisons because of their words of justice, each peaceful demonstrator risking their own and their family’s safety to express their convictions, and each Saharawi living in the refugee camps in the desert or in Spain, or anywhere else in the world outside of Morocco has cast their vote of self-determination, with or without a referendum. The Saharawi want NOTHING more than freedom. But TRUE freedom…back in their homeland under their own rule…the leadership they themselves formed. Not a freedom that means coming under the rule of the regime that forced them from their homes, spraying them with napalm, taking their fathers, uncles, brothers who gave their lives to win back their country and their freedom. Not a freedom that would disperse them among other nations, where they would have to daily battle so as not to lose their identity. And the life of sacrifice each family, each individual, continues to bear is what they deem to be the higher, nobler choice they make. The alternative choice….”kissing the hand of the king who tried to destroy them…” is no choice at all.

Will you keep your part of this agreement? Morocco has not. The Saharawi have done all they can do to cooperate. How much longer can they wait, having exhausted all possibilities to find a peaceful solution? How much farther will your lack of action push them to find a conclusion to this tragedy?

Janet Lenz. » (SPS)

060/090/000 082324 OCT 05 SPS