SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Algiers, 13/07/04 (SPS) Algerian minister for foreign affairs, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, asserted Tuesday that his country maintains its support to the settlement of the conflict between Morocco and Polisario within the framework of the UN, emphasising that the issue remains an unachieved "decolonisation problem", reported international press services.

During a joined press conference with his French counterpart, Michel Barnier, who is in visiting Algiers for two days, the Head of Algerian diplomacy said Algeria "is determined to go forward" supporting the establishment of a solution conforming to international legality, which respects "peoples right to self-determination".

Algeria, he put, which "is concerned about Saharawi people's right to self-determination within the framework of UN", is "disposed" to support any fair and final solution to the conflict within the UN's framework.

The Head of Algerian diplomacy reaffirmed Algerian position in response to the last Franco-Moroccan attempts to search for a solution to the conflict aside from international legality. (SPS)

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SPS
SADR/SPAIN/REACTION
"The solution via referendum is democratic, global, thus political",declared Sidati

Brussels, 13/07/04 (SPS) Minister Counsellor at the Presidency, Mohamed Sidati, affirmed Monday that the self-determination of Saharawi people remains the only "democratic, global, thus political" way towards a fair and final settlement of western Sahara's conflict, regretting Moratinos last statement to Spanish newspaper "El Mundo" in its Sunday's edition.

"The referendum is the supreme exercise of political democracy and can not thus be reduced to a mere technical solution, nor can it be considered as a prelude to any kind of crisis. The solution via referendum is in fact a democratic, global and thus a political solution", underlined Mr. Sidati in a statement published on Monday in response to Spanish Foreign affairs minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, statements according to which the organisation of a referendum will cause political "crisis" in the Maghreb region.

Mr. Moratinos statements "give rise to astonishment and concern", "leading to confusion" about Spanish government position regarding the conflict, especially that last month's official visit of Spanish Secretary of State for foreign affairs, Mr. Bernardino Leon, had pleaded a position completely different and conform to international legality.

"We appreciate Spain's interest and will to contribute to a political solution" to the conflict, underlined the Saharawi diplomat, but this contribution should in no way "allow Morocco to infringe international law and to avoid the referendum", what seems to be the possible results of such confusing Spanish position expressed by Moratinos. Besides, the Baker plan is in effect a "reasonable" compromise and political solution to the conflict.

Apart from having to be theoretically firm in its support to the process of decolonisation in Western Sahara, conforming to international legality and in coherence with its position in Iraq, Spanish Government has a historical responsibility towards "Saharawi people who fights for its freedom and its inalienable right to self-determination", stressed Sidati.

In this optic, if Spain really wants to honour its due debt to its ex-colony, it should "demand from Morocco to give up its delaying frame-ups, its intransigent policy, so as Saharawi people can exercise their legitimate right to free self-determination, so as international legality be at last established in Western Sahara and so as security and stability be strengthened and guaranteed to the profit of all Maghreb's peoples", he emphasised.

Moreover, wondered Sidati, "since when can the democratic exercise by a people of its right to self-determination deteriorate to crisis!". He further expressed concern about "Spanish Minister expressed intentions to coordinate Spanish efforts within a coordinated action" with Paris, a position that can turn to be a Spanish adoption of "the famous French position of unconditional support to Moroccan colonial thesis on Western Sahara", which has always opposed "international community's" efforts, pushing them to failure, he deplored.

On another hand, this position, if adopted, will certainly be a new strike to international legality, since "international community, which had invested long ago in the search of a final solution to the conflict", had found no better solution but "the organisation of a free and impartial referendum, which was anyhow solemnly accepted by Morocco in 1997, and which will allow a solution which is fair, peaceful and conform to international legality to a problem everybody consider a decolonisation one", underlined Sidati. (SPS)

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