SPS SADR/MOROCCO/SPAIN
Polisario Front calls King Juan
Carlos of Spain to convince Morocco respect the international legality
17.01.05
Bir Lehlou, 17/01/05 (SPS) The
President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called King Juan Carlos
of Spain Sunday to convince Morocco compel to the international
legality, considering that " Spain and its King can play a honest and
constructive role in favour of a just and real peace" in Western Sahara.
In a letter addressed to the Spanish King on the occasion of his visit
Monday to Morocco, Mohamed Abdelaziz indicated that the Saharawi people
will continue cooperating with the international community "so as the
international legality represented in the Settlement Plan or the Baker
Plan be respected and implemented".
On another hand, “Spain should not be used now, via direct or indirect
ways, as a "pilot balloon" of false solutions or as a shield used to
continue in an intransigent position", added the president.
Here is the complete text of the letter, SPS translated from Spanish to
English.
"Open letter to His
Majesty Juan Carlos I, King of Spain
Bir
Lehlu, January 17, 2005
Majesty,
The visit of State you will undertake
to Morocco intervenes in a very sensitive moment for the present and
future of the north-western African region. This region, in which Saharawi people
-and their legitimate national claims backed by an unquestionable
international legality- are a main and unavoidable component, was and
still is a region threatened by an anachronic expansionism that made of
the direct aggression of the neighbouring peoples a remedy to its
political regime's internal crisis and a standing point in its
geopolitical vision. The so called Green March, with which
Morocco decided -in an act of brutal use of force still persisting- to
make void the internationally recognised Saharawi people's right to
self-determination and independence. This attitude is now the
demonstration of the mentioned expansionism converted in a policy of
the State, a policy to which Spain, unfortunately, contributed in a
determinant manner to its perpetuation and execution through the
signing of the illegal Madrid's Accords of November the 14th 1975. The behaviour and attitude adopted by
the Moroccan Monarchy since its formal independence in 1956 in relation
to its neighbours has always been the main factor that introduced –
through the illegal resort to war- a long period of tension,
instability and lack of confidence in our region, what seriously
affected the development of its individual components and still is
blocking the materialisation of the dream of union, of which Saharawi
people is a convinced defender. Any civilised nation led by a
democratic system, such as the one that makes of Spain a Parliamentary
Monarchy instituted and consolidated thanks to its attachment and
defence of democratic values that emanate of the popular sovereignty,
must review its past what requires from Spain and its king to fully
assume their responsibilities and obligations they could not assume
while still the colonial power in Western Sahara. The conflict of Western Sahara, which
imposed so many sufferings on Saharawi people, was certainly launched
by the Moroccan kingdom. But it would have hardly decided to
cross the limits of the international legality if Spain did not decide
to renounce its commitments and obligations regarding the
decolonisation of the territory. Such a decision was further aggravated
by the historically documented fact of having discussed in detailed the
price to get of the transaction symbolised by the sadly famous
Tripartite Accords of Madrid (Madrid's Accords). As a result, Morocco and Spain are
undoubtedly co-responsible of the tragedy that stroked Western Sahara. Despite of the praiseworthy efforts
deployed by the international community for the search of a just and
peaceful solution to the Saharawi-Moroccan conflict Morocco continues
to be obsessed by perusing its colonial adventure, which can be
considered as a cause of what can be described as an international
crime in Western Sahara, where it daily violate human rights and offer
the resources of the territory to the one who pay more. The
institutional kingdom of the democratic Spain, released of the weights
of its internal past, should not let this new occasion represented in
the State visit your Majesty undertakes to the kingdom of Morocco pass
without been used directly or indirectly to help consolidate the
intentions aimed at closing this deep wound caused to the Saharawi
people as well as to the prestige and to the international credibility
of the democratic Spain. Under the impulse of the Crown and
taking into account the national opinion as well as the international
legality, Spain can and must play a positive role in the establishment
of peace and justice in the Maghreb as a neighbour and geo-strategic
associate of the Mediterranean Europe. The democratic and economic
development of the same region is not possible without the full
recognition of the peoples' right to democratically elect its leaders.
And peace is not possible without the recognition and respect of the
rights of the others, and of the right of the peoples under foreign
occupation to the free self-determination.
And it is true that in Morocco, your
Majesty is about to visit, there is no respect of the up mentioned
conditions. But if the first depends exclusively on the Moroccan people
to decide over its limits and parameters, the second condition concerns
and preoccupy the Saharawi people, the international community and as a
result to the Spain of the Parliamentary Monarchy your Majesty
represent. The Saharawi people has done all what
it has to do to facilitate the enforcement of the Security Council's
pertinent resolutions, which insist on Morocco through the Settlement
Plan and the Baker Plan to respect the international legality and
cooperate with the international community in order to organise a
referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara that would allow
Saharawi people to peacefully and democratically chose its destiny. The
kingdom of Morocco and Spain - parting from its special position as a
member of the group of friends of the UN's Secretary General and
recently of the Security Council- had both accepted this way of
solution out of which or opposing to which any attempt of resolution of
the conflict would only be a lost of time and energy. Your Majesty undertakes your second
State visit to Morocco. More than 25 years have passed since the first,
and the regional and international context knew deep changes. The
position of Morocco in the question of Western Sahara had tremendously
progressed in the right direction during the reign of Hassan II. There
were serious possibilities reinforced by the work achieved by James
Baker to reach the end of the tunnel. The new leaders of Morocco blew the
mentioned perspective, seriously turning their backs to the reached
compromise. Surprisingly the positive progress was replaced by an
irrational and intransigent position that can only lead to the
worsening of the problems and internal emergencies and to the open
confrontation. Spain should not be used now, via
direct or indirect ways, as a "pilot balloon" of false solutions or as
a shield used to continue in an intransigent position, which has no
continuation, and which some parties try to put as bases to concepts
and theories about the security of a throne. Such attempts are no more
than excuses to push the international community to adopt the concept
of to two weights two measures in evaluating the international legality. All the peoples of this region, and to
the Saharawis more than anyone else, are concerned with security and
stability for all the components, including Morocco. And we have been
and still are disposed to provide as everybody should, especially
Morocco, so as the notion of the stability and security be not realised
to the detriment of fundamental rights without which no lasting peace
could be reached. Europe and the world, and as a consequence Spain,
must be interested to this peace, which is the generator of a permanent
stability. Spain, through its King, can play a
role of a mediator and supporter of the efforts so far deployed by the
international community and not to replace it by advancing ideas that
have no future, but to work so as the international legality
represented in the Settlement Plan or the Baker Plan be respected and
implemented. This is the only possible way, among
all the ways already explored directly or indirectly, that have the
merit of been elaborated by the United Nations. It is the most secure
political way to reach a definitive peace that would not only
contribute to the decrease of the "Pateras" and threats to the regional
and collective security, but also to the establishment of a new
Maghreb's era of prosperity and brotherhood, of which the first
beneficiary would be Saharawi and Moroccan people. Spain and its most direct neighbours
of Europe can not continue nourishing the illusion that the
intransigence and confrontation of the international legality exhibited
by Morocco can bring this country strategic and political dividends. Spain and its King can play a honest
and constructive role in favour of a just and real peace. Further, we
think that this is a responsibility justified by the mistakes and
renunciations of the past that did a lot of damage to the Saharawi
people and to peace and to the regional coexistence. The Spanish Monarchy represented by
the king Juan Carlos I knew how to play, in different moments and
through many ways, a sufficient role to the service of democracy, peace
and justice at the international level. Western Sahara is still the
reflection of a responsibility that should be assumed so as to
establish a lasting peace that must and can be reached. The Saharawi people put its confidence
in the Spanish democracy to remedy to the mistakes of the past in the
form and in the spirit, hoping that this visit to Morocco would serve
for this moral and politically unavoidable purpose. Best regards Mohamed Abdelaziz Polisario Front's Secretary General President of the Saharawi Republic".
(SPS)
SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE