Western Sahara: Sidati urges EU to assume responsibility toward Saharawi people

Brussels (Belgium), October 9, 2016 (SPS) - Saharawi deputy minister for Europe, Mohamed Sidati, has called on the European Union to assume its responsibilities towards the Saharawi people by supporting the effective implementation of the UN resolutions that set out their right to self-determination.

"The EU should assume responsibility and abide by the international law by making sure that sovereignty violations do not continue, and ensuring its member states are not accomplices in the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco," Sidati wrote in a contribution published Friday on the European news website euractiv.com.

In his findings released in September in the case Polisario Front vs the European Union Council about the agreement on exchange of agricultural produce and fishing with Morocco, The general attorney of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), underlined that Western Sahara territory is on the UN non-autonomous list since 1963, and which is linked to UN resolution on colonial people's right to self-determination.

"Saharawi people turn to Europe, which is a model in the basic values of liberty, democracy and respect of the international law," he said.

"We turn to the EU which will have to show a clear commitment to abiding by the international law, by making sure the use of Western Sahara's natural resources is not included in EU-Morocco agreement and by conforming to the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union." (SPS)

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