Statement of the Frente Polisario before the UN Special Committee on Colonialism
By Guest Post • Jul 2nd, 2009 at 14:55 • Category: Analysis, Culture and Heritage, Features, Mary's Choice, Newswire, Resistance
STATEMENT OF THE FRENTE POLISARIO
BEFORE THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE 24
New York, 16 June 2009
Mr Chairman,
Western Sahara remains under the illegal occupation of Morocco. The efforts employed so far by the United Nations with a view to finalising the decolonisation of the Territory have not been successful due to Morocco’s current rejection of the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.
I
In 1990, when Morocco accepted the Settlement Plan approved by the Security Council, it had committed itself to cooperate with the United Nations with a view to holding a self-determination referendum that would allow the Sahrawi people to choose between independence and integration into the occupying power. That task was entrusted to MINURSO that was deployed in the Territory on 6 September 1991 following the coming into effect of the ceasefire agreed by the two parties.
Such acceptance on the part of Morocco gave rise to real hopes for a fair and lasting solution to the conflict, mainly after the withdrawal of Mauritania from the conflict by virtue of the Mauritanian-Sahrawi peace agreement of 1979. Morocco confirmed this acceptance in 1997 to the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, James Baker, when the two parties signed the Houston agreements that were also approved by the Security Council.
Nevertheless, when everything was in place for an effective implementation of these agreements, Morocco reneged on its commitment. This breach was formulated in a letter addressed to the Secretary-General in April 2004, in which Morocco made it clear that it did not accept any solution that would include the option of independence of the Territory.
It has ever since been trying to impose on the intentional community, through influential friends inside the Security Council, the so-called proposal of autonomy whose starting point consists in considering, in advance, that Western Sahara is an integral part of the Moroccan territory. The Security Council is aware that it is dealing with a decolonisation issue on the agenda of the General Assembly, which cannot be resolved outside or against the doctrine established by the United Nations. This doctrine stipulates that the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence is, and should always be, the essential parameter for the solution of the conflict.
It was evident that, with Morocco’s breach of its commitment, the absence or the prolonged obstruction of a peaceful process of solution would imply serious risks for the maintenance of the ceasefire.
In June 2007, the Security Council requested us, the two parties, to begin direct negotiations, without preconditions with a view to achieving that solution in the framework of that essential parameter. The negotiations began in Manhasset in June of the same year, and the fourth round took place in April 2008. It is already known, Mr. Chairman, that there was no progress at all. The reasons for that lie in the fact that Morocco came with a precondition that was simply unacceptable. In reality, it did not want to negotiate but rather to impose its so-called proposal of autonomy as the only possible solution, presenting it on a “take it or leave it” basis. It was unwilling to discuss the proposal presented by the Sahrawi side, of which the Council had taken note. In our proposal, we say that the Sahrawi people should have the chance to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination by means of a referendum that includes all the options recognised by the United Nations in the context of General Assembly resolutions 1514 and 1541. This means that the referendum should necessarily include the option of independence. This option is not only something that cannot be renounced, but is also an option that Morocco had already accepted when it signed the Settlement Plan and the Houston Agreements. In our proposal, we also said that, in case the Sahrawi people would choose the option of independence in that referendum, the Frente POLISARIO would be willing to look to the future and to offer Morocco the chance to negotiate the bases for a strategic relationship in economic, security, commercial and social domains, among others.
Morocco’s rejection of this vision, which is based not only on the criteria established by the abovementioned resolutions of the United Nations but also on logic and common sense, is what caused the lack of progress in the negotiations.
The Secretary-General appointed a new Personal Envoy, Ambassador Christopher Ross, in August 2008. Mr. Ross did not officially assume his functions until January 2009 due to Morocco’s initial rejection.
In February this year, Mr. Ross made a first tour in the region of which he gave an account in the report submitted by the Secretary-General to the Security Council in April 2009. The mandate of the new Personal Envoy was to try to reactivate the negotiations that began in Manhasset, and he proposed, as a preliminary step, informal meetings between the two parties. We expressed our support for the Personal Envoy, but we do not know why those meetings have not yet taken place.
II
Meanwhile, Mr. Chairman, the situation on the ground does not inspire optimism. Morocco maintains occupation forces comprising an estimated 150 thousand soldiers. The Territory is divided in two parts by a shameful wall protected by those forces and 5 million antipersonnel landmines. As an occupying power, Morocco intensifies, on a daily basis, its exploitation and commercialisation of the natural resources of the Territory, especially phosphates and fishing, offering them to the highest bidder, whilst trying to implicate foreign companies in onshore and offshore oil prospecting in our country.
This activity is carried out in flagrant contravention of international legality applicable to a territory pending decolonisation. The Special Committee has a great deal to say about this activity. The graveness of this breach is more than evident when taking into account that, according to what was confirmed by the legal opinion of the then Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel, Dr. Hans Corell, on 29 January 2002, the United Nations does not consider Morocco as a sovereign or administering power of the Territory. We are before an illegal exploitation that is carried out by what General Assembly resolution 34/37 qualified as an “occupying” country.
The situation does not inspire optimism either if we analyse the situation of human rights in the areas occupied by Morocco. As has been confirmed by the reports of the UN High Commissioner for Human rights in October 2007 and Human Rights Watch in December 2008 and the report of the ad hoc delegation of the European parliament in February 2009, Morocco violates human rights in Western Sahara. All these reports, made by different and unrelated bodies, concur in their assessment by considering that the violation of human rights by Morocco stems from the fact that the right to self-determination has not been respected. Furthermore, they agree on the need for the United Nations, through MINURSO, to play the traditional role played by all other UN missions in relation to monitoring and protection of human rights as long as the conflict has not been resolved in a just and lasting manner. The UN Secretary-General, in all his reports submitted to the Security Council since October 2006, expressed his concern about the situation of human rights in the Territory.
Both in 2008 and 2009, several delegations from non-permanent members of the Security Council tried to include, in the Security Council resolution, an extension of the mandate of MINURSO so as to incorporate the issue of human rights. Morocco, with the support of France, did not allow this noble attempt to go beyond a mere mention of the “human dimension” of the conflict, a fact that unfortunately can only lead to consolidating the perception that there is a double standard policy, which does not serve the credibility of the Council.
III
Mr. Chairman,
More than four decades have already passed since the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 1514 (XV) in December 1960 whereby the United Nations assumed the noble responsibility for ensuring that all peoples and countries under colonial occupation could exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. The fact that the decolonisation of Western Sahara remains on the agenda of this Committee makes it a living symbol of the failure by the United Nations to fulfil fully and effectively that collective responsibility.
The Sahrawi people were colonised by Spain from 1884 to 1976. Spain, which had considered the Territory as a “Spanish province”, accepted, by the end of the 60s, the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence. As I had already stated during the sessions of the seminar held in Saint Kits and Nevis in last May, since 1969 Morocco had recognised repeatedly, explicitly and solemnly, before this Committee and before the General Assembly the right of the Sahrawi people to full independence.
The work carried out by the Committee in this regard, which was crowned by the report of its visiting mission dispatched to the Sahrawi Territory in May 1975, the multiple resolutions of the General Assembly on Western Sahara as well as the verdict of the Court of The Hague of October 1975, which rejected conclusively the validity of Morocco’s territorial claims on our country, all constituted a solid legal and political corpus that should have safeguarded the decolonisation process, and should have brought it to its natural conclusion by the peaceful accession of our country to its full independence.
Members of the Special Committee would recall what happened afterwards. Spain, the administering power, abdicated its obligations assumed before the United Nations by calling on Morocco and Mauritania to invade, occupy and partition our country. This act was carried out in Madrid agreements of November 1975. This way, our people were forced to continue their legitimate struggle for national independence against colonisers this time coming from within Africa. The European colonialism had retired, but it had been replaced by African colonialisms. There are no precedents in the annals of decolonisation of this terrible tragedy for Africa. However, several African leaders had warned against this threat to the security and independence of the continent. Hence, the importance that was accorded, at the beginning, to the intangibility of the borders inherited from colonialism in the constitutive Charter of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The Court of The Hague concluded, as I have said earlier, that before the Spanish colonisation there was never any tie of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and its new colonisers. This verdict and the inclusion of the principle of intangibility of borders into the Charter of the OAU, made that the Mauritanian-Moroccan attempt to annex our country was seen as an act with very serious consequences for Africa.
It was the President of Mozambique, Samora Machel, who said that “colonialism does not have any specific colour”. Already in 1960, against the backdrop of the territorial claims made by Morocco on Mauritania, President Senghor of Senegal said, in a proper way, that some African nations had acquired the illness of the European coloniser. More recently, President Mbeki of South Africa said that it was a shame for Africa that the Sahrawi people had not even been able to enjoy their right to independence.
IV
Mr. Chairman,
Perhaps one could say that all this is known, and that it may be advisable not to highlight it in order to keep the consciences dormant. That is to say, to accept, as a last resort, the notion that the right to self-determination of peoples in the framework of decolonisation shakes the consciences of some people who end up saying privately and sometimes publically, after perhaps signing or securing a contract here and there with Morocco, that that fundamental right, which made possible the current configuration of the world, should give way in the case of Western Sahara to the “politically correct” notion proposed by Morocco, i.e., pure annexation of our country, disguised in a proposal of autonomy.
The Sahrawi people, armed with the firm conviction in the legitimacy of their right to freedom and independence and in the pre-eminence of the principles and values of the UN Charter over the siren songs of a cynical and dangerous notion of political realism, will never give up the full realisation of that right. We are also convinced that the immense majority of the UN members share this judgement and the vision that, in a case of decolonisation as clear as this one, there should be no exception to the general rule that was established by resolution 1514, which gave birth to this Committee.
It is true, Mr. Chairman, that the Sahrawi people will continue suffering, and will continue seeing their development and progress being mortgaged by an anachronistic, unjust and unjustified occupation. It is our suffering, but it is also your failure as United Nations.
In our modest opinion, this Committee can and should reactivate its commitment to the decolonisation of the last African colony on its agenda. The Committee was historically very courageous in the face of the persistence of the Spanish colonisation of Western Sahara. You should not give up this courage because the decolonisation of Western Sahara has not yet been concluded. Spain left, but Morocco came in its stead. The UN considers Morocco neither a sovereign power nor an administering power, but this country considers itself capable of interfering, conditioning and even changing the principled positions and the minimum rules of procedure of this Committee, as it happened, Mr. Chairman, in the recent seminar. The Sahrawi people have not yet exercised their right to self-determination. Hence, the responsibility of the Committee is still as full as our trust in it and in the international community.
Thank you very much indeed!
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you seems insisting in your big lies?
and the map ( the moroccan sahara) to whome you think you are promoting this lies for?
Cuba is a terrorist pro cold war non democratic country, so dictatorship countries are the only ones who support polisario, and when polisario sees that the situation is gel-tting clearer for evey one about their big lie orchestred by algeria( they call on thier latin supporters. and some poorly known writer (looking to be famous)
any way polisario said that cuba is it's second home, i hope that they will keep it us primary home, lol ( a fact polisario is part of the past) Mr rose visited the Corcas in layoune that means( the un recognizes CORCAS as the representative of the two therds of saharawis living in the moroccan recovered territory.
long life to morocco and our king from tangiers (north) to lagouira(south) mauritania border. and long life to the kabilian republic bordring north Algeria.
ha ha last african colony it was a long breath lobby propaganda( but this mascarade is over) and polisario is thretning to re-take the weapon ( ha ha we are so sceared lol) the next step as the king said his first day as king the one who will pay a dicision like this will be algeria, any atack coming from their territory will constitut a war declaratio, I can't wait to show them what moroccans are capable of.
long life to God to the king and to the Nation from tangiers to lagouira. the war is not far I can smell Algerian Blood.
I can see that we can express freely our points of view, would you tell where did you put my comment??? yes ther are 250.000 saharawis living the the Moroccan sahara or as you insist to call western sahara..
Real-sahara-watch.blogspot.com
The Scams still call it colonialism"when in fact Morocco is occupied by Algeria backed before by Communist regime as cold war thing between Allies.Algeria behaves as Saddam Hussein due to the thirst of power and W-M-D but even Saddam's madness and evil ,Iraqis had a decent life unlike Algerians and their toys "polisario"who until now suffer extreme poverty and denial of employment and what to expect of communist and Evil Generals .if Algeria get disarmed and watched over her nuclear programs that she wish to develop the World will be a better place ,in fact this unemployment and Cold war between Morocco and Communist disguised have created Suicide bombers and no body notice that the recruitment of War guerrillas comes from the capital of Terror Algeria and Sahara polisario and sub-Saharan illegal immigrants "drug and human trafficking"there is a lots of mess and no body point this out to Algeria because they have gaz and oil ?we are ruined by this regime who is supported by Terror of Oil money but those who lives in Luxury whilst their own people suffer must expect any Time The TERROR OF ALLAH.that could be just like Iraq when Saddam was humiliated by US forces punishing him for all the genocide he done against shiaa and anyone opposing his arrogant regime while he party in his palaces.thank you everyone for taken time to read and may you have a pleasant nice day.Free and may The Terror of God be upon those who ally with The Terror of Evil and may peace protect those who strive to keep it in this world .and may the cheesburgers be healthier and not causing any health risk.
source: a frind from casablanca
looks like polisario is loosing ground and trying desperately, to give some life to his dead allegations, any ways journalists in quest of celebrety are simply loosing their time, because the truth are on the ground Spain and france knows the truth about that territory is for this reason they support morocco, because of the injustice we made them live. first we cut to their territory Mauritania and this time is simply to repair some how this big mistake.
polisario have the opurtunity of a life time, under moroccan sovernity, the two therds of saharawis unionist sticked to the otonomy solution, exect those working for their interests and Algeria interests, we have to see the truth in face and be brave to accept the truth and the reality.
I invite all Saharawis retained in tindouf to be brave and escape the polisario opresion, I know the situation in the camps more the well, there are two prison lines into the camps fist polisario gerilla agents and Algerian secret service, Second Algerian military force, and radars of vehiculs at 35km, and some 3/4 patrols, it's not imposible. you should have one word in the camps, last week polisario made two unionist desapear, and every week s becaming harder for them to control the people in the camps, SO IS JUST A CUESTION OF TIME.
Oooh dear moroccan friends, here you (all) are!!! How much they paid you this mounth??? you still doing your work really good: misinformation with your demagoguery and, the most serious and dangerous, YOU DO NOT ALLOW NIETHER YOU RECOGNIZE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. I DON'T BLAME YOU, YOU CAN'T BREATHE WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF YOUR GOVERNMENT, YOUR SIRS (maybe I WOULD SAY "LADIES") of the Makhzen… AND YOU LIKE IT, MAN!
WE ARE REFUGEES, BUT WE HAVE OUR DIGNITY. ON THE OTHER HAND YOU STILL KISSIN THE FOOTS OF YOUR "LALLA"
FREEDOM for the Saharawi People and for all Oppressed People, including the Moroccan one!
http://poemariosaharalibre.blogspot.com/
a very good site (I have to improve my Spanish to get more out of it) but there are many pictures, links, information for those needing more background.
Information for those new here. I am not a censor of comments. I think that even those who disagree with me or with the articles I choose to put up have a right to respectfully state their case. It is however the nature of this site (that there are lots of violent comments, full of threat and things as well as computer generated spam) that it must have modertion settings put in. This means, if you have never commented here, or any of your information is new (even a change of name, IP or site), it will be held until someone can attend to letting it out. No need to start to claim here there is no room for you to express yourselves. Be patient, stick to the issues and try to keep the discourse civilised!
To Jalal Nali:
I have read the Statement of the Frente POLISARIO and it seems to me a good contribution and a proper appreciation of reality, a text that should be studied in colleges and universities around the world. On the contrary, I read your comment number 1 and note that you persist in your sectarian and chauvinist rhetoric, the same as that used when published on this website my writing " HYPOCRITES! In defense of the Sahrawi people".
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/07/16/hypocrites-in-defense-of-the-sahrawi-people/
Neither the Frente POLISARIO nor Palestine Think Tank (PTT) lies, as you claim. PTT has limited itself simply to hang on its website the Statement of the Frente POLISARIO before The Special Committee of the 24, that is, The United Nations’ Committee on Decolonization (the decolonization of the last colony in Africa, first Spain’s colony and now Morocco’s colony).
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/decolonization/main.htm
This Statement is a public document that has been presented by the legitimate Representative of the Saharawi people to the UN Committee. Any reader can access at least to a summary of this Statement.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/gacol3194.doc.htm
The Frente POLISARIO says the truth clearly from the first paragraph of his speech, to the Chairman, to all Members of the Committee and, by extension, to the UN and the whole international community:
“Mr Chairman, Western Sahara remains under the illegal occupation of Morocco. The efforts employed so far by the United Nations with a view to finalizing the decolonization of the Territory have not been successful due to Morocco’s current rejection of the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.”
Where is the lie to that assertion, according to you? Morocco may not still occupy illegally the territory of Western Sahara since 1975?
What's the matter with Cuba and Algeria? Nobody has mentioned these countries except Mr. Jalal Nali. Are you going to continue with the old story of "Communism and the Cold War? That's much more than living in the past. You do not have any idea of what is international solidarity and brotherhood among peoples, including the Moroccan people! Even the U.S. president, Barack Obama, is trying presently to correct the U.S. policy towards Cuba… Are Algeria or Cuba stealing the natural resources of the Saharawi people, as Morocco is doing with Western Sahara’s phosphates, fisheries, business contracts…? Where is the lie?
http://www.arso.org/HagenPretoria2008.htm
http://www.havc.se/res/SelectedMaterial/20081205pretoriawesternsahara1.pdf
http://www.arso.org/ConferencePretoria2008.htm
“Meanwhile, Mr. Chairman, the situation on the ground does not inspire optimism. Morocco maintains occupation forces comprising an estimated 150 thousand soldiers. The Territory is divided in two parts by a shameful wall protected by those forces and 5 million antipersonnel landmines. As an occupying power, Morocco intensifies, on a daily basis, its exploitation and commercialization of the natural resources of the Territory, especially phosphates and fishing, offering them to the highest bidder, whilst trying to implicate foreign companies in onshore and offshore oil prospecting in our country.” [Statement, II].
The State and the generous people of Cuba, despite its many unmet needs, have given language and studies to many citizens of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Algeria has also hosted the Saharawis in the desert, when the Moroccan army machine-gunned them from French and U.S. planes and bombed them with napalm and white phosphorous. Over 80 countries have recognized the Saharawi Republic, while no country in the world accepts the Moroccan sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara alleged by the Majzen.
“…the United Nations does not consider Morocco as a sovereign or administering power of the Territory. We are before an illegal exploitation that is carried out by what General Assembly resolution 34/37 qualified as an “occupying” country.” [Statement, II].
Mr. Christopher Ross visited EL AAIÚN (not layoune, as the occupant Morocco has imposed), as well as Tindouf, Algiers and other cities. But the mission of the new Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General is not to recognize the CORCAS, as you say, but try to revive the negotiations that began in Manhasset.
And regarding your final and false words (“Moroccan recovered territory "), I also refer you to the Frente POLISARIO's Statement:
“… since 1969 Morocco had recognized repeatedly, explicitly and solemnly, before this Committee and before the General Assembly the right of the Sahrawi people to full independence.
“The work carried out by the Committee in this regard, which was crowned by the report of its visiting mission dispatched to the Sahrawi Territory in May 1975, the multiple resolutions of the General Assembly on Western Sahara as well as the verdict of the Court of The Hague of October 1975, which rejected conclusively the validity of Morocco’s territorial claims on our country, all constituted a solid legal and political corpus that should have safeguarded the decolonization process, and should have brought it to its natural conclusion by the peaceful accession of our country to its full independence.” [Statement, III].
“…The UN considers Morocco neither a sovereign power nor an administering power, but this country considers itself capable of interfering, conditioning and even changing the principled positions and the minimum rules of procedure of this Committee…” [Statement, IV].
Western Sahara: The Legitimate Reasons of the Saharawi People
http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?lg=en&reference=4965
I would like to express my warmest congratulation for theUnited Nations POLISAIO Front Representative, Mr. Ahmed, for his wonderful speech given in the 24 Committee some weeks ago because I think that he has given to that United Nations´s Committee the sad, cruel reality of the situation in the Western Sahara and the will of this peaceful people that is struggling for more than three decades for freedom and justice in what is internationally considered the Africa´s last colony. That is why this UN organism discuss it every year as a problem of decolonization.
I am one of the few european that could visit the occupied saharawi cities of El Aaiun and Dakhla very recently and I could see with my own eyes hoe the saharawi people is brutally oppressed when they organize peaceful demonstrations asking for a free and fair referendum.
Long live to the brave saharawi women like Aminetou Haidar, Rabab Amidane etc…
I agree with you so much Laura! I unfortunately have never been there, was going to go to a conference in the Canaries this past month, but had to cancel, and i was planning on finally visiting "my kids", the children who came to stay with us as part of a group for a few summers. I hope they obtain their rightful freedoms, they only ask to not be controlled by others, not for anything more.
Please read the article below for a different perspective-
http://moroccoboard.com/viewpoint/68-hassan-massiki/577-cracks-between-qwestern-saharaq-separatists-a-algerian-military-backers
western sahara was and will always be a part of the Kingdom of Morocco it's not just because a bunch of thieves criminals their leader is moroccan traitor his father lives in Marrackech…claim they want their independence from the Kingdom that we need to offer them the sahara..just imagine some people will claim California are you gonna give it to theM..!stop calling an illegal occupation by Morocco.~!!!!!we know what you want controlling all oil of the planet and splitting arab countries so they will never be a rest!enough is enough!