Polisario Front calls on Security Council to address Morocco’s attempt to block further rounds of informal talks

New York (UN), October 25, 2011(SPS) - The Frente POLISARIO is extremely concerned that the Security Council has allowed the Kingdom of Morocco to obstruct the many recent efforts by the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Ambassador Christopher Ross, to reinvigorate the peace process, underlined the Polisario Front in a Letter Monday to the President of the UN Security Council.

Below is the full text of the letter sent Monday by the Representative of the Polisario Front to the United Nations, Mr. Boukhari Ahmed, to the President of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, Mrs. U. Joy Ogwu, two days before the meeting scheduled for the 26 th October when Mr. Ross will brief the Council on the situation regarding Western Sahara:

“Madam President,

On behalf of the people of Western Sahara, I wish to convey to you the views of the Frente POLISARIO in anticipation of the Security Council’s consideration of the situation in Western Sahara on 26 October 2011. The briefing by the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross, is an important opportunity for the Council to review the current status of the peace process and its prospects, and to step up its engagement to fulfill its promises to the people of Western Sahara.

In this regard, I recall that in June 1990, the UN Secretary-General informed the Security Council, in his report S/21360 (1990), that the Frente POLISARIO and the Kingdom of Morocco reached an agreement to end the conflict over the decolonization of Western Sahara through a “self-determination referendum to allow the Saharawi people to choose between independence and integration into the Kingdom of Morocco.” In response, the Security Council created a UN Mission, MINURSO, with a mandate to monitor the agreed ceasefire between the parties from 6 September 1991, and to organize a referendum of the people of Western Sahara, to take place in February 1992.

Twenty years later, that promise has not been fulfilled. This failure by the Security Council has meant that for more than a generation, the Saharawi people have had to endure either the harsh conditions as refugees or for those remaining in the Territory, the indignity of imprisonment and gross human rights violations at the hands of an illegal occupier that continues to plunder the natural resources of Western Sahara in violation of international law.

Against this backdrop, the Frente POLISARIO is extremely concerned that the Security Council has allowed the Kingdom of Morocco to obstruct the many recent efforts by the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Ambassador Christopher Ross, to reinvigorate the peace process.

In this connection, Morocco’s attempt to block the scheduling of further rounds of informal talks is completely unacceptable, and must be addressed directly by the Council.

The Frente POLISARIO also calls on the Security Council to reiterate strongly its call to the parties in Resolution 1920 to demonstrate further political will in the talks by expanding on the discussion of each other’s proposals. It is clear that the current blockage in the talks stems exclusively from the refusal of Morocco to enter into discussions on any basis other than its own autonomy proposal, an approach that seeks to eliminate the option of independence in contravention of Security Council resolution 690 (1991) and the parameters for self-determination in situations of decolonization established by the General Assembly in its resolutions 1514(XV) and 1541 (XV).

The Frente POLISARIO therefore calls upon the Security Council to emphasize the Secretary-General’s recommendation in his April report that the parties “seek common ground on the one major point of convergence in their two proposals: the need to obtain the approval of the population for any agreement.” As the Secretary-General noted in his report, this means that there must be “a referendum that will constitute a free exercise of the right to self-determination.” In the view of the Frente POLISARIO, this clear objective should be pursued through an immediate refreshing of the voter lists already compiled by MINURSO’s Identification Commission with a view to holding the referendum as soon as possible.

Furthermore, the human rights situation and the socio-economic conditions of the Saharawi population in the part of the Territory of Western Sahara occupied illegally by Morocco continue to deteriorate. On 9 October, Saharawis commemorating the first anniversary of the establishment of the Gdeim Izik protest camp on the outskirts on El Aaiún were subjected to violent beatings and arbitrary arrests. In the aftermath, Moroccan authorities intensified the state of siege in El Aaiún. The town entry points were sealed off by occupation forces (including the military, police, and gendarmerie) and surveillance helicopters flew overhead. There is now a climate of fear and terror in the Territory’s capital, and Moroccan settlers in the Western Sahara are being manipulated by the security forces into acts of provocation, intimidation and incitement to racial hatred as seen in the September events that took place in the occupied town of Dakhla.

These recent events once again point to the need for a permanent, independent and impartial mechanism to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Western Sahara, and the inadequacy of ad-hoc approaches, such as those of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. As recommended by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the task must be entrusted to MINURSO, which can be mandated to draw on the human rights expertise of other UN bodies. The Frente POLISARIO notes once more that every other UN peacekeeping mission established since 1978 has a permanent human rights monitoring capacity within its mandate.

In recent months, the Members of the Security Council have repeatedly voiced their support for political outcomes consistent with respect for human rights and peaceful transition to democracy in light of the profound and dramatic changes sweeping the Arab world. Events in the Middle East and the Maghreb region have demonstrated clearly that any political solution in Western Sahara must reflect the will of its people if it is to be credible, sustainable, and foster peace, security and regional integration in the long term. It is essential that the Security Council take decisive steps to reinvigorate and drive forward the negotiating process to a prompt conclusion which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

I would be most grateful to you, Madam President, if you would bring this letter to the urgent attention of the Members of the Council. I avail myself of this opportunity to express to your Excellency the assurances of my highest consideration.

Ahmed Boukhari

Representative of the Frente POLISARIO” (SPS)