Polisario Front accuses Madrid of supporting Morocco in Western Sahara conflict


Shaheed El Hafed, January 26, 2011 - The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, has accused Madrid of supporting Morocco in the Western Sahara conflict, according to a statement released Tuesday.

"The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jimenez, has made many statements about the Western Sahara that clearly demonstrate that her country has moved away completely from the defense of international law by defending the thesis of the Moroccan occupier," said the chief of Saharawi diplomatic mission.

Ms. Jimenez has offered Monday Spain’s help to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara, during separate meetings with UN chief Ban Ki-moon and UN envoy Christopher Ross. In particular, she indicated in particular that her country proposed to bring up to the ranks of ministers the Group of Friends of Western Sahara to the UN, which at present is at the level of the experts.

The Spanish state is still "the administering colonial power" of this territory and therefore "it is responsible for the tragedy experienced by the Saharawi people since 1975", when it was annexed by Morocco, said Ould Salek, noting that Spain, "as a UN member, is obliged to comply with its obligations to the international community vis-à-vis the Saharawi people".

"Spain must ensure in collaboration with the UN the decolonization of Western Sahara (...) which will happen the day the people of this country will exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and independence in a valid, free, democratic and transparent way," he added.

"To say that self-determination referendum is outdated or difficult to realize is to align itself completely with the thesis of the Moroccan occupier which wants to simply confiscate the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination by choosing its future through a referendum, "underlined Ould Salek.

The self-determination referendum accepted formally by both parties to the conflict, the Polisario Front and Morocco, "is not exceeded and even less unrealizable. It is the only solution endorsed by the UN Security Council and General Assembly, which have created to this end the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

" It is the solution in compliance with the nature of the conflict as question of decolonization which cannot be considered complete and definitive without the exercise by the Sahrawi people of its right to self-determination and independence," he stressed.

"The objective of the action of the current government of Spain as expressed by the Minister Jimenez and other government officials and leaders of the PSOE, which is to legitimize the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco in a manner barely veiled, is contrary to duty and obligation of the administering power and harmful to its interests in the region in addition it does not help the people of the Maghreb to overcome the obstacles created by the illegal occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco, which remains the only country that does not respect the borde