Statement by Frente POLISARIO to the UN Fourth Committee

New York October 10, 2012

By Sahrawi Republic Ambassador Ahmed Boukhari's on behalf of the Polisario

Mr President

I address this Committee on behalf of Frente POLISARIO, the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people ( UNGA resolution 3437) and party with Morocco in the peace process led by the United Nations.

Every year we come here to bring to you the hopes and confidence of the Sahrawi people in the UN. As is known, Morocco, ignoring the Security Council and the International Court of Justice, decided to invade our country in 1975. This Committee drew up in 1979 Resolution 3437 of the General Assembly, which requested Morocco, I quote, “To end its military occupation of Western Sahara” (unquote). Morocco did not want to hear this message nor that of the African Union in 1982 when it admitted the Sahrawi Republic as a Member State. In 1991, following these developments and 16 years of bloody war, Morocco committed itself before you to cooperate with the UN to organize a referendum on self-determination, including the option of independence. The Security Council approved the Peace Plan and entrusted MINURSO with this mission, which it should have accomplished in 1992.

Betraying its own commitment, Morocco decided to prevent the referendum and proclaimed unilaterally its ‘sovereignty’ over Western Sahara, a decision that the international community considers null and void. Today it is still illegally occupying a large part of an African Territory included in the decolonization agenda of this Committee, where it continues, as has been proven internationally, to violate human rights while plundering its natural resources.

MINURSO has been prevented from carrying out its mandate. MINURSO is still in the Territory, but it is forced by Morocco to live without credibility and without authority. One needs only to read the Secretary-General’s latest report to the General Assembly. The negotiations that we have been holding with Morocco, from which you expected so much, have been suspended because the other party decided last May to end its cooperation with the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General. It is said that the veto was revoked, but there has not been yet any tangible evidence of it.

The UN is an essential part of the solution to a problem of decolonization. Yet, Morocco was able to make it part of the problem and, more seriously, to become a problem for itself. Morocco invites itself to solve problems in the Middle East and in the Sahel, a thin smokescreen to hide all this. We committed ourselves, Mr President, to cooperate to make possible a peaceful and honourable solution to which you were wholeheartedly attached. Twenty years of Moroccan deception and of paralysis of the UN are now shaking up this commitment. The Sahrawi people wish to remain confident that you know how to assume the responsibilities you have undertaken and that you have not exhausted all the resources offered to you by the UN Charter. Morocco must cooperate to facilitate the holding of the referendum on self-determination to which it had committed itself. Otherwise, the Sahrawi Republic expects to have your support to be admitted within the UN. It is the least we expect from you. Thank you very much.