Amar Bendjama: Western Sahara, A Decolonisation Issue
The Western Sahara issue “remains a matter of decolonisation” between Morocco and the Polisario Front, Ambassador Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, affirmed from New York in his remarks on Tuesday during the session of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization (C-24 sessions), devoted to the issue of Western Sahara.
Bendjama stressed the need for an “immediate and substantive” resumption of direct negotiations between the two parties to the conflict.
In his remarks on Tuesday’s C-24 session, devoted to the issue of Western Sahara, which Morocco has occupied since 1975, Ambassador Bendjama stated that “the issue of Western Sahara, which is not ambiguous, is a decolonisation issue disputed between Morocco and the Polisario Front.”
The Algerian diplomat also regretted that “after six decades of debate in the UN General Assembly, the self-determination referendum promised to the Sahrawi people has yet to be held, despite Resolution 2229 affirming this fundamental right.”
Ambassador Bendjama stated that the issue of Western Sahara, the last non-self-governing territory in Africa, has been on the United Nations agenda since 1963. He emphasised that Algeria, which “suffered greatly from the scourge of colonialism, steadfastly supports just causes” and reiterated that “the United Nations is called upon to act decisively to eliminate the last vestiges of colonialism.”
The ambassador also expressed his regret that the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), established by the Security Council nearly four decades ago, “remains unable to implement its mandate” of organising the referendum.
“The facts of international law are clear. The landmark Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in 1975 explicitly ruled out the existence of any legal link between Western Sahara and Morocco that would affect the implementation of Resolution 1514 on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.”
In the same context, Bendjama was keen to recall that the European Court of Justice reaffirmed this legal status in October 2024, when it annulled the fisheries agreement concluded between the European Union and Morocco, citing a failure to consult the Sahrawi people.
For his part, Algeria’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Toufik Laid Koudri, described the Moroccan delegation’s intervention before the UN Committee on Decolonisation (C24) on the Western Sahara issue as “mere attempts to distort history, rewrite history, and impose fait accompli policies.”
Koudri said Tuesday, exercising his right of reply before the committee, “I will not respond in detail to the Moroccan delegation’s intervention, as most of it is inspired by a book called ‘How to Become a Clever Colonizer in Less than Fifty Years,’ and the rest is inspired by an imagination saturated with reading sources that do not qualify for a crossword puzzle.”
He added that “The Moroccan delegation’s intervention confirms once again what we have previously stated: mere attempts at distortion, rewriting history, imposing fait accompli policies, and transactional diplomacy.”
Koudri believed that it would suffice to pose a few questions, including: If Morocco claims ‘sovereignty’ over the occupied Western Sahara, why did it negotiate and sign a partition agreement with Mauritania in 1975 before Mauritania withdrew from this agreement and Morocco annexed the remaining portion?”
Another question Koudri posed to the participants was: “If Morocco’s presence in Western Sahara is ‘legitimate,’ why is it seeking to collect unilateral recognitions that are as worthless as they are illegal?”
The Algerian diplomat emphasised that the so-called “Green March,” which Morocco claims allowed it to “recover” Western Sahara, has no meaning other than “invasion,” adding that “there has never been a sovereign link between the Western Sahara territory and Morocco throughout history”.
