Ould Salek: “We are Sahrawis and we refuse to become Moroccans”

A self-determination referendum on the future of the Moroccan-occupied territory of Western Sahara holds the key to peace and stability in North Africa, the Sahrawi foreign minister Salem Ould Salek said Wednesday during a press conference held at the SADR Embassy in Algiers.

“There will be no peace or stability in the region as long as the Sahrawi people are denied their legitimate right to self-determination,” Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, underlined.

He said that Morocco “knows full well that the Sahrawi people will choose outright independence if a referendum is held”.

“We are not Moroccans, we are Sahrawis and we refuse to become Moroccans,” he underscored.

The Sahrawi Foreign Minister called on the Security Council to “immediately” put an end to the “prevarication policy” regarding the Sahrawi issue, enable the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara hold a self-determination referendum and broaden its prerogatives to the human rights monitoring in the region.

Mr Salem Ould Salek made “an urgent appeal” to the Security Council, on behalf of the Sahrawi people, to put an end to “the Moroccan prevarication policy” concerning the Sahrawi issue and to enable the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara hold the self-determination referendum.   

He affirmed that “the lack of severity in the face of Morocco’s provocations and infringements of the agreements urging  the two parties at issue namely the Polisario Front and Morocco), and the non-respect for decision of international legality would plunge back the region into war.”

The Sahrawi FM called on the Security Council to “seriously work” for the release of Sahrawi political detainees, who “have been victims of torture, humiliation, arbitrary detention and unfair trials on the part of the Moroccan occupation forces.

In this connection, Mr Ould Salek pointed to the imperious need to broaden the mission of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara to human rights monitoring, and open the Sahrawi occupied territories to the international press and observers.

The Sahrawi FM affirmed that for the Sahrawi government and the Polisario Front, the cessation of Moroccan occupation and the respect by the Kingdom of Morocco of the borders with neighbor countries “are doubtless necessary measures for the setting up of a just and lasting solution likely to open cooperation and integration prospects among the peoples of the entire region.”  

Mr Ould Salek also affirmed that “it is now more necessary than ever to enable the Sahrawi people to freely and transparently exercise their inalienable right to self-determination.”  

The “rushing ahead and brinkmanship policy” pursued by the Morocco authorities in the Western Sahara conflict “will not undermine the Sahrawi people’s firm resolve to wrench their rights at any price,” the Sahrawi official stated. 

The United Nations has been striving  to broker a Western Sahara settlement since 1991 after a ceasefire was reached in a war between Rabat and the Polisario Front that broke out when Morocco deployed its military in the territory in 1975 bent for occupation after Spain’s withdrawal.

A self-determination referendum to test the sovereign will of the Sahrawi people in line with UN resolutions was to have been held in 1992 but has been repeatedly called off owing to Morocco’s logjam and prevarication maneuvers.

UN Secreatary General Ban Ki Moon, who visited Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, in early March, told Morocco’s foreign minister on Monday that protests held earlier this week in Rabat against his remarks on occupied Western Sahara had been disrespectful.

Ban Ki Moon “expressed his deep disappointment and anger regarding the demonstrations… which targeted him in person,” said a UN statement released after a meeting with Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar in New York.

The UN chief “stressed that such Moroccan offending attacks are disrespectful to him and to the United Nations”.