What are your comments on the Security Council’s resolution?

The Council has restated a series of principles which are very important to us. First of all it has been claimed that the question of the Western Sahara is a matter of decolonization. The resolution then underlines how the agreement should involve both parties and hopes for a peaceful resolution, which will have to respect the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. And to us, this is the most important aspect.

In the end, the resolution says that negotiations must be developed within the United Nations framework. And this is the best answer to the diplomatic initiative that Rabat has taken on in the last few days.

The proposal aimed at the concession of the autonomy to the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, within the sovereignty of Morocco. How would you define this offer?

Morocco aimed at teasing the United Nations, relaunching a proposal whose goal was to become the base for a future agreement, and in the meanwhile cutting out the UN, and so getting to a bilateral agreement with us.

The principle that they wanted to adopt was the one of possession: the Western Sahara belongs to me and what I’m giving you is just the autonomy.

The UN has disavowed this position, restating that the occupied territories belong to the Saharawi people. Therefore, I don’t understand the declarations of the Moroccan government, which have positively commented on the resolution. In my opinion they have not achieved any of their goals.

The UN has firmly stated that this is a matter of the United Nations.

We’ll see, the Polisario Front has always offered its availability and willingness to negotiate, but we repeat once again that we cannot trust the government of Morocco. And this has been demonstrated by its holding back after the agreements in 1991. I hope that Rabat will understand that the only solution to the conflict is a referendum, which will give the Saharawi people the possibility to express their opinion about their own future.

Yes, even though we have some reserves.

We have always asked, and we will always do, that the mandate of the Minurso could be extended to the control over human rights protection and not only to the ceasefire. The lack in the text of the resolution of an explicit reference to this aspect has disappointed us. The UN Secretary General, in his reports, has affirmed that serious human rights violations are still carried out in the occupied territories and because of it we were expecting some comments from the Council as well. That’s the reason why Mr Francesco Bastagli, special delegate at the UN for the Western Sahara, had resigned last August. He was asking for an operative mandate: he was feeling like he was taking part into a mission with no effectiveness.

Regarding the mandate, in the whole resolution there is no reference to the natural resources of the Western Sahara and to their exploitation. Are you disappointed? Does the Moroccan exploitation continue?

The question mainly regards the matter of human rights protection. The UN, in an advice of 2002, has made clear that until the achievement of a definitive status, the exploitation of the resources of Western Sahara is outlaw.

The concept is clear: the international community should enforce the law, but this does not happen. An example of this situation is the fish agreement between the European Union and Morocco, which includes also the territorial waters of my people.

The resolution has also a reference to the possibility that Saharawi refugees, from camps in Algeria, might rejoin their families, left behind 30 years ago. How is the programme proceeding?

It is proceeding, but in a not very satisfactory way. Since the programme has been launched, we have received more then 30 thousands requests. Up to now, only 2500 have been met. It’s too little, because Morocco refuses to collaborate, giving the permission to only 20 families per week. We are talking about people who have been waiting since 30 years to meet their loved ones. And they are tired to wait, especially because the living conditions are more and more dramatic. foreign aid to refugees has been reduced more than 40% in the last 6 years.

 

I believe it has had a decisive role. It has definitely been one of the reasons that had led Morocco to go forward, taking on the diplomatic initiative of the 'road map'. The repression continues and the patience of the Saharawi people, after years of vain waiting, is over now. We are determinate to obtain the self-determination of Saharawi people in a pacific way, but the international community should realize that it must give concrete answers to our people. Tension is high, yesterday and the day before yesterday too, Saharawi people have publically demonstrated in the occupied territories. And the repression has not ended yet.