Hilale: ‘Sahara Occupation Ended with Provinces’ Return to Morocco’

Doha – Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Omar Hilale, fired back at Algeria in a strongly-worded letter to the Security Council Monday, dismantling what he termed “fallacious and mendacious allegations” from Algeria’s ambassador regarding the Western Sahara dispute.

The diplomatic clash erupted after Algeria’s Permanent Representative, Amar Bendjama, made what Morocco described as a “tendentious declaration” during a Security Council meeting on “Challenges related to forced displacement worldwide.”

According to Hilale, Bendjama exploited the presence of High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi to spread misinformation about populations in the Tindouf camps.

Hilale blasted the Algerian representative’s characterization, asserting that people in Tindouf camps “are not ‘forcibly displaced persons’ but rather populations sequestered against their will for half a century.”

He charged that Algeria denies these populations their basic rights, including the choice to return to Morocco, settle in a third country, or integrate into Algeria.

The Moroccan ambassador noted that these populations live in camps whose “jurisdiction, control and management have been entrusted by Algeria to the armed separatist group ‘Polisario,’” violating international law and Algeria’s obligations as a host country — a situation denounced by the Human Rights Committee in its report CCPR/C/DZA/CO/4 of August 17, 2018.

“The occupation of the Sahara ended with the return of these provinces to their motherland Morocco, under the Madrid Agreements of November 1975,” Hilale declared, noting the UN General Assembly acknowledged this in resolution 34/58 B of December 1975.

The Moroccan diplomat accused Algeria of failing to cooperate with UN agencies and humanitarian partners.

He pointed out that Algeria has refused to allow the High Commissioner for Refugees to conduct a census and registration of populations in the Tindouf camps for over 50 years, despite clear directives from the Security Council since 2011.

“The absence of a census facilitates the diversion of humanitarian aid, which has pushed agencies and NGOs to reduce their assistance,” Hilale stated, citing reports from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the UNHCR Inspector General’s Office, and the World Food Programme that confirmed aid diversion by Polisario and Algerian officials.

No more talk of a referendum

Regarding Algeria’s purported call for a “lasting solution” to the Sahara issue, Hilale derided it as “smoke and mirrors,” explaining that a sustainable solution “requires respecting Security Council resolutions calling for the resumption of the political process and roundtables—which Algeria has refused since Staffan de Mistura’s appointment as the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the Moroccan Sahara in October 2021.”

Hilale asserted that the lasting solution lies in implementing Morocco’s Autonomy Initiative, which the Security Council has described as “serious and credible” for 18 years.

He noted this initiative “is widely considered by the international community as the sole basis for resolving this dispute, respecting the Kingdom’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The ambassador stated that “Algeria’s blindness” prevents it from realizing that this Initiative is supported by more than 100 UN member states, including two permanent Security Council members, the former occupying power of Western Sahara, and 23 European Union countries.

He also evoked the latest Security Council resolution 2756 (2024) that welcomed the international momentum for Morocco’s Autonomy Initiative.

Hilale’s letter concluded by denouncing Algeria’s “obsessive fixation” with a referendum, reminding that both the Security Council and General Assembly have “definitively buried” this option since 2002 and 2003 respectively.

He also recalled that the resolutions Algeria supported during the Algerian ambassador’sprevious term on the Security Council, as well as those he submits annually to the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee, no longer make any reference to the referendum.

The letter will be published as an official document of the UN Security Council.

Notably, the fallacious allegations made by the Algerian diplomat were completely ignored in the High Commissioner for Refugees’ response to members during the briefing.