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Join on Telegram Rabat – Morocco has hit back at accusations and allegations made by the Algerian delegation during the UN General Assembly on Thursday, September 22, recalling the Algerian regime’s decades-adopted approach to shirk its responsibility in the dispute over Western Sahara.
The Moroccan delegation emphasized that while Algeria continues to promote a self-determination referendum for the Polisario Front, such a demand remains outdated, “dead” and “buried.”
Self-determination is a ‘dead and buried’ option
In a right of reply statement, the Moroccan delegation recalled a report from the UN General Secretary-General in which he ruled out a referendum as an option to settle the Sahara dispute.
“Despite the considerable efforts made under the authority of several successive special representatives, it has not been possible throughout this period to fully implement any major provision of the settlement plan, with the exception of ceasefire monitoring,” the Moroccan delegation quoted the UNSG statement from a report that dates back to February 2000.
On Thursday, the Algerian delegation participating in the General Debate of the 77th session of the General Assembly expressed frustration after Morocco’s Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch’s address. The Moroccan PM had urged Algeria to shoulder responsibility in the dispute and engage in the UN-led political process with a view to finding a mutually acceptable and an agreed upon solution.
The Algerian delegation, however, brought up old resolutions to back its position on the dispute, claiming that General Assembly resolutions 1514 and 1541 confirm that the Sahara dispute “remains a question of decolonization until the people of Western Sahara exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and fair referendum.”
In its right to reply statement, the Moroccan delegation showed that the Security Council no longer mentions the settlement plan or referendum in any of its resolutions adopted since 2001 following the UNSG report of that year.
“The so-called referendum is dead and buried, and despite its futile attempts, Algeria will never be able to resuscitate it, because the dead cannot be brought back to life,” the delegation stressed, recalling that any genuine solution to the Sahara dispute should be realistic, pragmatic, lasting and compromise-based.
The delegation renewed Morocco’s firm position that the Moroccan autonomy initiative remains the one and only credible and serious political basis to end the dispute in accordance with Resolution 2602, the UN Security Council’s latest resolution.
“The Moroccan Autonomy Initiative is in accordance with international legality and United Nations resolutions,” the delegation said, noting that local populations in the southern provinces enjoy all of its political social, economic, and cultural rights.
Algeria blocks UN roundtables process
The Moroccan delegation’s right to reply statement also listed Algeria’s reluctance to engage in the UN-led political process without conditions, recalling the Algerian regime’s decision to boycott the roundtable of talk initiatives from the UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara.
Last month, Algeria renewed its rejection of the UN’s calls on parties to take part in the roundtables, claiming that a solution to end the dispute should be between Morocco and Polisario, shirking responsibility as one of the four main parties to the dispute.
The Algerian government made its remark during the latest regional tour by the UN envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura.
“By attacking the process of roundtables, Algeria is attacking international legality embodied by the resolutions of the Security Council, the only authority responsible for examining the question of the m Moroccan Sahara,” the Moroccan delegation said.
Tindouf census: an impossible mission
In addition to blocking the roundtable of talks, Algeria also continues to refuse the holding of a census in the Tindouf camps, where thousands of Sahrawis live in dire humanitarian conditions.
The Algerian delegation claimed during the UN session that the census is a “technical question.”
In response, the Moroccan delegation said that Algeria’s regime “should know that international humanitarian law makes a clear distinction between the humanitarian aspects of disputes and political questions concerning them. Algeria must stop exploiting the sequestered populations in the Tindouf camps for political interests.”
The UNHCR estimates that the number of Sahrawis in the camps stands at 90,000. UN resolutions including Resolution 2602 urged Algeria to allow a census in the camps amid mounting concerns, including acute malnutrition and diseases.
Former Polisario members Mustafa Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud and Hamada El Bihi have suggested that Algeria refuses to allow a census out of fear.
The two Sahrawi activists argued that more than 80% of the population in the Tindouf camps is composed of Tuareg people and people who come from countries across the Sahara Desert, including Mali, Algeria, Libya, Niger, and Chad.
This means that only 20% of the population in the camps are genuine Sahrawis.
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