Statement on Western Sahara to the Special Political and Decolonization Committee by: International Platform of Jurists for East Timor

by:

International Platform of Jurists for East Timor

and

Stichting Zelfbeschikking West-Sahara

October 2009

Petitioner: Pedro Pinto Leite



Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates,

I wish to thank you for the opportunity to speak before this Committee on behalf of the International Platform of Jurists for East Timor; an NGO made up of 650 law professors, judges, attorneys and other jurists from more than 80 countries. I am also speaking on behalf of the Stichting Zelfbeschikking West-Sahara; an association established under Dutch law for the defense of the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

Mr. Chairman,

Last year at this Committee I noticed a smile on the face of many of the delegates when two petitioners for Morocco accused Polisario of “genocide and even cannibalism”. It is indeed amazing how far can Moroccan propaganda go, how ridiculous it can be.

Nick Brooks, a researcher in the field of climatic change of the Tyndall Centre, University of East Anglia, who works in the Sahara and the Sahel, became target of the hate of Rabat and of the supporters of the occupation since he started to turn his attention to the Moroccan propaganda machine. I vividly recommend everyone to read his blog ‘Sand & Dust’, where he analyses the key principles of such propaganda. The pro-Morocco petitions at this Committee scrupulously follow those key principles:

- they avoid the issue of Morocco’s occupation, they don’t mention the referendum, but instead they portray Polisario as a separatist group driven by Marxist or Islamist ideology;

- they try to discredit Polisario through accusations of slavery, terrorism, fundamentalism (and, as said, accusations of “genocide and even cannibalism”), while Morocco is portrayed as a very democratic regime;

- they emphasise that independence is not realistic and that we are seeking to prolong the conflict, that we are thus prolonging the suffering of the people in the Tindouf camps;

- they state that the people in the Tindouf camps want to be Moroccan and are being held against their will;

- they portray the conflict as one between Algeria and Morocco, rather than between Morocco and Polisario, and insist on Algeria’s links to terrorists, communists and fundamentalists;

- they emphasize the “eastern-block” nature of the countries that have historically supported the idea of independence, hoping that this will help to discredit the idea of a referendum on independence;

- they accuse us, the Western Sahara solidarity groups, of being paid by Algeria, and portray us as a tiny minority whose views do not count;

- they emphasize the alleged benefits that Morocco is bringing to the occupied territory and accuse us of being ill informed extremists who are against development;

- they deny that Polisario controls a significant part of Western Sahara, portray this as a buffer zone set up by Morocco in cooperation with the UN and accuse anyone talking about the Free Zone of propaganda;

- they give the impression that the UN supports Morocco’s position and insist that Morocco’s autonomy plan is compatible with the right to self-determination;

- they invoke the views of the few who support the Moroccan position (the case of van Walsum), but dismiss views from international bodies when they appear to support the holding of a referendum or the idea of independence: for instance, they see the original UN resolutions on Western Sahara as irrelevant;

- they dismiss countries that recognise the Saharawi Republic as irrelevant, usually Marxist, regimes and, needless to say, they are silent about the position of the African Union;

- they portray the conflict as a hangover from the Cold War rather than a conflict about decolonisation.

Mr. Chairman,

Unfortunately for Morocco and its supporters, facts are stubborn things:

* the fact is that part of the territory of Western Sahara is illegally occupied by Morocco and another part is under the total control of Polisario;
* the fact is that more than 80 states recognise the Saharawi Republic;
* the fact is that the Saharawi Republic is a member of the African Union and it was even elected as its vice-president;
* the fact is that more than 100 UN resolutions supported the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people;
* the fact is that Morocco refuses a referendum that would solve the problem once and forever;
* the fact is that an autonomy plan without the option of independence is contrary to international law;
* the fact is that many Moroccans are involved in terrorist attacks, and no Saharawi;
* the fact is that the report of Human Rights Watch of December 2008 denounced once more the violations committed by Morocco in the occupied territory, disproved Rabat’s accusation that the Saharawi refugees of Tindouf are hostages of Polisario and recommended the UN Security Council to expand the mandate of MINURSO to include human rights monitoring;
* the fact is that the Amnesty International report of 2009 also denounced the serious human rights violations committed by Morocco in Western Sahara;
* the fact is that the report of the European Parliament ad hoc delegation that visited the occupied territory and the refugee camps recognized the reality of systematic violations of human rights committed by Morocco, considered the denial of the Saharawis’ right to self-determination as the root of all those violations and also proposed that MINURSO’s mandate include human rights monitoring;
* the fact is that this conflict is a matter of decolonisation, if not it would not be discussed in this Committee.



Thank you, Mr. Chairman