New York, 16 June 2009 Mr Chairman
Western Sahara remains under the illegal occupation of Morocco. The efforts made so far by the UN with a view to completing the process of decolonization of the Territory have not been successful desired due to the current rejection of Morocco to the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence.
I
In 1990, when Morocco had accepted the settlement plan approved by the Security Council had agreed to cooperate with the UN with a view to holding a referendum on self-determination which the people Sahara to choose between independence and integration into the occupying power. The task was assigned to MINURSO was installed in the territory on September 6, 1991 following the entry into force of the ceasefire agreed by both parties. That
acceptance of Morocco led to a real hope for just and lasting settlement of the conflict especially after the withdrawal of Mauritania from the conflict under the peace agreement of 1979 Mauritania-Western Sahara. Morocco confirmed that acceptance in 1997 to the Secretary General's Personal Envoy, James Baker, when the two sides signed agreements Houston, which the Security Council had also approved.
However, when everything was ready for effective implementation of those agreements, Morocco broke the commitment, making this break in a letter sent in April 2004 the Secretary-General, where he made explicit that Morocco does not accept any solution that would include the option of independence of the Territory ..
From this year, is trying to impose on the intentional community, through influential friends in the Security Council, the proposal called for autonomy, whose starting point is to consider beforehand that the Western Sahara is an integral part Moroccan territory. The Security Council is aware that he is faced with a question of decolonization on the agenda of the General Assembly can not be resolved outside or against the doctrine established by the United Nations to consider the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence is and must remain the essential parameter for the solution of the conflict. It was evident
that at the breaking of Morocco with the commitment, the prolonged absence or blockage of a peaceful settlement process would entail serious risks for the continuity of the ceasefire.
In June 2007, the Security Council asked us to both parties entablásemos direct negotiations without preconditions, to achieve that solution in the framework of this essential parameter. Negotiations began in June of that year in Manhasset, celebrated the fourth round in April 2008. It is already known, Mr. President, that there was no progress. The reasons lie in the fact that Morocco came with a precondition that was simply unacceptable. Did not really want negotiating, but rather impose their proposal called autonomy as the only possible solution. He presented it as something to take or reject. I did not want to discuss the proposal submitted by the Saharawi party, which had noted the Council. In our proposal, saying that the Saharawi people must be able to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a referendum that includes all the options recognized by the UN in the context of resolutions 1514 and 1541 general assembly, which necessarily must include the option of independence. This option is not only indispensable but also something was an option that Morocco had already accepted when he signed the Plan Settlement and the Houston Accords. In our proposal we also said that if the independence option turned out to be the elect that the Saharawi people in that referendum, F. Polisario would be willing to look beyond the fact and Morocco to offer the possibility of negotiating the basis for a strategic relationship in the fields, economic, security, commercial, social, etc.
Morocco's refusal to accept this view based not only on the criteria of the UN resolutions mentioned above but also on logic and common sense, is what caused that there has been progress in those negotiations.
general secretary appointed a new personal envoy, Ambassador Christopher Ross in August 2008. Mr. Ross is not officially assumed his duties until January 2009 due to initial rejection of Morocco.
In February this year, Mr Ross made his first tour that led to the region, which saw in the report submitted in April 2009 by the Secretary General to the Security Council. The new personal envoy's mission is to try to revive the negotiations started in Manhasset and proposed as a preliminary informal meeting between the two parties. We expressed our support for the Personal Envoy, but do not know why these meetings have not yet taken place.
II
Meanwhile, Mr. President, the situation on the ground not to be optimistic. Morocco maintains occupation forces estimated at 150 thousand soldiers. The territory is divided into two parts by a shameful wall protected by these forces and 5 million anti-personnel mines. As the occupying power, Morocco intensifies daily operation and marketing to the highest bidder for the country's natural resources, mainly phosphates and fisheries, while trying to involve foreign companies in oil exploration and territorial waters our country.
This activity is in blatant contravention of international law applicable to a territory subject to a process of decolonization. The Special Committee has anything much to say about this activity. The seriousness of this violation is more than evident when one considers that, as stated at the time the opinion of the UN Secretary General in charge of Legal Affairs, Dr. Hans Corell, 29 January 2002, Morocco is not considered sovereign power by the UN or administrative power of the Territory. We are facing an illegal operation is carried out at the resolution 3437 of the General Assembly called the country "occupier."
The situation also calls for optimism if we analyze the human rights situation in the occupied areas by Morocco. As we have confirmed the reports of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in October 2007, Human Right watchs December 2008 and the report of the Ad Hoco European Parliament in February 2009, Morocco violates human rights in Western Sahara. All these reports made by different agencies not related to each other but agree in their assessment to consider the violation of human rights in Morocco has its origin in the fact that it has respected the right to self determination. On the other hand, agree on the need for the UN, through MINURSO, exercising the traditional role of all other UN missions have on relationship to observe and protect human rights while conflict does not reach a just and lasting solution. The Secretary General of the UN, in its reports to the Council since October 2006, has indicated its concern at the human rights situation in the territory.
Several delegations from non-permanent members of the Security Council tried in 2008 and 2009, included in the Security Council resolution expanding the mandate of MINURSO to encompass also the question of human rights. Morocco, with the support of France, prevented this noble attempt to go beyond a mention of the "dimension human "of the conflict, a fact which unfortunately only serves to strengthen the perception of the existence of a double-standard policy does not benefit the Council's credibility.
III
Mr. President,
been more than four decades since the General Assembly in December 1960 adopted resolution 1514 (XV) in which the United Nations assumed the noble responsibility to ensure that all countries and peoples under colonial occupation to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. The fact that the decolonization of Western Sahara keep inscribed on the agenda of this Committee makes in the living symbol of the failure of the United Nations in full and effective assumption that collective responsibility.
The Saharawi people was colonized by Spain from 1884 to 1976. Spain, which had considered the territory as "a English province would accept the late 60's the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence. As I had occasion to reveal it in the sessions of the workshop held last May in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Morocco had since 1969 repeatedly recognized, explicit and solemn before this Committee and to the general assembly the Saharawi people's right to full independence .
Work in this sense played by the Committee, crowned by the report of the visiting mission dispatched to the Saharawi territory in May 1975, the many General Assembly resolutions on Western Sahara and the opinion of the Court of the Hague in October 1975 rejecting the reasoned way validity of Moroccan territorial claims on our river country, was all a solid legal and political body which should have safeguarded the decolonization process and guiding it to its natural conclusion by the peaceful accession of our country to full independence.
Special Committee Members remember what happened later. Spain, the administering power, abdicating its obligations to the United Nations had called on Morocco and Mauritania for the two countries invaded, occupied and divided our country. This was accomplished in the Madrid Accords of 14 November 1975.Nuestro and people were forced to continue their legitimate struggle for national independence against colonizers this time coming from within Africa. European colonialism had left, but had replaced African colonialism. There is no precedent in the annals of the decolonization of this terrible tragedy for Africa. However, several African leaders have warned against this threat to the security and independence of the continent. Hence the importance given to the principle of inviolability of borders inherited from colonization in the founding Charter of the Organization of African Unity. The Hague tribunal had concluded, as I said earlier, before the English colonization there were no ties of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and two new settlers. This opinion over the inclusion of the principle of inviolability of borders in the OAU Charter, made the Mauritanian-Moroccan attempt to annex our country was seen as an act of very serious consequences for Africa.
was the President of Mozambique, Samora Matchel, who said that "colonialism is not color. " Already in 1960, due to land claims made by Morocco to Mauritania, President Senghor of Senegal said so successful that some African nations had acquired the disease of the European. More recently, President Mbeki of South Africa for Africa is a shame that the Saharawi people could not even enjoy their right to independence.
IV
Mr President,
Maybe someone can say that this is not known and should be recalled in order to keep the sleeping consciences. That is, ultimately accepting the notion that the right to self-determination of peoples in the context of decolonization stirred the consciences of some that they say in private and sometimes not so privately, perhaps after signing or secure the signing of a contract here and there in the hands of Morocco, that this fundamental right that made possible the current configuration of the world should give in the case of Western Sahara to the notion of "political correctness" which proposes Morocco, ie pure annexation of our country, hidden in a proposal of autonomy.
The Saharawi people, assisted by the strong belief in the legitimacy of their right to freedom and independence and the supremacy of the principles and values of the UN Charter on the siren song of a cynical and dangerous notion of political realism, not give the full realization of this right. We are also convinced that the vast majority of UN members share this view and share the view that a question of decolonization as clear as this, there can be no exception to the general rule was established by resolution 1514 and gave birth to this Committee.
is true, Mr. President, that the Saharawi people continue to suffer, continue to see their development and progress are by now jeopardized by an occupation anachronistic, unfair and unjustified. It is our suffering, but it is also your failure as the United Nations.
This committee can and should, in our humble opinion, revive its commitment to the decolonization of Africa's last colony inscribed on its agenda. The Committee has historically been very courageous in the face of the persistence of the English colonization of Western Sahara. You must not relent on that courage because the decolonization of Western Sahara has not yet concluded. Spain left. Instead, wine Morocco. The UN does not consider sovereign power nor an administering power, but this country is considered capable of interfering, condition and even change the positions of principle and the minimum standards Procedure of the Committee, as it happened, Mr. President, in the recent seminar. The Saharawi people has not yet exercised their right to self-determination and is therefore the responsibility of the Committee remains full and is still full trust in Him and in the international community. Thank
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