Bir Lahlou (Liberated Territories), 28 July 2024 (SPS) - The Sahrawi government roundly condemned the French government’s statements reaffirming its hostile position towards the Sahrawi people and their inalienable right to self-determination, noting that this stance, seen as a serious escalation, will have far-reaching consequences for regional peace, security and stability.
In a statement, the Sahrawi government said that “the Sahrawi people will never forget France’s colonial history and its direct participation in trying to wipe out our existence and our resistance, especially during the 1950s and 1970s.”
“This stance, which goes against the principles of international law and France’s international commitments as a permanent UN Security Council member, reveals France’s involvement in the ongoing aggression against the Sahrawi people. This unmistakably proves France’s premeditated complicity in all crimes related to the ongoing genocide carried out by the occupying Moroccan state against our people,” the same source said.
This position once again unmasks “France’s true colonial face to the whole world, even as it trumpets itself as the cradle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the statement noted.
“Those who truly back human rights do not support the occupation of a territory in the process of decolonization. True supporters of democracy and the sovereignty of peoples do not back an expansionist, repressive regime. Also, those genuinely committed to international peace and security do not fuel a strategy of tension by blatantly endorsing policies of expansion and forcible annexation of the territories of others,” the same source added.
“By taking this hostile stance, France has excluded itself from international efforts to decolonize Western Sahara. It now stands with the occupier and makes it an unwanted party as far as the Sahrawis are concerned. This also extends to France’s participation in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO),” the Sahrawi government underscored.
The Government of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) reaffirms that the Sahrawi people will thwart all the designs of the occupying Moroccan state and its backers, such as colonial France. The Sahrawi people remain determined more than ever to continue their struggle by all legitimate means, including armed struggle to defend their imprescriptible and non-negotiable rights to freedom and independence and to establish sovereignty over the entire Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).