Abuja, Oct 31, 2013 (SPS) - The African Conference of Solidarity with the Saharawis people, held in Abuja on 28-30 October 2013, has issued a declaration calling on the African Union (AU) and its member states to impose economic, military and diplomatic sanctions against Morocco just as it had successfully done with the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
The three-day conference was held under the theme : “Liberation of Western Sahara: Ending colonialism in Africa’’.
The declaration denounced the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara and France’s position that stands in the face of any political solution to decolonize the Western Sahara, declaring solidarity with the Saharawi people’s peaceful struggle in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
It strongly condemned the flagrant violations of human rights committed by Moroccan state against the innocent Saharawi civilians in the occupied Western Sahara.
It also deplored the illegal and inhumane drain of Saharawis natural resources by Morocco, hailing position of support to the Saharawis cause expressed by Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa and the rest of African states.
The Conference called on the UN Security Council to extend MINURSO’s mandates to include human rights monitoring and reporting, and organize the referendum in Western Sahara.
It also called on the African Union (AU) and its member states to impose economic, military and diplomatic sanctions against Morocco just as it had successfully done with the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
The conference came up with important decisions, it decided as follow:
-To create the African Solidarity Movement for the Independence of Western Sahara (ASOMWS) to strengthen the resistance towards the decolonisation of Western Sahara.
- Call upon the ASOMWS to collaborate with solidarity movements in Europe, Latin America, North and South America and Australia to promote the struggle of Saharawis people for independence.
- Establish a Task Force of ASOMWS, which includes Nigeria as chair, Benin Republic representing West Africa, Algeria representing North Africa, Cameroun representing Central Africa, Kenya representing East Africa, and South Africa representing Southern Africa. This Task Force is responsible for the coordination of all activities of ASOMWS between the two conferences and shall have a secretariat located in Nigeria until the next edition of the conference.
- Ask the grass-roots organizations (trade unions and civil society organizations) to boycott the companies involved in the looting of Saharawi natural resources.
-Devote a special day of solidarity with the Saharawi people, and called on the ASOMWS’s Task Force to make it a day for the Saharawis, annually commemorated by African civil society organizations.
- Launch a constant program of work in order to remove the Moroccan wall of shame that separates Western Sahara and its families, and places the lives of Saharawi civilians at a constant danger.
-Recommend to organize an African programme of humanitarian assistance for the benefit of the Saharawis refugee camps.
-Call on the Academic Union of Nigeria to organize academic seminars on Western Sahara in the coming years.
-The Republic of Benin will host the 2nd edition of the African Conference of Solidarity with the people of Western Sahara next year. (SPS)
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