Copenhagen (Denmark), June 2, 2013 (SPS) - The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Mr. Villy Søvndal expressed support to the UN referendum in Western Sahara, hoping that United Nations will succeed in organizing such a referendum, informed POLISARIO representation to Denmark.
In a programme about Western Sahara broadcasted Friday on the Danish radio, the Minister said “it is vital that the UN plays a leading role in ensuring that there will be a referendum. I obviously hope that the UN will succeed in organizing such a referendum.”
The Danish MEP Mr. Søren Søndergaard and Information Officer at Danish NGO Africa Contact Mr. Peter Kenworthy also featured in the programme.
Speaking in the programme, MEP Søren Søndergaard said that he policies of the European Union on Western Sahara “mean that on the one hand the EU does not recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara, but on the other hand the EU readily makes trade agreements with Morocco, such as the fisheries agreement which include the waters of Western Sahara.”
From his part Mr. Peter Kenworthy underlined that Western Sahara case “is actually quite straightforward,” adding that the only thing that Western Sahara liberation movement, the POLISARIO Front, really asks for “is a referendum on the future of Western Sahara.”
He insisted that there are many things Denmark and the EU can do to ensure that Western Sahara is decolonized, such as providing humanitarian assistance to the 165,000 refugees who sit in refugee camps and are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, as to condemn Morocco’s colonization and human rights violations, both in the EU and the UN.
But more specifically in relation to resolving the conflict, added Mr. Kenworthy, Denmark and the EU could follow the lead of the Swedish Parliament and recognize Western Sahara, which is a member of the African Union and has been recognized by over 80 countries.
He, in this regard, noted that this recognition “would have an enormous symbolic effect.”
Afrika Kontakt official stressed that a solution to the Western Sahara conflict “is becoming a matter of urgency, if Europe wishes to avoid yet another conflict just south of its borders. The EU would be well advised to try to resolve this conflict before it ends in an actual war.” (SPS)
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