Brussels, 20 February 2022 (SPS) - Spain has a legal, historical, political and moral responsibility towards the Sahrawi people, and must assume its role in achieving the decolonization of occupied Western Sahara, affirmed the President of the Republic, Secretary- General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali.
"Spain cannot unilaterally abandon its legal, historical, political and moral responsibility towards the Sahrawi people. It is the administering power of Western Sahara and it is up to it to assume its essential role in the achievement of the decolonization of the territory," declared Mr. Ghali to the Spanish news agency EFE, on the occasion of his participation in the summit between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) in Brussels.
He rejected the idea that the way out of this conflict is through some form of "autonomy" of the Western Sahara, the option proposed by Morocco, because "it does not offer a solution but rather a fait accompli of illegal occupation.
Mr. Ghali said he "continue to believe in the international community, represented by the United Nations, which must guarantee the self-determination and independence of a peaceful and patient people like the Sahrawi people", as it has already done with "similar conflicts, such as those in East Timor and Namibia". "The latest case of decolonization in Africa cannot be an exception," he said.
Regarding the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Ghali denounced the fact that it has become "a mere instrument in the hands of Morocco to legalize its illegal occupation, limiting its task to the maintenance of the ceasefire" (broken in 2020), with the aim of "burying its main mandate, which bears its name, namely the referendum on self-determination.
He considered that the UN Security Council should "assume its responsibility to put things in their place so that MINURSO fulfills the mission entrusted thirty years ago.
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