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Displacement of Sahrawi people comes in context of continuation of Moroccan occupation of its settlement policy

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Displacement of Sahrawi people comes in context of continuation of Moroccan occupation of its settlement policy

Geneva, 10 March 2024 (SPS) - The Polisario Front representative to Switzerland, the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Abi Bushraya Bashir, affirmed that the displacement of Sahrawi people in several areas in the occupied territories of Western Sahara "comes in the context of the continuation of the Moroccan occupation of its settlement policy and the illegal exploitation of the resources of the Sahrawi people."

Abi Bushraya Bashir explained, in an interview with Algerian International Radio on Sunday, that "the areas affected by the displacement operations are characterized by their large potential in the field of wind energy production, as part of the Makhzen regime's frantic race to export renewable energy to the European Union, and to make occupied Western Sahara the hub of the occupation in this context."

He said that "the Sahrawi people have reached the same conviction as the Palestinian people that restoring legitimate rights and establishing an independent state will not only come by relying on the international community, the United Nations and the principles of international legitimacy, but also through field resistance on the ground, which is an option that has been escalating for months in the occupied Sahrawi territories."

In a related context, the Sahrawi diplomat criticized the "continuous concessions" of the Spanish Prime Minister to the Moroccan regime "at the expense of the historical rights of the Sahrawi people," which he described as "contrary to UN regulations and what is happening is considered a clear abandonment by the colonial state of its legal, historical and political responsibility towards the Sahrawi people since its disorganized withdrawal in the mid-seventies of the last century."

Regarding the information circulated in the media about Spain's handing over to Morocco the management of the airspace of the occupied parts of Western Sahara, the Sahrawi diplomat explained that it "has not been officially confirmed, but the current Spanish government has been involved in this path since March 2022 by abandoning its historical responsibility towards the Sahrawi people (...)".

In this regard, Ambassador Abi Bushraya Bashir warned that "the Spanish government will face prosecution before international judicial bodies, including the European Court of Justice, because (Spain) has not only supported the Moroccan expansionist ambitions politically, but has also begun to provide the Makhzen regime with the legal tools to legitimize the occupation and annexation of the Western Sahara region."