Birlehlu (Liberated Territories), January 26, 2015 (SPS) – President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, urged the UN Security Council to stop seabed oil drilling on the coast of occupied Western Sahara, considering the drilling operation underway in Western Sahara as “a serious provocation and a real threat to peace and stability in Western Sahara and the Maghreb region,” in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Below is the full text of the letter:
"Bir Lahlou, 26th of January 2015.
His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations Headquarters
760 United Nations Plaza
New York - USA
Excellency M. Secretary-General,
It is a privilege to write you again and present on my behalf and on behalf the saharawi people and Polisario Front our compliments and best wishes, as a new year begins.
2015 marks the 40th anniversary of the invasion and annexation of what was then Spanish Sahara. The story of our people is a final chapter that remains to be written about the success of decolonization in Africa and the progressive advance of the rule of international law. Tragically, the year has started with the pillage of yet another natural resource from that part of our territory under occupation: seabed petroleum.
The Marshall Islands registered drill ship Atwood Achiever has taken up station 85 nautical miles northwest of Dakhla in 2000 metres of water. The ship is on charter to Kosmos Energy Ltd. which has signed an illegal petroleum agreement with Morocco to explore and exploit oil offshore Boujdour in Western Sahara. Exploration by other petroleum multinationals had earlier resulted in the UN Security Council seeking advice on the legality of the activity. Kosmos Energy, a United States based publicly traded corporation, began detailed seabed surveys in mid-2012 which continued for two years. In early 2014 it announced plans to investors to pursue drilling in the next year. That prospect has now arrived.
Your report to the Security Council of 10 April 2014 noted the protests of my government, joined in by Saharawi civil society organizations and independent non-governmental organizations. Protests in the face of looming petroleum extraction in our territory, made widely to the industry actors involved have proven fruitless. The response of Kosmos Energy is to claim legality for what it is doing, on the basis that there will be a benefit to “the people of Western Sahara” from petroleum development in the territory.
The assertion fails to include the requirement of international law that the Saharawi people benefit and consent to the activity. When he was Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Hans Corell made this plain to the Security Council: “[I]f further exploration and exploitation activities were to proceed in disregard of the interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara, they would be in violation of the principles of international law applicable to mineral resource activities in Non-Self-Governing Territories.” (Letter of 29 January 2002, UN document S/2002/161) We know of no consultation of the Saharawi people as such, either those under occupation or in the liberated areas or the refugee camps. International humanitarian law, including the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, would suggest that no meaningful consent can be given in the present circumstances of an armed occupation. In any event, it is not consultation or consent that the Saharawi people desire be engaged. We have been consistent in our rejection.
A few reasons may be advanced for that rejection. The first isthat the Saharawi people will not see the benefit of seabed petroleum production. What flows from the activity will be no more than asymmetrically – unfairly – realized in a Western Sahara that is comprised of a population of settlers introduced by the occupying power and that part of the Saharawi people who remain. This has been evident when it comes to resources, the fishery and the phosphate rock industry. Second, taxation or royalty revenue from seabed petroleum production is not received or made publicly accountable in Western Sahara. It is, as with other resource rents, remitted to the occupying power’s state treasury. And no revenue is made available or reserved for future access by those Saharawi in the refugees camps. Third, the conduct of seabed petroleum extraction tends to entrench the occupation of Western Sahara. This is the Saharawi people’s greatest concern.
The Saharawi government concludes that the present petroleum activity is illegal and impedes progress toward the conduct of a “free and fair referendum” as that has been accepted by the parties. (See report of Secretary-General 18 June 1990, UN document S/21360, paragraph 47(g).) The activity underscores to the Saharawi people that a violation of well-settled, universally rules of international law is allowed to continue. That suggests the organized international community is unwilling to ensure the paramount obligation of self-determination flowing from Article 73 of the UN Charter.
We believe that the drilling operation underway in Western Sahara is a serious provocation and a real threat to peace and stability across Western Sahara and the Maghreb region.
The Polisario Front seeks your urgent involvement in the matter. The obvious response is for the Security Council to act and determine to end seabed petroleum activities on the coast of Western Sahara.
Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration.
Mohamed Abdelaziz
Secretary-General of the Polisario Front" (SPS)
062/090