Paris, March 28, 2012 (SPS) - The French Association of Friends of SADR (AARASD) on Tuesday called on the French presidential candidates to commit to support the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and plead to implement it.
In an open letter to the candidates for the Elysée Palace, the association regretted that since the implementation of the UN Peace Plan in 1991, France "practice a double game. It supports the UN efforts for the application of self-determination referendum and at the same time faithfully support all Moroccan requirements in Europe and Security Council which prevented the holding of the referendum and extend its presence in Western Sahara ".
AARASD asserted that the Saharawi people's struggle for their right to self determination, "which has caused so much suffering for the past four decades, deserves from our country, the same attention, than it appears since October 2010 for the other peoples of the Maghreb are becoming involved citizens in their history."
In this regard, the association urged the French presidential candidates to listen more to the two peoples, the Saharawi and Moroccan, saying that French policy "is hostage to the economic and financial interests and dares not, as in Tunisia before the fall of Ben Ali, to deal with the Moroccan authorities. "
"France must listen to those who struggle for democracy and an independent judiciary in Morocco and Sahrawi associations defending the rights of self determination and supporting the Polisario Front."
Furthermore, the French association recalled that in 2011'' the U.S. Congress linked the prior respect for human rights in Western Sahara to all military aid to Morocco." (SPS)
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