Bir Lehlou (Saharawi Republic) 30 October 2021 (SPS)- In reaction to the UN Security Council’s resolution 2602 adopted Yesterday on Western Sahara, the Frente Polisario asserted in a Communique Today that the Saharawi people will continue and intensify their legitimate armed struggle to defend their sovereignty and right to self-determination and independence.
The Communique further expressed Frente Polisario’s rejection of “the inaction and deplorable silence of the Security Council, particularly some influential members, which are manifest in both the letter and spirit of its new resolution that is a major setback that will have serious consequences on peace and stability in the entire region.”
It also considered that by its failure to adopt a balanced and neutral resolution “the Security Council has already doomed to failure the mission of the new Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr Staffan de Mistura, thus seriously undermining the prospects for reactivating the peace process, perpetuating the prevailing stalemate, and leaving the door wide open for further escalation and tension in the region.”
Following is the full text of the Communique SPS received:
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Frente POLISARIO
Communiqué
[Bir Lehlou, Sahrawi Republic - 30 October 2021] On 29 October 2021, the Security Council adopted resolution 2602 (2021) whereby it extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 October 2022.
The Frente POLISARIO categorically rejects the inaction and deplorable silence of the Security Council, particularly some influential members, which are manifest in both the letter and spirit of its new resolution that is a major setback that will have serious consequences on peace and stability in the entire region.
The adoption of this resolution also constitutes an unfortunate return to “business as usual” policy because it completely ignores the ongoing state of war in the Territory since 13 November 2020 as a result of the serious violation by the occupying state of Morocco of the 1991 ceasefire and related military agreements.
The failure of the resolution to provide any practical measures to ensure the full implementation of the mandate for which MINURSO was established by Security Council Resolution 690 (1991) and to robustly confront the attempts by the occupying state of Morocco to legitimise the colonial fait accompli imposed by force in the Sahrawi Occupied Territories is tantamount to encouraging the occupying state and rewarding it for its intransigence, obstructionism, and aggressive policy.
Instead of adopting a balanced, transparent, and impartial approach to deal firmly with the new realities on the ground, the Council unfortunately has chosen usual inaction despite the fragility of the situation and its potential for serious deterioration.
Consequently, the Security Council has already doomed to failure the mission of the new Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Mr Staffan de Mistura, thus seriously undermining the prospects for reactivating the peace process, perpetuating the prevailing stalemate, and leaving the door wide open for further escalation and tension in the region.
Faced with Security Council’s repeated inaction, the Sahrawi people who opted for a peaceful solution for three decades state, loud and clear, that today they are left with no choice but to continue and intensify their legitimate armed struggle to defend the sovereignty of their country and to ensure the exercise of their inalienable and non-negotiable right to self-determination and independence.
In this context, pursuant to the decision to reconsider its engagement in the UN peace process in Western Sahara dated 30 October 2019, the Frente POLISARIO plans to take practical steps regarding its participation in the so-called “political process” as well as the presence and operation of MINURSO military observers deployed in the Liberated Territories of the Sahrawi Republic.
The Frente POLISARIO reaffirms that the only realistic and practicable way forward to achieve a peaceful, just, and enduring solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara is to enable the Sahrawi people to exercise freely and democratically their inalienable and non-negotiable right to self-determination and independence in accordance with the precepts of international legality and relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the African Union.
In this regard, the Frente POLISARIO recalls the UN-OAU joint good offices that culminated in the Settlement Plan, which was accepted by both parties, the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco, in August 1988 and approved by the Security Council in its unanimously adopted resolutions 658 (1990) and 690 (1991) whereby the Council established the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
The Settlement Plan remains the only accepted agreement between the two parties, and therefore the Frente POLISARIO will only engage in a “political process” that is based on the reactivation of the Settlement Plan in accordance with resolution 690 (1991) in which the Security Council expressed its full support for the efforts of the Secretary-General for the organisation and the supervision, by the United Nations in cooperation with the Organisation of African Unity, of a referendum for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.
The Frente POLISARIO further recalls that the 1991 ceasefire is an integral part of the UN-OAU Settlement Plan. Thus, it is not an end in itself but a means to create the necessary security conditions for holding a free and fair referendum to enable the people of Western Sahara to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence without military or administrative constraints.
The Frente POLISARIO therefore clearly declares that there will be no new ceasefire as long as the occupying state of Morocco persists, with complete impunity, in its attempts to forcibly impose a colonial fait accompli in the Occupied Territories of the Sahrawi Republic and to obstruct the referendum for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.” (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)