Chahid Al Hafed (refugee camps), Oct 16, 2014 (SPS) - The Saharawi Natural Resources Watch (SNRW) “strongly” on Wednesday deplored the involvement of the Swiss-based Glencore Xstrata in some illegal oil-drilling activities offshore Western Sahara, in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The company was given two licenses to drill for oil and gas in the region of Foum Agwainit, south-western the occupied city of El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara.
The statement said that such involvement would be “a blatant violation” to international law regarding the Non-Self-Governing Territories, registered at the UN Fourth Committee on Decolonization.
SNRW pointed out to the legal opinion of 2002 by Mr. Hans Corell, UN Legal Counsel, and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, issued on 16 October 1975.
The statement added, in this respect, that the latest report of the UN Secretary-General, published last April, also explicitly called upon all actors concerned to recognize the principle of the interests of the people of these territories, as stipulated in Article 73 of the 11th chapter of the UN Charter.
SNRW recalled to the Law No. 03/2009 of 21 January 2009 regarding the offshore exclusive economic zone of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR).
This area is about 200-nautical mile as provided for in the international law, and any economic activities being carried out in the Saharawi territorial waters without permission from SADR authorities will be “ a violation” to the right of countries and people to have sovereignty over their own natural wealth.
It, at the end, promised to do more efforts to stand strong in the face of any attempt to illegally plunder and exploit the potentials of the Saharawi people. (SPS)
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