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France urged to change stance on Western Sahara

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Paris (France), March 1, 2014 (SPS) - Dozens of Sahrawis and representatives of French associations support Sahrawi people staged a rally Thursday in Paris, near the Quai d’Orsay, a symbolic place of French diplomacy, to call on France to change its position over Western Sahara conflict and to support Sahrawi people’s self-determination.

 

The protestors called the French government to exhort pressure on Moroccan authorities to bring it to put an end to its repressive policy against Western Sahara people and not to ignore their legitimate rights

 

Carrying banners and expressing their anger, the protestors demanded freedom for all Sahrawi political prisoners incarcerated in Moroccan jails, an end to repression, and to include in Minurso (UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) an international mechanism on human rights protection in Western Sahara, illegally occupied by Morocco since 1973.

 

Organized at the initiative of the “Come out of Colonialism” group and in favour of the ninth anti-colonialism week, dedicated to Western Sahara cause this year, the rally coincides with the celebration of the 38th anniversary of the creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) on February 27, 1976.

 

The rally is “meant to attract France’s attention on Western Sahara because of the important role the French government plays in the  settlement of the conflict,” said Omar Mansour, representative of the Polisario Front in France. (SPS)

 

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