Addis Ababa, Jan 28, 2013 (SPS) - The President of the Republic and Secretary General of the POLISARIO Front Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz said Sunday justice and peace will not be established in Africa and the world, as long as the Saharawi people deprived of their legitimate rights”, in his speech before the 20th ordinary session of AU Heads of State and Government during the discussion of peace and security report.
“Freedom, democracy, justice and peace will not be established in Africa and in the world as long as the Saharawi people deprived of their legitimate rights,” said the Saharawi President.
“If Africa was clear from the outset in supporting Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and independence, so it is time for the continent to play more assertive, movable and strict role to implement requirements of the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations and African Unity and African Union, in order to complete the liberation of Africa by ending the last colonial status, through the holding of a free, just and impartial referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people,” he added.
“It is really hurtful today that we still live the truth of that historic quote that the liberation of Africa will not be completed as long as an inch of it is under the yoke of colonialism. Thus, the Saharawi people, who live the reality of injustice as well as occupation and have not ever given up to make enormous sacrifices for over than forty years, still wait their opportunity, like the peoples of the continent, to enjoy freedom, emancipation and independence,” stated the President Mohamed Abdelaziz.
SADR President said that since the ratification by African Unity Organization on the resolution 104, which constituted the basis for the UN-AU settlement plan to resolve the Western Sahara conflict, “Moroccan government has been placing obstacles to the organization of a referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi people.
Though the clarity of the issue, its legal framework and the Saharawi Party’s willingness to cooperate constructively, it has constantly tried to thwart the direct negotiations and efforts of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.”
“It violates the Charter and the principles of our continental organization through occupying parts of the territory of the Sahrawi Republic, setting up a separation military wall between the Saharawis, along more than 2700 kilometers, plundering their natural resources, and it continues to commit serious violations of their rights, which are documented in dozens of reports of the specialized organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,” he underlined.
He, in this respect, welcomed the report made by the Human and Peoples’ Rights of the African Union, deploring the prevention of its delegation from visiting occupied Western Sahara.
“At the beginning of the 21st century, we are still seeing in Africa, specifically in those territories, practices of apartheid regime in South Africa, where the occupation authorities carry out the arbitrary detention against the unarmed Saharawi civilians, of which 24 following its military attack on Gdeim Izik camp on November 8, 2010, it decided to bring them to a military trial next February 1st,” he regretted.
On other hand, President Mohamed Abdelaziz noted to that Algeria was a victim of a brutal and treacherous terrorist attack that targeted gas facility in In Amenas, expressing solidarity with Algeria in its countering of savage terrorism.
He, therefore, voiced full solidarity with the brotherly Republic of Mali in defending its territorial integrity, calling on all states in Africa and the world to show solidarity with the Malian Republic and to offer all the support it needs, including the military intervention, to help its army in recovering sovereignty over whole territories of Mali, as well as eliminate terrorism and organized crime.
President Mohamed Abdelaziz congratulated Mr. Haile Mariam Dessalines, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, on his election as president of the African Union, expressing sincere thanks and appreciation to Mr. Thomas Yayi Boni, President of Benin, for the benevolent efforts he made during his presidency of the Union. (SPS)
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