New York (United Nations), October 13, 2018 (SPS) – The Representative of the POLISARIO Front to the United Nations, Dr. Sidi M. Omar, has accentuated that Morocco’s occupation and illegal annexation of parts of the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Western Sahara remains the chief obstacle to the decolonisation of the Territory, in a statement before the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee.
“Morocco’s occupation and illegal annexation of parts of the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Western Sahara remains the chief obstacle to the decolonisation of the Territory, ” said on Friday the Representative of the POLISARIO Front before the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee, adding that, “its flagrant attempts to appropriate sovereignty over a Non-Self-Governing Territory on the agenda of this Committee and without a due and valid decolonisation process is the root cause of the long-lasting conflict in Western Sahara.”
The Representative of the POLISARIO Front recalled, “the responsibility of the United Nations towards the people of Western Sahara, which is reaffirmed every year in the General Assembly resolutions on the matter,” demanding that it, “should be assumed without further delay.”
The Sahrawi official emphasized that the continuous consideration by this Committee of the situation in Western Sahara, at the request of the General Assembly, is a testament to the unfinished decolonisation of the Territory. It is also a testament to our people’s right to self-determination and independence—a right that is inalienable and can never be overtaken by the current colonial realities created by Morocco in the Territory through its prolonged occupation and intensified settlement and repressive policies, he added.
He evoked that “the deplorable Moroccan occupation and annexation of parts of our land continues to date, with dire consequences for our people, both in terms of well-documented gross human rights violations in the occupied Territories and with respect to the massive plunder of our natural resources, among other things.”
In a related context, the Sahrawi diplomat affirmed that the POLISARIO Front has officially accepted the invitation of the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Mr Horst Köhler, to an initial roundtable meeting planned to take place in Geneva in early December 2018, and the POLISARIO Front stands ready to engage in direct negotiations with Morocco in line with Security Council and General Assembly resolutions. (SPS)
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