London, April 14, 2013 (SPS) - Western Sahara Resource Watch confirmed, in a letter addressed Saturday to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Mr. Ban Ki-moon, that the lack of legal and legitimate administering power in Western Sahara “bestows a specific duty upon the United Nations to manage the resources until the status of the territory has been resolved.”
“We regret that the report does not fully engage the issue of the exploitation of natural resources in what remains a Non-Self Governing Territory, one without a de jure administering power. It is precisely the lack of legal and legitimate administering power that bestows a specific duty upon the United Nations to manage the resources until the status of the territory has been resolved,” lamented WSRW.
This is unfortunate, asserted the letter, especially at a time when the French oil company Groupe Total SA has resumed its oil exploration activities off the coast of Western Sahara under arrangements with the Moroccan government.
On other hand, WSRW also commended the Secretary General for making express, at his report submitted on April 8, the need for independent, impartial, comprehensive and sustained monitoring of the human rights situation in Western Sahara
The letter went on saying that Morocco’s continuing illegal taking of Western Sahara’s natural resources has proven to be a “key obstacle to the Saharawi people realising the right to self-determination, a right once again noted to be paramount by the International Court of Justice in its 2010 Kosovo advisory opinion.”
It also considered that allowing Morocco to systematically profit from the territory’s wealth “not only undermines the parties’ good faith needed for the negotiations, it also contributes to financing the ongoing illegal occupation.”
Western Sahara has been considered by the UN since 1964 as a non-autonomous territory. (SPS)
090/089/TRA