Dakhla (refugee camps), May 6, 2012 (SPS) - “We hope that the presidential elections in France will be a new turning point in dealing with the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence,” said Saturday evening Mr. Khatri Addouh, speaker of the Saharawi National Council during the closing ceremony of Sahara International Film Festival.
“It is important to seriously and continuously act in order to accelerate the organization of the self-determination referendum, because it is the real guarantee for a just and final to problem-based,” asserted Mr. Khatri Addouh, expressing hope that Spain will play from its legal and historic responsibilities a central role in this endeavor.
He emphasized the importance of the call made by the UN Secretary General in his last report presented to the Security Council on Western Sahara, where he insisted on the need to open Western Sahara for the diplomats, representatives of civil society, independent observers and other.
He hailed in the name of the Saharawi leadership those attended the International Film Festival in Western Sahara including the organizers, artists, directors and filmmakers, expressing satisfaction for the extensive participation in this Festival.
“We value that you have made the Festival an annual encounter to share with us a part of this reality, and known platform of solidarity and sympathy with our people in their just and legitimate struggle. You have also made it a season in which we all meet to support the right, defend the legitimacy and call for the respect for human rights and the tolerant and good values which we and you struggle for them each from his place,” said President of Saharawi Parliament.
Saharawi official noted that FiSahara attracts every time many of the media, adding that the festival “has become a programmed cultural event in the Saharawi national calendar, and thus became a part of the struggle and steadfastness of the Saharawi people and one of their expressions for their strong adherence to their right to independence and freedom.”
He also underlined that FiSahara “has become an expression about an expression of the upscale understanding and civilized pursuance of the Saharawi people for peace and coexistence between peoples within the scope of mutual respect.”
On other hand, Mr. Khatri Addouh regretted that the violations of human rights in the occupied Western Sahara being perpetuated in the without knowledge of public opinion, stressing on the need to assign a mechanism of the United Nations to monitor human rights situation in Western Sahara. (SPS)
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