New York (United Nations) 21 April 2023 (SPS)- the representation of the Polisario Front in the United Nations issued a press release stressing that the Front will never accept the colonial fait accompli and will continue defending Saharawi rights by all legitimate means, after the UN Security Council held, last Wednesday, a closed consultation session on the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
The Frente POLISARIO “reiterates that it will never accept the colonial fait accompli that the occupying state of Morocco is seeking to impose by force in the Occupied Territories of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) and that it will continue to use all legitimate means to defend the sacred rights of the Sahrawi people and their national aspirations for freedom and independence,” the press release reads.
The Front further confirmed “its full cooperation with the efforts of the United Nations and the African Union to complete the decolonisation of Western Sahara”, calling on the UN Security Council to “to assume its responsibility and empower MINURSO to fully implement the mandate entrusted to it by the Council under the UN-OAU Settlement Plan of 1991.”
Following is the full text of the Press Release:
Representation of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations
Press Release
[New York, 20 April 2023]: Yesterday, under the presidency of the Russian Federation, the Security Council held closed consultations on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
The Council heard a briefing by Mr Staffan de Mistura, Personal Envoy of the Secretary General for Western Sahara, and Mr Alexander Ivanko, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and Head of MINURSO.
The consultations were held in accordance with resolution 2654 (2022) adopted by the Security Council on 27 October 2022 in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to brief the Council on a regular basis, and at any time he deems appropriate during the mandate period, to include within six months of this mandate’s renewal.
At the consultations the emphasis laid on the need to achieve a peaceful, just, and lasting solution that would provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in line with relevant UN resolutions underscores that the exercise by the Sahrawi people of their right to self-determination and independence is a sine qua non for peace and stability in the region.
Recalling that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has not been able to visit Occupied Western Sahara for the seventh consecutive year due to the rejection by the occupying state of Morocco demonstrates yet again the need for the United Nations and its concerned bodies to assume their responsibilities in this regard, and to expedite the establishment of an independent and permanent UN mechanism to monitor, protect and report on human rights in the Territory.
Reiterating its full cooperation with the efforts of the United Nations and the African Union to complete the decolonisation of Western Sahara, the Frente POLISARIO also reaffirms its firm attachment to the supreme goal embodied in the will of the Sahrawi people, which is to enable our people to exercise their inalienable, non-negotiable, and imprescriptible right to self-determination and independence in accordance with the principles of international law and relevant resolutions of the United Nations and African Union.
In this context, the Frente POLISARIO once again calls on the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, to assume its responsibility and empower MINURSO to fully implement the mandate entrusted to it by the Council under the UN-OAU Settlement Plan of 1991, which remains the basis for the peace process in Western Sahara and the only agreement that was accepted by the two parties to the conflict, the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco, and approved unanimously by the Security Council.
The Frente POLISARIO also reiterates that it will never accept the colonial fait accompli that the occupying state of Morocco is seeking to impose by force in the Occupied Territories of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) and that it will continue to use all legitimate means to defend the sacred rights of the Sahrawi people and their national aspirations for freedom and independence." (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)