New York (UN) 23 February 2021 (SPS)- Frente POLISARIO’s Representative to the UN, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar, addressed a letter to the President of the UN Security Council, UK Ambassador, Mrs. Barbara Woodward, informing her of the interception by Saharawi authorities of Moroccan-produced Cannabis in Dougj sector in the Saharawi liberated territories and their destruction in the presence of the Public Prosecutor’s office.
“I would like to report that a unit from the Sahrawi Army intercepted and seized 200 kilograms of Moroccan-produced cannabis in the region of Galb Thliem in the Dougj sector of the Liberated Territories of Western Sahara. The drugs, which were being transported across the Moroccan illegal military wall, were destroyed on 18 February in the presence of a representative of the Sahrawi Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the letter indicates.
The operation, the Saharawi diplomat adds, “is part of the anti-drug-trafficking operations carried out by the Sahrawi Army throughout the Sahrawi Liberated Territories where large quantities of Moroccan-produced Cannabis and other drugs were intercepted and destroyed.”
“On several occasions, UN Military Observers (UNMOs) of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) were invited to witness the destruction of the seized drugs,” Sidi Mohamed said.
He recalled that “in conformity with our obligations as an AU Member State and thanks to the growing cooperation with our neighbours, we have actively contributed to curbing the illicit flow of drugs, especially Moroccan-produced drugs, into and across our region.”
The Representative of the Frente POLISARIO recalls that, “since 13 November 2020, the entire Territory of Western Sahara has become a zone of open war because of Morocco’s serious breach of the 1991 ceasefire and its act of aggression on the Liberated Territories of Western Sahara.”
He further deplored that “the United Nations’ inaction in the face of the Moroccan aggression has undermined the organisation’s credibility and the effectiveness and operation of its mission on the ground and has encouraged the Moroccan occupying state to persist in its destabilising actions in the region.”
He also recalled that “it is well known that Morocco remains the world’s largest producer and exporter of cannabis, as confirmed by many international reports including the 2020 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report of the US Department of State and the World Drug Report 2020 of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.” (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)