Dakhla (Refugee Camps) - The revelations concerning the "Marocgate", a resounding corruption scandal in the European Parliament (EU), are only "the tip of the iceberg", said the Polisario Front representative in France, Mohamed Sidati, stressing that other MEPs and European institutions are involved in this vast network of corruption led by Rabat.
"This is only the tip of the iceberg because there are several MEPs and I will say even other European institutions that are involved in these networks (of corruption)," said Sidati in a statement to APS on the sidelines of the 16th Congress of the Polisario Front held from 13 to 17 January in the province of Dakhla, in the Sahrawi refugee camps.
This situation has created "a kind of status quo on the issue of Western Sahara in the European Parliament,” he continued.
"We have been dealing with Moroccan actions that have finally succeeded thanks to this complicity and activism of MEPs involved in corruption networks manipulated by the Makhzen regime," he said.
According to the Sahrawi official, these corrupt MEPs that Morocco has bribed in return for an alignment with its theses in Western Sahara "had two objectives.”
"They ignore the human rights situation in Morocco (...) and avoid any mention of Western Sahara, especially since the European Parliament has always had a tradition of support for the right to self-determination and the fundamental rights of the Sahrawi people," he said.
The representative of the Polisario Front in France regretted the fact "that instead of continuing on the basis of the values of democracy, freedom and the right of peoples to self-determination, the position of MEPs and some European institutions have deviated.”
In addition to several MEPs, committees and commissions of the European Parliament are also involved in these corruption cases, referring for example to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Fisheries, and Agriculture.
"The entire mechanism of the European Parliament that is involved, hence the need for this European institution to make its mea culpa and resume its position of support for the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people," he said.
092/SPS/APS