West Sahara: Security Council must insist on a referendum!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) appealed on Thursday to the Security Council of the United Nations to insist in its deliberations on a solution to the West Sahara conflict that an internationally recognized plebiscite be conducted on the future of the former Spanish colony occupied by Morocco. This body decides on Friday as to whether the UN Peace-keeping Mission MINURSO be retained. Morocco recently offered to grant West Sahara autonomy in order to avoid a referendum.

The Security Council must now prevent a further undermining of international law by Morocco and demand the implementation of its many resolutions on the West Sahara question, said the GfbV in a fax to the presiding chair of the Security Council, the British Ambassador Sir Emyr Jones Parry. For Morocco is trying with new tricks to prevent the UN plan for peace, which was passed in 1991. The plan envisages the organisation of a plebiscite on the future of the former Spanish colony.

Most dwellers of the Sahara do not believe that Morocco will grant them a genuine autonomy. For in the past 32 years under Moroccan occupation fundamental human rights of the civilian population in West Sahara have been ignored. So those affected appeal to the UN not to ignore the right of self-determination of the Sahara people.

The persecution of human rights works and demonstrators in the West Sahara by Moroccan security forces and authorities continues to the present day, reported the GfbV. Last Saturday in the town of El Aaiun seven young people were arrested, who had protested peacefully against Morocco’s policies.