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The pro-independence rebels fighting Morocco for Western Sahara said on Saturday that the United Nations was responsible for the “political stalemate” in the disputed territory, on the 45th anniversary of their unilateral declaration of independence.
The Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, controls around a fifth of the vast arid territory of Western Sahara and calls for a self-determination referendum organized by the UN.
Morocco has offered autonomy but maintains that the territory is a sovereign part of the kingdom.
“The Polisario Front has tried for 29 years to avoid war by making concessions, but it has faced a total lack of cooperation from both the Moroccan side and the UN”, accused Polisario official Khatri Addouh on Saturday. , quoted by the official Sahrawi press agency SPS.
The UN is responsible for the “political impasse” on the Sahrawi question because of its “laxity” towards Morocco, said Addouh from a Sahrawi refugee camp near the Algerian desert town of Tindouf.
The Polisario waged a war of independence with Morocco from 1975 to 1991 and its leaders proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) on February 27, 1976.
The UN has repeatedly failed to find a lasting settlement since it negotiated a ceasefire on the Line of Control in 1991.
The Polisario waged a war of independence from Morocco from 1975 to 1991, and its leaders proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Republic democratic on February 27, 1976. By RYAD KRAMDI (AFP) The negotiations led by the UN between Morocco and the Polisario, with Algeria and Mauritania as observers, have been suspended since March 2019.
On Saturday in Tindouf, the armed forces of the Polisario marched in a military parade attended by Sahrawi leaders to mark this anniversary.
Soldiers marched behind a woman draped in a Sahrawi flag, wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus.
‘Continue the fight’
Tensions rose sharply in November when Morocco sent troops to a buffer zone to reopen the only road leading from Morocco to Mauritania and the rest of West Africa, after separatists blocked it on last month.
Young Sahrawi girls in traditional dress attend the celebrations marking the 45th anniversary of the declaration of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, in a refugee camp on the outskirts of the Algerian town of Tindouf. By RYAD KRAMDI (AFP) The Polisario responded by declaring the ceasefire supported by the UN in 1991 null and void, arguing that the road did not exist when the truce was signed and that it was therefore illegal.
The two sides have since exchanged regular shots along the demarcation line, although claims are difficult to independently verify in the hard-to-reach area.
“The Saharawi people will continue their struggle for justice and to liberate the Saharawi territory from the Moroccan presence”, said on Saturday Brahim Ghali, president of the self-proclaimed SADR, from the Aousserd refugee camp.
Rabat has obtained recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the entire disputed territory of many countries, which have opened consulates in Western Sahara.
The Polisario considers the opening of the missions as “a violation of international law and an attack on the legal status of Western Sahara as a non-autonomous territory”.
In December, Morocco normalized its relations with Israel in a diplomatic counterpart that saw Washington backing Moroccan rule over Western Sahara, a move that infuriated the Polisario.
Despite this decision, the UN insists that its position on the territory remains “unchanged”.
The Saharawis hope that the administration of US President Joe Biden will revisit the decision which, according to them, “violates all decisions and resolutions of all international bodies”.
The territory the size of Great Britain is home to around one million people.
During a meeting Thursday with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Ghali, who is also the Secretary General of the Polisario, denounced “the silence of the international community” on the question of Western Sahara.
He called on international human rights organizations to visit the former Spanish colony “to protect the defenseless Sahrawi citizens”.
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