Western Sahara: Frente Polisario UN Representative Refutes the Allegations of the Occupying State Representative

New York (United Nations) — In a press release issued Yesterday, Dr Sidi Mohamed Omar, member of the National Secretariat, Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations and Coordinator with MINURSO, stated that the letter recently sent by the representative of the occupying state of Morocco at the United Nations to the President of the Security Council is yet another example of this person’s obsession with fabrication, slander, and misrepresentation.

With regard to the Moroccan regime’s desperate attempt to discredit the legitimate struggle of the Sahrawi people, the Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations and Coordinator with MINURSO underscored that the continuation of the military illegal occupation of parts of the Territory of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) by the Moroccan occupying state, its continued expansionism as well as its attempt to “increment” its power by allying itself with external parties is the real threat to the security and stability of the entire region..

Following is the full text of the press release as received by SPS:

Representation of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations

PRESS RELEASE

[New York, 11 March 2023]: The permanent representative of the occupying state of Morocco to the United Nations recently sent a letter to the President of the Security Council in a desperate attempt to distract from the letter addressed by the President of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) and Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, H.E. Mr Brahim Ghali, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, H.E. Mr António Guterres, regarding the outcomes of the 16th Congress of the Frente POLISARIO, which the Security Council circulated to Member States as an official document.

The letter of the representative of the occupying state of Morocco, in both format and content, is yet another example of this person’s obsession with fabrication, slander, and misrepresentation. As usual, because of lack of any evidence to support the series of his mendacious allegations, the representative of the occupying state has resorted again to ad hominem attacks and blaming others in a language that goes against the basic rules and ethics of diplomacy and tact.

The letter is part of the Moroccan regime’s desperate attempt to discredit the legitimate liberation struggle waged by the Sahrawi people, under the leadership of the Frente POLISARIO, against the illegal Moroccan occupation of parts of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR), which has entered a new phase since 13 November 2020. In this respect, the representative of the occupying state claims that the Frente POLISARIO has ties with “terrorist groups” citing an article published in a European newspaper whose content is based on the hearsay of an unknown person, which demonstrates the absurdity of the representative’s claims.

Everyone, including the partners of the occupying state, is well aware of the nature of these allegations, which are not new. Suffice it to refer in this context to the answer given by Mr Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on 17 February 2023, in which he stated that the European Union, the main partner of the occupying state, did not have information on alleged collaboration between the Frente POLISARIO and terrorist groups in the region.

The indisputable fact is that the occupying state of Morocco is the largest producer and exporter of cannabis in the world as confirmed by several international reports including the US Department of State’s 2022 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s World Drug Report 2022.

The dissemination of such mendacious propaganda by the representative of the occupying state of Morocco is nothing but an attempt to conceal the well-documented role of the occupying state in supporting terrorism and transnational terrorist groups that depend on Moroccan cannabis and other drugs as the main source for financing their terrorist operations in the Sahel-Sahara region.

The continuation of the military illegal occupation of parts of the Territory of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) by the occupying state of Morocco, its continued expansionism as well as its attempt to “increment” its power by allying itself with external parties is the real threat to the security and stability of the entire region.

In his letter, the representative of the occupying state claims that the Security Council welcomed the work of the “human rights commissions” of the occupying state in the Occupied Sahrawi Territories. The fact confirmed by the reports of many international organisations is that the occupying state of Morocco is a state that does not respect human rights due to its appalling and well-documented record of human rights violations in the Occupied Sahrawi Territories where Sahrawi civilians, human rights activists and defenders are subjected continually to terrorisation and the most heinous forms of psychological and physical torture.

The occupying state of Morocco is also the least qualified in the world to speak about human rights because of its political regime based on tyranny and degradation of human dignity. The mass demonstrations currently taking place in many parts of the kingdom demonstrate the rejection by free Moroccans of decades of oppression, impoverishment, and enslavement.