|
|
Media
- Press Release: Polisario Front Obstructs UN Negotiations for Peaceful Resolution of Western Sahara C Aug 28 2008
CONTACT: Calvin Dark
202-587-0855
For Immediate Release: August 28, 2008
Polisario Front Obstructs UN Negotiations for Peaceful Resolution of Western Sahara Conflict
Washington, DC (August 28, 2008) – Dutch diplomat Peter Van Walsum confirmed that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has not renewed Van Walsum’s appointment as his Personal Envoy for the Western Sahara, threatening to bring the current negotiations between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front to a halt.
Van Walsum was appointed Personal Envoy for the Western Sahara in 2005 and in addition to mediating four rounds of negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front, he traveled in the region numerous times and met with representatives from neighboring countries and other interested parties. In his report on the status of the negotiations to the UN Security Council in April of this year, Van Walsum concluded that “an independent Western Sahara is not an attainable goal.”
This conclusion prompted the Polisario Front in a series of public statements during August, to threaten that it would not participate in any future negotiations unless the UN Secretary General appointed a new mediator for the conflict.
This month, Polisario Front leader Mohammed Abdelaziz reiterated his threat to derail negotiations if a new mediator was not chosen, evoking the possibility of “the military option” if the Polisario Front is unable to define the outcome of the negotiation process. The Polisario’s threats to end negotiations raise the bleak prospect of prolonging the status quo, troubling many in the international community in addition to Van Walsum.
“It’s a shame,” said Van Walsum in an August 8, 2008 interview with the Spanish daily El País. “The last four rounds were futile, and I was hoping that the fifth round would offer us the opportunity to discuss my belief that the insistence of the Polisario on full independence is deepening the deadlock and perpetuating the status quo.”
Key members of the UN Security Council, including the United States and France, welcomed Van Walsum’s assessment and noted that negotiations based on Morocco’s proposal would open the door for a truly realistic “compromise political solution” as called for in numerous UN Security Council resolutions.
In June of this year, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino reiterated the US government’s position that “autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution for the Western Sahara dispute.” Last summer, in letters sent to President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 173 members of Congress and key foreign policy experts such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright expressed their strong endorsement of Morocco’s compromise proposal and urged the US government to publicly support the plan and the negotiations progress.
“It is very unfortunate that just when the negotiations were beginning to gain momentum towards a realistic basis for moving forward, the Polisario Front’s refusal to negotiate in good faith has halted the process,” said Robert Holley, Executive Director of the Moroccan American Center for Policy. “Morocco is one of the United States’ strongest allies in the Arab world and it, along with others in the international community, should not let the Polisario Front and Algeria put a stranglehold on multilateral, UN-led efforts to peacefully resolve this thirty-year-old conflict.”
###
The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and an interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.
Final_MACP_Press_Release082708V4.pdf
- Press Release: On World Refugee Day 2008, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants details abuse Jun 20 2008
CONTACT: Calvin Dark
202-587-0855
For Immediate Release: June 20, 2008
On World Refugee Day 2008, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants details abuses in Polisario refugee camps
Washington, DC (June 20, 2008) – Today, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) marks World Refugee Day 2008 and calls the international community to action on behalf of the more than 30 million refugees dispersed in conflicts across the globe. On this occasion, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) released its annual report detailing the plights of these often ignored refugee communities, including the tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees currently being held by a rebel separatist group, known as the Polisario Front, in southern Algeria.
The USCRI’s World Refugee Survey 2008 details the stifling and deteriorating conditions for the tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees held captive by the Polisario Front with the “acquiescence of the Government of Algeria.” Specifically, the USCRI’s findings confirm past accounts by hundreds of former Sahrawi refugees that there is no freedom of movement in the tightly-controlled Polisario camps. According to the Survey, “[the] Polisario forbade return to the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara […] and arrested those who expressed an interest in doing so.”
The Survey also revealed that the Sahrawi refugees under Polisario control were forced to undergo military training, that unwed refugee mothers were confined to a detention center and that Polisario military officials “reportedly opened fire […] upon at least one pair of persons attempting to cross the sand wall separating the camps from Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.” The USCRI further highlighted the role of Algeria in this on-going humanitarian crisis, particularly its complicity in the systematic diversion of international humanitarian aid. “[Algeria’s] refusal to allow a registration census prevented UNHCR from profiling the population for humanitarian and protection needs or monitoring aid distribution,” outlined the Survey.
For the complete USCRI’s World Refugee Survey 2008, please visit www.refugees.org
Earlier this month, the New York Times (“Western Sahara’s Conflict Traps Refugees in Limbo”, June 4, 2008) highlighted the testimonies of six former Sahrawi refugees who recently visited the U.S. to speak out on behalf of their family members and thousands of others still being held by the Polisario Front. (For more information about the former refugees’ visit to the U.S., please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org) Their accounts, along with the extensive findings by the USCRI, underscore the urgency for the international community to call upon Algeria and the Polisario Front to open their camps and allow the refugees the choice to leave or stay.
“Refugees are not unique because they are away from home,” declared António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, on World Refugee Day 2007. “What sets them apart is that they cannot return there.”
###
The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and an interested public in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org
FINAL_MACP_Press_Release061808_World_Refugee_Day _4_.pdf
- Press Release: Members of Congress Pledge to Address Inhumane Conditions and Theft of Humanitarian A May 12 2008
CONTACT: Calvin Dark
202-587-0855
For Immediate Release: May 12, 2008
Members of Congress Pledge to Address Inhumane Conditions and Theft of Humanitarian Aid in Polisario Refugee Camps
Washington, DC (May 12, 2008) – Last week, members and staff of the U.S. Congress met with former Sahrawi refugees who recently returned from the Polisario camps in southern Algeria. These refugees—some held in the camps their entire lives—shared eye-witness accounts of human rights abuses and the diversion of international humanitarian aid by the Polisario Front.
“We can make sure that the dollars we send are used in the way the Congress intended it to be used, making sure that the aid is going to the people and that is not being resold and making sure that the people have the freedom to leave the camps when they want to and make sure that the humanitarian conditions are as we expect in any camp around the world,” said Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL), an active member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and the Caucus for Women's Issues.
Rep. Brown pointed out that Congress can adopt resolutions and urge the United Nations to lead investigations into the conditions in the camps to make sure that the humanitarian aid reaches those it is intended to assist. This pledge to encourage oversight by the US Congress was welcomed by Naba Deddah El Meki, a former Polisario humanitarian aid coordinator who shared her accounts of systematic corruption and theft with the Congresswoman.
The former Sahrawi refugees also visited the offices of Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC), Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Rep. John Boozman (R-AR), Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
After speaking with the former Sahrawi refugees about the lack of freedom of movement in the camps Congressman Ellison said that if these conditions exist, he would do what he could.
“International pressure, particularly from the United States Congress, is the most effective tool to bring an end to the suffering of the Sahrawi refugees and their families,” said Robert Holley, Executive Director of the Moroccan American Center for Policy. “Until Algeria and the Polisario realize that the international community will no longer tolerate this shameful humanitarian crisis, the refugees will not have the choice to leave the camps.”
###
The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and an interested public in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.
FINAL_Press_Release050908V2.pdf
|
|
