The Polisario Front decided this Sunday to “unconditionally support” the proposal of the re-elected leadership of the liberation movement to “resume the armed struggle” against Morocco, putting an end to the 1991 ceasefire agreements.
The decisions of the Polisario, disclosed tonight and contained in the final communiqué of its 16th Congress, which began on the 13th of this month in the Saharawi refugee camp in Dakhla (Algeria), stress that the resumption of the armed struggle and the end of the The ceasefire constitutes the “political and operational framework for addressing the UN peace process.”
“Congress expresses its unconditional support for the decision to resume the armed struggle, thus putting an end to the ceasefire agreements, which now form the political and operational framework for addressing the United Nations peace process,” the statement read. the document, sent to Lusa. agency.
The Polisario Congress gave instructions to the newly elected political leaders – Brahim Ghali was re-elected Secretary General and heads a National Secretariat that went from 29 to 27 members, more “warlike” – “to make all the decisions and measures necessary to guarantee the implementation of the OAU resolution plan [Organização da Unidade Africa, atual União Africana (UA)] and the UN, 1991, which remains the only agreement between the two parties and the United Nations”.
The Congress, which should have concluded on the 15th of this month, ends up being extended for another week, as it was already “marked by the resurgence of the national liberation struggle in legitimate defense against the violation by Morocco of the ceasefire agreement “, violated by Rabat last November. 13, 2020.
“[Os delegados] Welcome the support of the Saharawi people. […] to the option of armed struggle for the conclusion of sovereignty over the entire national territory”, reads the document, sent to Lusa by the spokesman for Congress, Mohamed Sidati.
Congress also approved a new Basic Law of the Polisario Front, which contains a set of recommendations to strengthen the institutions and structures of the movement and of the State, embodied in the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which, by nature, continues to be chaired by Ghali.
In the Congress, the communiqué continued, the priority of adopting plans and methods that allow the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army “to carry out the necessary transformation on the battlefield, the main front of national action and a decisive element in the fight for release”. of the former Spanish colony in Africa.
The Polisario, when calling for a “greater development of the popular resistance”, affirms, on the other hand, that it “vehemently condemns the brutal policy of repression and intimidation exercised by the occupying State [Marrocos]”.
“This policy registers an unprecedented increase that is not limited to the rampant looting of Saharawi wealth and resources. It goes beyond the confiscation of land as part of a policy of systematic colonization”, denounces the Polisario.
In this sense, the independence movement, which is fighting for the holding of a referendum on self-determination defined in the UN resolution, signed by all the parties in 1991 and never carried out by Rabat, urges the AU to “adopt the appropriate measures necessary to make Morocco respect the principles and objectives enshrined in the Constitutive Act of the African Union, in particular the respect of the limits of independence and the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force”.
The Polisario also condemns the actions of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, “which totally contradicts the legal, historical and moral responsibilities of the Spanish State towards the Saharawi people, since it is a reprehensible policy, which confronts the political positions of the peoples of Spain and civil society”.
“Congress demands that Spain postpone this policy of resignation and abdication, and instead invest in repairing the injustice, putting an end to the tragic situation of the Saharawi people for which the Spanish State is responsible, thus contributing to complete the decolonization of Western Sahara”, denounces, defending that the “immense responsibility of the European Union [UE]in the conflict for having signed “illegal agreements” has allowed “the looting and exploitation of the natural resources of the territory and the promotion of investments in the occupied Western Sahara”.
The Polisario also reiterates its “categorical rejection” of any attempt to deprive the Saharawi people of the inalienable right to self-determination.
After signing the truce in 1991, Morocco never allowed the referendum to take place and more recently proposed granting greater autonomy to the “province of Western Sahara”, a proposal now supported by the United States, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Israel. , but which is rejected by the Polisario, supported by Algeria and, indirectly, by Russia, for which reason the movement now intends to “intensify the armed struggle”.
The former Spanish colony is considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, although Rabat controls almost 80% of this almost desert territory of 266,000 square kilometers.
Source: TSF
