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In a conference held in Algeria, the Polisario Front denounced Morocco’s rejection of the African Union (AU) participation in the Western Sahara peace process, SPS reports.
Speaking at the conference themed «Western Sahara, last colony in Africa» and held Saturday by the African Civil Society Parliament to celebrate Africa Day, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, the separatist movement’s «ambassador to Algiers», welcomed «AU’s role in supporting the Sahrawi cause».
Criticizing Morocco’s standpoint, Taleb Omar said that the Kingdom’s return to the African Union after 32 years of absence «was an attempt to divide the States’ members», referring to «SADR’s membership» in the continental organization.
«SADR was not only maintained as a member country but it was imposed in all AU’s meetings», the Polisario’s representative said.
AU decision in Nouakchott and the presidential troika
During the same conference, Taleb Omar reacted to the resignation of the UN Secretary-General’s personal Envoy Horst Kohler, reiterating the Front’s regret. «The resignation circumstances showed that the Security Council did not take enough steps to bring Morocco to comply with UN resolutions», he claimed.
On the same token, the representative warned against the absence of Kohler as voiced last week by the Front in a communiqué that followed Kohler’s announcement, «hoping that this vacuum would not persist».
Taleb Omar’s frustration, however, has been decided on months ago by the African Union. Earlier in 2019, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and legal advisor at the AU Peace and Security Council Bankole Adeoye urged the pan-African organization, in a letter, to abide by the decision adopted during the 31st AU summit, held in Nouakchott.
During this summit, AU leaders «curtailed» the Peace and Security Council’s work on the Western Sahara dispute and assigned a troika of heads of state to report directly to AU assembly.
In his letter, the legal Counsel stated that the said «decision clearly precludes the Peace and Security Council (PSC), either at Ambassadorial or Ministerial levels, to raise, cite or refer to the situation in Western Sahara, in any way or form».
In the letter signed on February the 8th, Adeoye wrote that he conveys that «the reference to Western Sahara should be completely deleted from the draft PSC report».
Indeed, only the assigned troika is allowed to make mention of the Western Sahara conflict. This task is expected to go hand in hand with the peace process launched by the United Nations.
In fact, Morocco had insisted before that the United Nations is the only body that is entitled to deal with the territorial dispute and rejected the contribution of the continental organization.
