“Sixty years ago, almost to the day and in this same building, Morocco requested, in 1963, the inclusion of the question of what was called, at the time, the Spanish Sahara, on the agenda of the Special Committee on Decolonization, in order to definitively recover its Saharan provinces,” Mr. Hilale recalled from the outset.
He noted that this claim was reinforced by the first resolution of the C24 in October 1964, followed by that of the General Assembly, adopted in December 1965, asking Spain to take immediate measures for the decolonization of the “Spanish Sahara” and the neighboring enclave of Ifni, through negotiation with Morocco.
“Thanks to the negotiation advocated by these resolutions, Ifni was reintegrated into the Motherland in 1969 while the decolonization of the Sahara was completed in 1975, with the memorable return of this territory to the Motherland, Morocco, thanks to the historic Green March of November 6, 1975 and the Madrid Agreement of November 14 of the same year,” said the ambassador, noting that this agreement was deposited with the Secretary-General, then ratified by the General Assembly in its resolution 3458B of December 10, 1975.
Mr. Hilale observed that “the UN history of the Moroccan Sahara could have ended there. But that was without counting on the adversity of Algeria, which created, hosted, armed and financed the armed separatist group +polisario+,” asserting that in its international promotion of its proxy, this neighboring country excelled in what the Greek philosopher Socrates called, 25 centuries ago, the founding myth of the posture.
The Ambassador then addressed the seven founding lies of Algeria’s separatist agenda in the Moroccan Sahara, as well as the avalanche of falsifications of history and the flood of distortions of international law rehashed by the Algerian representative in his speech before the Commission.
Regarding the first lie that Algeria defends the right to self-determination, the diplomat stressed that this principle is only a screen that this country uses to achieve its hegemonic aims.
“Algeria is exploiting this principle exclusively for the Moroccan Sahara. This is the only issue it has raised for years, without daring to say a single word about the other issues examined by this Commission,” he observed.
He recalled that Algeria had flouted this principle by submitting, through its former President, the late Abdelaziz Bouteflika, on 2 November 2001, in Houston, to the then Personal Envoy of the SG, James Baker, a proposal for the partition of the territory of the Sahara, as recorded in the report of the Secretary-General S/2002/178 of 19 February 2002, paragraph 2.
Moreover, the former Algerian ambassador Abdellah Baali sent, on July 22, 2002, a more explicit letter to the president of the Security Council in which he said that Algeria remained willing to examine the proposal concerning a possible partition of the territory of “Western Sahara”, Mr. Hilale recalled, adding that Morocco had immediately and categorically rejected this position.
He also noted that “Algeria has put the principle of self-determination under wraps with the proclamation, in Algiers, of a puppet republic. Which is contrary to the very principle of self-determination.”
“Algeria denies this principle to a people who have been demanding it well before the creation of the Algerian state in 1962. These are the valiant Kabyle people,” the ambassador said.
Referring to the second lie that Algeria demands respect for international legality, the Moroccan diplomat noted that this country “constantly violates international legality and flouts the Charter of the United Nations when it comes to the principles of respect for territorial integrity, non-recourse to violence and the primacy of the peaceful settlement of disputes.”
“Algeria was interested in the resolutions of the Security Council only until 2001, when the Secretary-General declared the inapplicability of the settlement plan and consequently, the obsolescence of the referendum,” he said, recalling that since 2002, Algeria has ignored the resolutions of the Security Council for the sole reason that they recommend the political, lasting and mutually acceptable solution for the settlement of this dispute.
“The paradox is that some of these resolutions were adopted with the approval and contribution of Algeria, while it was sitting on the Council between 2004 and 2005,” he explained, noting that Algeria even goes so far as to officially reject certain Security Council resolutions, as was the case in 2021 and 2022 with resolutions 2602 and 2654.
Mr. Hilale further considered that Algeria’s refusal to return to the round tables is a flagrant violation of Security Council resolutions, international law and UN legality, adding that Algeria is violating international law by delegating its sovereignty over part of its territory, namely the Tindouf camps, to an armed separatist group, the “polisario”. “This has been denounced by the Human Rights Committee and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions,” he said.
As for the third lie repeated by Algerian diplomacy and which describes Algeria as a “simple observer” on the Sahara issue, the ambassador pointed out that despite its denials, Algeria has been the main party to this regional dispute since its outbreak.
“It had claimed this status in the official letter of its former ambassador to the UN, to the UN Secretary-General, on 19 November 1975,” when he stated: “In addition to Spain as the administering power, the +parties concerned and interested+ in the Western Sahara affair are: Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.”
Noting that Algeria presented itself even before Morocco, Mr. Hilale noted that this official document makes no reference to the “polisario” even though Algeria was already hosting it on its territory.
“Algeria has accustomed the United Nations to react to all the proposals of the SG and his personal envoys. Algeria thus refused the Framework Agreement proposed by the former Personal Envoy James Baker by communiqué of the Council of Ministers of Algeria, dated February 25, 2002,” he further recalled.
The Permanent Representative of Morocco to the UN also indicated that Algeria is taking economic retaliatory measures against any country supporting the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative and is protesting to the capitals of all member states that support Morocco in the 4th Committee.
“Resolution 2654, which definitively established the round tables as the exclusive framework for leading the UN political process, recognizes Algeria as one of the four stakeholders who must take part in it, and this in the same format as the first two round tables in Geneva,” the diplomat continued.
Regarding the fourth founding lie of Algeria’s separatist agenda which presents the Sahara as an “occupied territory”, Mr. Hilale pointed out that Algeria ignores international law and Security Council resolutions.
“The notion of occupation applies, according to the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, to the territory of a State already existing during an international armed conflict,” he recalled, noting that the Sahara has never been a State – and it never will be.
“It has always been an integral part of Morocco for centuries, by virtue of the legal ties of allegiance of the populations to the Moroccan Sultan, as recognized by the International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion of October 16, 1975,” the ambassador maintained, adding that no report of the Secretary-General of the UN, nor resolution of the Security Council qualifies Morocco as an “occupying power”.
Addressing the fifth Algerian lie that the referendum is the “solution” to this regional dispute, the ambassador recalled that this so-called referendum is dead and buried, despite Algeria’s vain attempts. “We do not resurrect the dead,” he stressed before the members of the 4th Committee of the UN General Assembly.
“The UN Secretary-General, in his report of 23 February 2000 (para. 32), concluded that the settlement plan was inapplicable and therefore the referendum was obsolete,” he said, noting that the Security Council had not mentioned the referendum at any time in any of its 36 resolutions adopted over the past 22 years.
Similarly, the General Assembly has not referred to it for almost 20 years, the ambassador said, specifying that the Algerian resolution which will be adopted by the Commission at the end of the debate, like all those which preceded it for almost two decades, makes no mention of the referendum.
Returning to the sixth lie of the founding myth of the Algerian position concerning the Moroccan Sahara which describes Algeria as the host country of the camps of “Sahrawi refugees” in Tindouf, Mr. Hilale affirmed that “Algeria is not the host country of the refugee camps of Tindouf, but rather the jailer of the populations who are sequestered there”.
“Indeed, these camps are a lawless zone and the scene of serious and widespread violations of international law, perpetrated by the armed separatist group +polisario+, which has proven links with the terrorist nebula in the Sahel,” he denounced, stressing that Algeria is politically exploiting these camps, which it presents as the symbol of the existence of a so-called problem called “Western Sahara.”
In these camps, children are enlisted, recruited and forced to join the “polisario” militias as soldiers, the ambassador protested, denouncing a “war crime” according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Regarding the seventh lie, according to which Algeria “bears” the humanitarian burden of the Tindouf camps, Mr. Hilale pointed out that the humanitarian aid that this country grants to the Tindouf camps is infinitely minimal.
“It is the international community that provides the bulk of humanitarian and financial aid to these camps,” he said, noting that Algeria is spending several billion dollars to arm the separatist group “polisario” and provide it with diplomatic support throughout the world, particularly through lobbying firms.
“Algeria is turning a blind eye to the misappropriation of international humanitarian aid by the leaders of the Algerian Red Crescent and those of the armed separatist group +polisario+,” the ambassador added.
And to conclude that these systematic and large-scale embezzlements have been confirmed by the European Anti-Fraud Office, the UNHCR and most recently the WFP, in its January 2023 report, entitled “Evaluation of Algeria WFP interim country strategic Plan 2019-2022”.
2024-08-27 06:53:28