Guinea renews backing to framework agreement on Sahara
Morocco-Guinea, Politics, 5/4/2002

Guinea has renewed backing to the framework agreement on the Sahara brokered by the UN Secretary General's special envoy James Baker

The backing was voiced by Guinea's foreign minister, Ms Camara Hadja Mahawa Bangoura, in a press release issued at the end of the 5th session of the Moroccan-Guinean joint cooperation commission convened in Rabat April 30-May 2.

The framework agreement gives the Sahara-- provinces in southern Morocco that were formerly under Spanish rule and that were retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords-- a large autonomy under Moroccan kingty.

Ms Bangoura who expressed her country's attachment to international legality and to states' territorial integrity also called for the release of Moroccans still detained on Algerian soil in Tindouf, stronghold of the Polisario in south-western Algeria.

The Guinean official deplored Morocco's absence from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and expressed hope that all obstacles would be lowered quickly to enable the kingdom's return to the African fold.

Morocco quitted the pan-African organization in 1984 following the illegal admission of the puppet Sahrawi Republic, self-proclaimed by the Polisario.

Morocco and Guinea also condemned the Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people and renewed backing to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital, the press release said adding that on the sidelines of the joint commission session, the two sides exchanged viewpoints on issues of mutual concern at the regional and international scales.

In this vein, Ms Bangoura informed her Moroccan peer on the latest positive developments in the sub-region of the Mano River Union (mustering Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra-Leone), on the morrow of the follow-up ministerial meeting held in the Southern Moroccan Atlantic city of Agadir last April 7-8, the release said.

The decision to hold the ministerial meeting was made at a tripartite summit held in Rabat last February at the initiative of King Mohammed VI, in a bid to establish a lasting peace in the Mano river region, defuse tension between the three countries and improve relations between the countries of Western Africa.

Presidents Charles Taylor of Liberia, Lansana Conte of Guinea, and Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of Sierra-Leone, had adopted at the Rabat summit a set of measures concerning security along their common borders, repatriation of refugees and assistance to displaced persons, and reactivation of the Mano River Union administration.

The Moroccan-Guinean joint commission session highlighted by the signing of 7 cooperation accords in the sectors of information, tourism, promotion and reciprocal protection of investments, and higher education and scientific research.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco-Guinea commission opens   (5/1/2002)
  King Mohammed gets message from president of Guinea Bissau   (3/15/2002)
  Guinea Bissau backs moroccan identity of sahara   (11/15/2001)

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