Aujourd'hui le Maroc: Algerian central sahara could have witnessed same situation as Moroccan sahara, Moroccan jurist
Algeria-Morocco, Politics, 8/16/2003

The Algerian Central Sahara could have witnessed the same situation as it is currently the case in Morocco, said Moroccan Justist, Mohamed Moatassime.

Moatassim, a former member of the Moroccan Constitutional Council (a Supreme body of jurists checking the constitutionality of laws) made the statement in a story published by independent daily "Aujourd'hui le Maroc" under the title "what I told James Baker."

Moatassim, who summed up a speech he had made at a meeting of James Baker, UN secretary general personal envoy, James Baker, with leaders of Moroccan political parties.

The jurist noted in the speech that the Algerian central Sahara, known as "Hoggar" was during the whole period of French occupation, politically, militarily and institutionally administered by a special status that took into account the specific character of its Sahrawi populations called Touaregs. It was represented separately from the French parliament.

According to Moatassime, it was not stunning that France had the same reflex as Spain when it found gas and oil fields in 1957 and wanted to protect them from any separatists by proclaiming the creation of Common Organizations of Sahrawi Regions under the law of January 10, 1957.

The former member of the Constitutional Council recalled that Morocco, which showed solidarity with the Algerian uprising against the French occupiers and was concerned to preserve Algeria's territorial integrity, denounced the French maneuver during a visit of the late King Mohammed V to Sahrawi provinces in 1958.

Later, the late King managed to gather votes for Morocco and Algeria during a conference of non-aligned countries in 1961, to preserve the two states' territorial integrity, he added.

Moatassime underlined that the UN has a duty to redress injustices against Morocco and understand that it is not ready to accept the dictate of Algeria's generals and the top artisan of this affair, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The current Algerian president who was foreign affairs minister at the time, fabricated and sponsored the Polisario (Algeria-backed separatist group claiming the independence of Morocco's southern provinces) in 1975 by setting up on the Algerian territory an army of mercenaries, equipped, trained and supervised by the official army of Algeria, Moatassime said.

He assured that democratic Morocco is determined to denounce and fight so that the international community knows that there will be a fair solution to the Sahara question when the Algeria of Bouteflika stops to hide under the "defense" of beautiful fallacious principles, and accepts via a bilateral dialogue with Morocco, to untangle a problem of which it is the major artisan.

Previous Stories:
  Maghreb union construction goes to respecting bodies' charter, Moroccan fm says   (8/14/2003)
  For Algeria, Saharara question is linked to geo-strategic card to weaken Morocco, university professor   (8/12/2003)
  Algeria has to take into account Morocco's national interests, press   (8/12/2003)

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