Sahara issue: Moroccan people should be consulted on level of autonomy (minister)
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 11/17/2004

The "intense disturbance" of the Algerian diplomacy concerning the question of the Moroccan Sahara has created "tension" but in Morocco, which is "serene and looking towards the future," the Royal speech of November 6 "establishes the principle of a political solution accepted by everyone and which preserves, before all, the interests of the nation (Morocco), said the First Secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), Mohamed El yazghi.

This speech lays the framework and broad lines of this political solution, which makes it possible for Morocco to open up to its neighbors," he said in a speech, published Tuesday by the daily Liberation.

"We should be concerned with future of our region and solidarity of the five countries making the Maghreb," he added, stressing that it should be borne in mind that, vis-ˆ-vis Europe and the world, "we won't be able to play a role within the framework of this union, only if we are together."

The autonomy shall fall in the framework of regionalization but the details and mechanisms of this autonomy will be the result of negotiations," he explained.

El yazghi deems that "the Algerian people has nothing to do" in the Sahara issue and that "if one consults it, it would say that the Sahara is Moroccan."

In connection with the decision of South Africa to recognize the puppet republic of Polisario, El yazghi said the leaders of the party 'the African National Congress' (ANC) did not respect the decisions of the International Socialist (IS) on the Sahara: "never has this institution pushed it to recognize the SADR," he said.

El Yazghi said all the conflicts in Africa are the result of the balkanization and the borders inherited from colonization. These borders "divided peoples and societies that had ethnographic and social coherence," he went on, stressing that a balkanization of Morocco, "would be dismemberment of North Africa, which will be left to chaos.

The Sahara, which is a vast territory, will be the field of terrorist movements. Instead of a union that will be able to serve the people, we will go towards crumbling, tensions, resentment and violence," he added.

The Sahara conflict is opposing Morocco to the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists, who claim secession of Morocco's southern provinces, known as the Sahara. This former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan socialist party: only respect of legality guarantees political settlement to Sahara issue   (11/16/2004)
  Two NGOs call for shedding light on fate of hundreds of missing persons in Tindouf camps   (11/16/2004)
  Algeria undertakes another desperate attempt on Sahara issue at UN   (11/12/2004)

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