Moroccan figures opposed to MS Mitterrand's visit to Laayoune
Several Moroccan figures have voiced opposition to the visit by former French first lady, Danielle Mitterrand, to the southern city of Laayoune and denounced her hostility regarding Morocco's territorial integrity.
Chairman of the municipal council of Laayoune, Khalihanna Ould Rachid, said the visit that Ms Mitterrand-widow of the former French president Francois Mitterand, chairwoman of the France-Libertes Foundation- is projecting to pay to Laayoune is "a hostility towards Morocco and its rights."
He told MAP after a four-hour meeting in Marrakesh Tuesday with the woman that she sticks to her stand considering the Sahara as "an occupied territory," as she stated in a release issued after her visit to the polisario-controlled camps in Tindouf, south-western Algeria.
Members of the delegation accompanying the Chairman of the municipal council of Laayoune explained that her stand was contrary to the one defended by the international community and outlined in the Security Council Resolutions, recognizing Morocco's sovereignty over its Sahara, Ould Rachid said.
Ms Mitterrand has not made any conciliation act, he said adding that the visit (to Laayoune) will not take place in this blatant hostility towards the Moroccan people and its rights.
His delegation informed Ms Mitterrand that it can neither accept her visit nor wish her welcome, he said.
Another member of the delegation, roving ambassador Ibrahim Hakim, told MAP Ms Mitterrand should reconsider her hostile stand towards Morocco if she really wants to contribute to the settlement process of the Sahara issue.
If the chairwoman of France Libert?s actually has settlement proposals as she claims, she must give up her prejudices, he said.
Ibrahim Hakim, himself a founder member of the polisario which he defected, said her statements that the Sahara is "an occupied territory" is shocking not only for the populations of the south but for all Moroccans.
She must correct up her statements and reconsider the content of her release if she wants to make a trip to Laayoune, he said insisting that the populations of the southern provinces will never accept such statements, nor such an offense.
Besides Khalihanna Ould Rachid and Ibrahim Hakim, the delegation included chairmen of elected councils and members of the royal consultative council for Saharan affairs.
Several Moroccan newspapers and associations had also lashed out at Ms Mitterrand for her hostile stand regarding Morocco's territorial integrity and for the statements she made during a visit to the polisario-controlled camps in Tindouf, south-western Algeria.
The statements made by Ms Mitterrand-who is visiting Morocco since Monday-- side with the polisario separatists' stands and affect the feelings and sacred values of the Moroccan people, they argued.
The Algeria-backed polisario separatists are claiming sovereignty over the Moroccan southern provinces that were formerly under Spanish rule and that were retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords.
