Moroccan Socialist Party calls OAU to correct mistake
The Moroccan Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP whose leader is leading a coalition government, called the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to correct the mistake it made when it accepted the membership of the Sahrawi republic in 1984.
In a presentation at the African commission of the International Socialist (an association grouping socialist parties) meeting this September 3-4 in Maputo, Mozambique, Abdessalam Debbagh, a member of the USFP external affairs committee invited the OAU to "restore legality," recalling the commission's numerous recommendations during its meetings in Dakar and Bamako.These recommendations acknowledged the "legal paradox" and "contradiction" of granting membership to an entity whose status is yet to be defined by a referendum.
Morocco withdrew from the organization to protest the membership granted to the SADR (self-proclaimed by the Algerian-backed Polisario separatists) since a referendum slated for July 2000 is still to determine whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords and where the Polisario want to establish their state, would remain within Morocco or stand up on its own.
According to the USFP daily Al-Ittihad Al-Ichtiraki, which quoted Debbagh, the party also called for mobilization in Africa to succeed in democratic transition, taking into account specificities of African societies in the promotion of democratic education and culture.
He also briefed the African delegates on the Moroccan political landscape and on his party's views regarding a number of problems facing the continent.
Debbagh supported a recommendation made by ruling African socialist parties in Dakar for holding an international encounter in the presence of the United Nations Organization and non-governmental organizations to debate conflicts raging in the world. The commission adopted the proposal and decided to refer it to the upcoming congress of the International Socialist in Paris.