On the 30th of October, 2019, The UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for twelve months in Resolution 2494, adopted with unanimous approval (13 votes to 0). The 15 members of the Council extended the mandate of MINURSO until October 31st, 2020. Russia and South Africa abstained from this unfair resolution, which stressed the need to achieve “a realistic, implementable and sustainable political solution to the Western Sahara issue.”
The document in question also expressed support for the UN Secretary-General’s next special envoy, who will be responsible for continuing the renewed negotiation process and for reaching a viable solution to the Western Sahara issue. In a statement from the General Secretariat, the POLISARIO states its consideration that the extended renewal of the resolution “constitutes a deeply regrettable and unacceptable return to the ‘status quo'” and “seriously undermines the political momentum.”
For the POLISARIO Front, the resolution fails to provide “concrete action to advance the peace process of the United Nations.” Indeed, the Security Council has missed another opportunity to prevent the collapse of the UN peace process. Considering this as a sign of the failure of the UN Secretariat and the Security Council to prevent Morocco from dictating the terms of the peace process and the role of the UN in Western Sahara, Sahrawis will have no choice but to reconsider their commitment to the peace process as a whole. The commitment to respect the ceasefire is bound and subject to the commitment to hold a referendum on self-determination, in that together they constitute the agreement that led to the establishment of MINURSO, whose sole purpose was to implement such referendum.
It is rather ironic to see how Sahrawis are being victimized while Morocco the victimizer is being hailed for its crimes against the people of Western Sahara. Neither France, nor Morocco, nor any other party can confiscate the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence. It is obvious that the people of Western Sahara are not just fighting Morocco but also fighting against Morocco’s guardian and long-time Godfather: France, which has been steadily curbing UN efforts for three decades. Moreover, France’s efforts to stall the process of self-determination have peaked in their recent attempts to change the mission of MINURSO through the introduction of new formulations and terminologies that are nothing more than absurd while degrading the legitimacy of the rule of the law. The people of Western Sahara have lost their faith in the UN and its role in enforcing its resolution and upholding the law.
Resolution 2494 praises the CNDH (Moroccan Council for Human Rights) and calls for cooperation with the UN High Commission for Human rights in Geneva. To one who is aware of the systemic human rights abuses in Morocco, this gesture is simply preposterous. Not only that, but it is also dangerously harming the legitimacy of the Commission for, while Saharawis have been calling for the expansion of MINURSO’s mandate to include human rights monitoring in the occupied territories, Morocco has consistently denied this request. Now the UNSC is blocking that option and won’t even bother mentioning it in its latest resolutions. CNDH is just another Moroccan official institution that has a clear role, namely, to embellish the image of the Moroccan regime and its atrocities committed against the people of Western Sahara. Besides, the UN rapporteurs and the working groups through the years have served absolutely no purpose except to enjoy their posts as yearly vacationers, failing to cover the widespread human rights violations taking place daily in all cities of occupied Western Sahara. Furthermore, the UN Human Rights investigations and reports have always been banned and blocked by France, who protects and guards Morocco as its right-hand ally in the African continent.
SAUSA expresses its strong disappointment with the UN SC 2468. As it is clear, this resolution was not remotely following the peace process plan introduced in 1991. Most dangerously, by this new vote, the UN has abandoned the core value of the peace process: the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination through a just and fair referendum. Secondly, this resolution does not name precisely the parties involved in the conflict as they have been established since the inception of this issue: the POLISARIO Front and Morocco. Plus, resolution 2494 is creating a new mandate for the MINURSO that stands far removed from the organizing of a referendum for self-determination, which, to repeat once again, is indeed its sole purpose for existing.
SAUSA’s opinion on the matter is as follows; the MINURSO is no longer needed if its presence means the prolongation of the suffering of the Sahrawi people. The UN has given Morocco the means to establish its de-facto occupation and control over the majority of the territory while leaving Sahrawis in limbo, perpetually waiting for a never-to-be-fulfilled UN promise for self-determination in Western Sahara.
SAUSA believes it is high time the people of Western Sahara take serious measures towards the MINURSO, (e.g., expelling ) since the option of a referendum is no longer on the table of the UN, and since Morocco keeps mocking international law and the various established UN resolutions.
SAUSA affirms the fact that the conflict in Western Sahara is a matter of native people’s rights over their land—the right to sovereignty of the Saharawi people in Western Sahara. The issue of Western Sahara has never been one of just control of natural resources or preservation of human rights, for, as we know from the history of the 19th and 20th century, the plundering of land and the oppression of native people are a natural outcome of the unjust and abominable enterprise that is colonization. In short, the question of Western Sahara is a political conflict and needs a political solution.
It is also necessary to close once and for good the Guergarate border crossing, as it was never part fo the peace settlement and thefore itself violates the originally established terms. This reality is the realpolitik that Sahrawis will have to establish on the ground, instead of being given “Band-Aids” each year when the UNSC convenes to extend the mandate of the Minurso ad infinitum.