The annual session of the Committee of the 24th of the UN was the scene of corrosive exchanges of arms between the Moroccan ambassador to the international organization, Omar Hilale, and the new Algerian permanent representative, Amar Bendjama.
Indeed, the Algerian diplomat, after having made his initial declaration, saw fit to use his right of reply to Ambassador Hilale’s intervention, by harping on his country’s outdated positions and distorting the historical realities on the Moroccan Sahara. In response, Hilale pointed out that said rights of reply are regrettably devoid of meaning, truth, evidence, legal rationale, or political argument.
The Moroccan ambassador reminded his Algerian counterpart, given his selective memory, that it was indeed Algeria, through the voice of its former president, the late Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who had seized the former Personal Envoy, James Baker in 2001, to propose that the Sahara be shared between Morocco and the separatist armed group “polisario”, financed and hosted by Algeria, which Morocco had vigorously rejected, because the territorial unit of Morocco is one. The integrity of its Sahara is one. And the population of the southern provinces is one. This is why Morocco cannot accept being dispossessed of its Sahara, nor accept its sharing, whatever the sacrifice, he underlined.
Reacting to the Algerian ambassador’s obsessive insistence on self-determination, Hilale regretted that Algeria’s interpretation of this principle is not in line with United Nations General Assembly resolutions 1541 and 2625. . He reproached him for having knowingly omitted to mention these two resolutions, whereas they regulate the implementation of this principle, specifying that the latter hardly provide, as Algeria would like, for the creation of a puppet state. under his authority, which would have allowed him to have direct access to the Atlantic Ocean.
Noting that if the United Nations were to apply the principle of self-determination according to the Algerian interpretation, this organization would have more than 600 member states instead of 193 and Algeria would have 3 countries. Hilale reminded his Algerian colleague that self-determination cannot be claimed for some and refused for others.
Moreover, and retorting to ironic assertions of the Algerian ambassador on the so-called “claim” of Morocco that the Sahara is a paradise, Hilale indicated that Morocco has never claimed that the Sahara is a paradise and that he is aware that, like everywhere else, there is always progress and improvements to be made. However, the Moroccan Sahara enjoys respect for human rights, democracy and the free and transparent election of the legitimate representatives of its population, who regularly intervene before the C24, he underlined.
And Ambassador Hilale added that, on the other hand, the populations sequestered in the Tindouf camps have been imposed, for more than 45 years, by the representatives of the “polisario”, an entity created by Algeria. These representatives are in no way elected, but appointed, imposed and financed by the Algerian government, in a total absence of democracy, he indicated.
The Permanent Representative of Morocco noted that he understands the jealousy of his Algerian counterpart about the impetus and economic dynamics experienced by the Moroccan Sahara region, stressing that the Algerian ambassador is not without ignoring that the regions of Laâyoune and Dakhla, which he falsely claims to be “occupied”, are more developed than certain regions of Algeria, which have been independent for more than 60 years. Drawing a comparison between the Moroccan Sahara and Algeria, Mr. Hilale indicated that the population of the southern provinces does not queue to get flour or buy bananas.
In addition, Hilale said that the population of the southern provinces of Morocco move freely, make statements to the media, even to the Algerian press and television, without being embarrassed or concerned. Especially since it participates in the political life and emancipation of the country, which is far from being the case in Algeria where newspapers are closed, televisions censored, political opponents imprisoned and human rights associations Man and the dissolved political parties, he hammered before the members and observers of the C24