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- 4 May 2000
Western Sahara Human Rights
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Speakers - Lynch Mr Paul
Business - Private Members Statements
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Page: 5372
Mr LYNCH (Liverpool) [5.26 p.m.]: Tonight I draw to the attention of the House an issue that has been raised with me by several constituents, that is, the current political situation in Western Sahara. I have been approached by Kamal Fadel, the representative in Australia of Polisario. Polisario is the popular front for the liberation of Western Sahara. Its full title is Frente Popular Para La Liberation de Saguia El Hambra Y Rio De Oro. The immediate significance of Western Sahara to me is the comparison that can be made between what has happened there and the situation in East Timor. I first met Kamal Fadel, the Polisario representative at a pro-Timorese event. He was introduced to me by one of the then senior members of Fretilin in Australia, Harold Moucho, who has recently returned to Timor.
Western Sahara is situated in north-west Africa and, until 1975, it was a Spanish colony. Spain then signed a secret agreement with Morocco and Mauritania, which handed the territory to them. The Polisario liberation movement had a degree of success which resulted in a peace treaty being signed in Mauritania in 1979 with the Saharawi Republic. Some 76 countries officially recognised the republic at that time. The Moroccan's actions and their invasion subsequent to that were particularly bloody and brutal, using cluster bombs and napalm against civilians. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have catalogued the dismal record of human rights abuses by Morocco.
The question of Western Sahara has been on the agenda of the United Nations as a decolonisation issue since 1963. Morocco eventually agreed to a United Nations-Organisation for African Unity [OAU] peace plan in 1988 involving a ceasefire which was declared in September 1991, with a referendum proposed for January 1992. Polisario and the inhabitants of that area are still waiting for that referendum. Kamal Fadel recently sent me a letter, part of which I would like to read for the benefit of honourable members. The letter reads as follows:
Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara in 1975 mirrors Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. Morocco invaded just before the UN was about to organise a referendum to determine the wishes of the indigenous population, after almost a hundred years of rule by Spain. Most Saharawis fled to refugee camps in Algeria and have lived there ever since.
Since 1991 the UN and OAU have been trying to organise a free and fair referendum to allow the Saharawi people to exercise their right to self-determination. The referendum was originally scheduled for January 1992. But the UN has not succeeded in its efforts to organise the referendum because of Morocco's obstructions.
The main obstacle has been Morocco's attempts to include in the voting lists thousands of Moroccans who have no connection whatsoever with the territory.
On 17 January 2000, the UN published the results of the identification process, which lasted five years—86,386 were deemed eligible voters out of 198,486 people. A referendum was due to take place in July 2000. The letter continued:
Unfortunately, the referendum is now delayed indefinitely, because Morocco is once again insisting that all of those who were rejected will have to appeal. Morocco has handed the UN a list of 135,000.. The majority of these people live in Morocco and have no new evidence to provide to the UN. This will mean a delay of many more years of the referendum. It is indeed a flagrant violation of the agreements signed by Morocco.
The latest UN Secretary-General report on 17 February contained a "sobering assessment" of the peace plan. He doubted that it would be "a smooth and consensual implementation of the settlement plan and other agreements". His assessment is that the "timetable envisaged is no longer valid … and the date for the referendum can still not be set with certainty". He proposed to the Security Council the intention to ask his personal envoy James Baker, former US Secretary Of State, to initiate a new round of mediation between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
Mr Baker has three months to complete his mission. The Council approved this initiative on 29 February and asked the Secretary-General to provide an assessment of the situation before 31 May 2000.
The UN mission for Western Sahara (MINURSO) has spent so far US$437.9 million, and nine years without achieving its mission. The human cost to the Saharawi, in terms of suffering in refugee camps and human rights abuses by the Moroccans is far greater …
Since the cease-fire was declared in 1991, Morocco has enjoyed the status quo. It suits Morocco to keep the UN in Western Sahara since Morocco has the absolute control of the majority of the Territory and its resources and any kind of protest from the Saharawis in the occupied areas is brutally suppressed.
Polisario believes that if the UN is not able to organise the referendum by this year its presence would become irrelevant and there could be a return to hostilities.
The role of the international community to prevent a UN failure in Western Sahara and a return to war is of utmost importance.
I would like to request to urge the Federal Government to use all available means to help in a successful implementation of the UN peace plan for Western Sahara. I would also be grateful if you could raise this issue in Parliament.
As a matter of basic humanitarian need, there is an urgent need to raise this issue. John Donne wrote in the seventeenth century that no man is an island and all the humanities are connected. That, together with the comparison between this and East Timor, make this a relevant matter for the House.
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