New York — Angola urged on Monday in New York the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation to “actively” support the efforts of the UN secretary-general to relaunch the peace process in Western Sahara.
Western Sahara has been listed by the United Nations as one of the 17 Non-Autonomous Territories in the world for approximately 58 years (as of December 1963).
It was occupied by Spain until 1975, the year in which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco.
The Polisario Front, which fights for the independence of the territory, proclaimed the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) on February 27, 1976, with a government-in-exile, in Algeria.
Speaking during a meeting of the Decolonization Committee, the permanent representative of Angola to the United Nations, ambassador Maria de Jesus Ferreira, considered it essential to appoint a new UN envoy to Western Sahara, in order to speed up the holding of a referendum for the Saharawi people.
To diplomat, “direct and substantive” negotiations between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco would allow the Saharawi people to freely and democratically exercise their right to self-determination, through a fair and lasting solution, in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council.
“Angola joins all those who promote the initiatives of the United Nations Security Council, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, which aim to restore the right to self-determination to the Saharawi people”, she declared.
Ambassador Maria de Jesus Ferreira said that the process should be peacefully handled and in compliance with international law and respect for the borders inherited from the colonial period, as provided for in the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU).
Meanwhile, the diplomat encouraged the implementation of the Resolution Plan of the UN and the Organisation of the African Union (OAU), now the African Union, accepted by both parties and approved by the Security Council, in 1990 and 1991, to fulfill the Mission’s mandate. of the United Nations for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
“The independence, sovereignty and unity of States represent the legitimate rights of all peoples. However, (…) not all territories benefit from the commitments of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, pursuant to Resolution 1514 of the UN General Assembly of December 14, 1960”, stressed Maria de Jesus.