Polisario Front Condemns France, Calls for Exclusion from Western Sahara Peace Process

"The government of the SADR strongly condemns the hostile position of the French government towards the Sahrawi people and their inalienable right to freedom, independence and self-determination," reads a statement relayed by SPS, the Sahrawi press agency. "With this hostile and growing position, France has excluded itself from any initiative related to the international efforts for the decolonization of Western Sahara, including its participation in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara - MINURSO," adds the SADR statement, considering that France has sided with "the occupier," a position that "makes it undesirable."

The Polisario describes this clear position of France on the Sahara as a "dangerous escalation" and assures that it will have "dangerous consequences for peace, security and stability throughout the region." "The Sahrawi people will never forget the colonial past of France and its direct involvement in the attempts to exterminate our people, against its resistance since the beginning of the 20th century, in the mid-1950s and 1970s," it said, arguing that France is "involved in the current aggression against the Sahrawi people" and that it considers it henceforth as a "direct and premeditated accomplice of all the crimes related to the genocidal war unleashed by the occupying Moroccan state against our people."

This support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara "once again reveals the true colonialist face of France, which boasts of being the cradle of the first Universal Declaration of Human Rights," the Polisario further denounces, specifying that "those who truly defend human rights do not support the occupation of a territory awaiting decolonization. Those who truly defend democracy and the sovereignty of peoples do not support an invading, repressive and expansionist regime." Finally, the Polisario assures that it "will thwart all the attempts of the Moroccan occupying state and its supporters, like colonial France."

"The Sahrawi people are more determined than ever to continue their struggle and resistance by all legitimate means, including armed struggle, to defend their imprescriptible and non-negotiable right to freedom and independence," it reaffirmed. For the record, Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario Front, and the Algerian government, the historical ally of the Sahrawi independence movement, have already condemned this support from France for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara. Until now, no statement from the French authorities has been published on this change of position on the Sahara. Before France, the United States, Germany, Israel and Spain had already recognized the Moroccan autonomy plan as the most credible and viable solution to the Sahara conflict.