Morocco denounces South Africa’s complicity with Algeria, Polisario in letters to UN Security Council, UN SG

Morocco has denounced South Africa’s complicity with Algeria and the polisario, its unconditional appropriation of Algeria’s geopolitical agenda, and its blind ideological support to the armed separatist group.

This came in two letters addressed by Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, to the UN Secretary General and to members of the Security Council, in response to a letter circulated by South Africa’s Permanent Mission to the UN on the Moroccan Sahara.

Morocco “deeply regrets that South Africa lends itself, once again, to the role of the postman of an armed separatist group, whose connections with terrorism in the Sahel are proven,” said Hilale in the two letters, recalling that the infamous terrorist “adnan abu walid sahrawi”, was member of the polisario before becoming head of the terrorist group “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara”. This individual used to take refuge in the Tindouf camps before he was eliminated, on September 15, 2021.

Hilale added that the associate of abu walid sahrawi, the notorious terrorist “lakhal sidi salama”, aka “abdelhakim sahraoui”, was also a member of the “polisario” and was eliminated on May 23, 2021.

In the same context, the diplomat said that the German newspaper Die Welt published on January 27, 2023, the results of an investigation based on convergent reports of several European intelligence services, confirming, with supporting evidence, that the polisario has made of the Tindouf camps a hub for financing terrorism in the Sahel, through the “hawala” which allows illicit and anonymous transfer of funds between Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, including to terrorist groups and actors involved in regional destabilization.

Hilale also pointed out that Morocco still regrets that the Permanent Mission of South Africa serves as a messenger of a fictitious entity not recognized by the UN, and the alleged results of a farce called “16th congress of the polisario, pointing out that Algeria has paid huge sums to bring in private jets, to this so-called ‘congress’, mercenaries of speech from Europe and elsewhere, while women and children in the camps of Tindouf suffer from malnutrition, anaemia, diphtheria and lack of school materials.

“To speak of decisions of this so-called ‘congress’ is an insult to the intelligence of the UN Secretary General and members of the Security Council, because they are decisions, prepared in advance by the host country, Algeria, and then imposed on participants in this masquerade, as was the parody ‘election’ of the so-called ‘Brahim Ghali’,” the letters pointed out.

The Moroccan diplomat stressed that the Kingdom greatly regrets that South Africa, which participates in the same capacity as Morocco in several peacekeeping operations, particularly in Africa, missed the opportunity to avoid becoming an accomplice by transmitting an anti-UN slur, denigrating its actions and attacking the very efforts of the Security Council on the Moroccan Sahara.

South Africa should have asked itself why Algeria, the main party to this regional dispute, avoids each time to transmit the letters of its polisario, and entrusts the vile task to another country, in this case South Africa, he said, adding that “Algeria, which created this armed separatist group, shelters it on its territory, arms it, finances it and makes it the priority agenda of its diplomacy, should have the political courage to fully assume its acts, and this by circulating, through its own Permanent Mission, the propagandist manifestos of its creation.”

“The outsourcing by Algeria of its diplomatic transmission service is morally unscrupulous and politically disrespectful of the United Nations.”

Morocco also regrets that the Permanent Mission of South Africa agrees to circulate to the members of the Security Council a letter signed by the so-called leader of the separatist group, Brahim Ghali, who is prosecuted in Europe for rape and torture, the ambassador said, adding that the transmission of this so-called letter, on the eve of the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women and the International Women’s Day, is an affront to the victims of the so-called Brahim Ghali, who are still suffering the physical, psychological and societal after-effects of his crimes.

“The Kingdom of Morocco strongly regrets that South Africa distributes a letter full of lies about the human rights situation in the Moroccan Sahara, while the Security Council welcomes, in its successive resolutions, the role of the two regional commissions of the National Human Rights Council in Laayoune and Dakhla, as well as Morocco’s cooperation with the UN human rights mechanisms,” Hilale stated further.

He also pointed out that “the allegations peddled by this letter are both fallacious and contradictory: the participation in this so-called ‘congress’ of some separatist elements from the Saharan provinces of Morocco are clear proof of the lies of the polisario, and the irrefutable confirmation of the full enjoyment by these individuals of their freedom of movement and expression, thanks to the democracy and rule of law that prevail in the Moroccan Sahara. This is unfortunately not the case of the populations detained in the open-air prison of the Tindouf camps”.

Kingdom also regrets that South Africa, which aspires to assume an important role in the maintenance of international peace and security, transmits to the members of the Security Council a letter that promotes war, calls for armed violence and terrorist acts, falsely justifies the denunciation of the ceasefire, and violates the Security Council resolutions, the Moroccan diplomat said, noting that by playing the role of the postman, South Africa participates in the maintenance of the polisario and its mentor, Algeria, in their Tindoufian mirage of the Settlement Plan and the referendum, theories that have definitively disappeared from the lexicon of the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary General of the UN, for over two decades.

Morocco would like to remind South Africa that its unconditional appropriation of Algeria’s geopolitical agenda and its blind ideological support for the armed separatist polisario will not help in any way to resolve this regional dispute, nor will it put an end to the decennial suffering of the detained populations of the Tindouf camps, Hilale pointed out.

He also stressed that the Security Council has, for over two decades, made the final choice of the political solution, based on pragmatism, realism, compromise and mutual acceptance. It is this choice that a large number of countries have followed by recognizing the Moroccanness of the Sahara for some, and expressing strong and frank support for the Moroccan autonomy initiative for many others, and the opening of Consulates in the Moroccan cities of Laayoune and Dakhla for several.

“South Africa would benefit from inviting Algeria and its polisario to comply with international legality by implementing Security Council Resolution 2654 and this, by participating in good faith in the roundtable process to end this regional dispute,” he said.

Hilale stressed further that South Africa can make history by joining the momentum for peace, led by the Security Council, and by a hundred countries around the world, stating that this large majority of countries support the exclusive efforts of the UN Secretary-General, his Personal Envoy and the Security Council, and back the autonomy Initiative as the one and only solution to this regional dispute.