Given the statements of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, in the newspaper “El País” on Sunday, January 22, this being his first interview with a written medium, we want to express our surprise and tell the new Minister:
That these statements, when referring to the current Government’s position on the Western Sahara dispute, contradict the previous ones made by prominent members of the Popular Party. In particular, those issued by the Secretary of International Relations and Head of the Cabinet of the current President of the Government Jorge Moragas (El País of 8/28/2011), in which he defended “Our position is the one recently approved by Congress, which it refers to international legality and evidently contemplates holding a self-determination referendum. And this solution should be accepted and negotiated by both parties: Morocco and the Polisario. What was absurd is to abandon the principle of active neutrality, which has its roots in the dawn of the transition, as Zapatero did as soon as he came to power when, upon leaving the Elíseo palace, he said that in six months he was leaving. solve the problem of the Sahara. He aligned himself with the French theses, closer to the Moroccan ones, while our idea is to return to that position centered, moderate and adjusted to international legality. We have a historical responsibility that forces us not to look the other way. ”
Likewise, these statements contradict the position maintained by the Popular Party in many statements in the Congress of Deputies and in the Senate, in particular those of the current President of the Upper House, Don Pío García Escudero, when he declared,”It cannot be accepted that relations with Morocco – whose strategic importance for Spain must be valued and underlined, insofar as it is one of the priorities of our foreign policy – are used as a pretext to cover up and silence a situation and facts that challenge and violate the most elementary human rights and the basic norms of international law.It is not admissible that the defense of Spanish interests in Morocco – which undoubtedly needs to be defended – is used as an excuse or pretext to adopt an complicit silence in the face of serious violations of the human rights that are taking place in Western Sahara. ”
We do not understand what this “controlled ambiguity” comes to now, statements without content, unclear, forgetting what his electoral program includes “on the historical Responsibility of the Spanish State.” We started badly, Mr. García-Margallo; just to remind you that MINURSO is not just the [UN Mission for Western Sahara], as it appears in the wording of your interview, let’s talk better about its full name: United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Do not be afraid to speak clearly, say that the solution to the free self-determination of the Saharawi People must be exercised, according to International Law, through a referendum in which one of the options is independence, of course.
The Spanish State continues to be legally responsible for this tragedy. As long as the Saharawi people cannot freely decide their future, Spain will continue to be morally and politically responsible for the suffering and permanent violation of human rights in Western Sahara. For this reason we have asked the new Spanish Government, chaired by Mr. Mariano Rajoy, endorsing a majority social and political clamor, actively promote a process that enables the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination, and in this way, contribute to a just and lasting peace and stability in the Maghreb. We still do not lose hope.