I have already had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Ali Salem Al Tamek and Mr. Ray Mesoud, which I appreciated. I have considered the information and want to correct a point in the briefing note provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs. It states:
No EU member state recognises either Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara or the proclaimed independent Saharan Republic. Instead, we regard it as a non-self-governing territory, whose final status has yet to be determined. Most African states, but few outside Africa, recognise the Saharan Republic.
This is factually incorrect and I will make proposals presently which will enable it to be corrected. The Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic was de facto recognised by a decision of the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, the late Brian Lenihan, who instructed the delegation to the United Nations to vote for an annual resolution at the United Nations which effectively recognised the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. Ireland’s decision in regard to the resolution at that time was followed by a changing of the position of Denmark and a number of other EU countries. That is the legal position.
The background is that in 1974 when there was a precipitous withdrawal by Spain from this area of the Sahara, the United Nations established a committee to consider the area of the Sahara and the Saharawi. It asked whether there had been a continuous relationship between the Sultanate of Morocco, for example, and the people of the desert. It concluded that while there had been a connection, it had never been effectively administered and, therefore, there was not a case for Moroccan rule of the Saharawi. The decolonisation committee of the United Nations and the United Nations General Assembly voted on several occasions that the Saharawi people were entitled to independence.
This was the old Spanish Sahara which had been occupied but which was being granted independence owing to international opinion. There was then a pre-emptive strike by King Hassan who announced La Marche Verte, in which he marched into the territories and announced that he had found a new terra nulla — an empty country — that the Moroccan people could enjoy. I have visited the area on a number of occasions, including places where prisoners were held and also the wall that has been constructed to separate the area where the conflict took place in the 1980s and the areas of occupation, particularly Laayoune. The Saharawi people were driven from Laayoune into the desert. Most of my former colleagues who visited the region, including David Andrews, the late Niall Andrews and others, visited the Saharawi people initially in the refugee camp at Tindouf as well as travelling to Es Semara on another occasion. I also spent time travelling to the wall on my own.
The point needs clarification. There are 80 countries that recognise the independence of the Saharawi people. The following statement in the Department's briefing note is even worse:
The EU's position is one of support for the peaceful resolution of the issue through self-determination, but in discussion of the issue there are different views held. France supports Morocco. What France does is supply the technology used on the top of the occupation wall. I had the experience of French technology picking up my presence as I walked to the wall through the minefield.
The Department's briefing note continues:
Spain had strongly supported Polisario, but has, in the last two years, given priority to its wishing to improve relations with Morocco and its moving closer to France within the EU.
The background to this issue includes the entirely illegal actions taken by the European Union in the granting of fishing and exploration rights in the territorial waters of the occupied territories. Privately, senior officials in the Union admit they do not have a leg to stand on in regard to what they have done. Both France and Spain have stated that direct talks between Algeria and Morocco would help in reaching a solution. Nobody has suggested he Saharawi people's lands comprise a region of Algeria. Saharawis have received support in the refugee camp on the borders of Algeria but are not part of that state. The United Nations has already concluded that they are not, historically, part of the Moroccan sphere of influence.
Having been involved in this issue for a long time, I contend that this background is being glossed over. There is occupation and the deprivation of human rights. The illegal allocation of fishing and other economic and social rights arises from a failure to vindicate international law. It is important to make this point. As I said, I had the benefit of a meeting our distinguished guests earlier and leave it to others to ask any questions they wish.
When I visited the Moroccan prisoners, I was made aware that a major difficulty was that King Hassan of Morocco did not recognise those Moroccans being held by Polisario as prisoners of war. To recognise them as such would be to acknowledge the war between an occupied territory and the occupier. Therefore, the prisoners were abandoned systematically by their own government for a long time. I am of the view that the Saharan Republic and the militant front, the Polisario, would have been best served by releasing the prisoners. I have always advocated this approach on humanitarian grounds and I am glad it was completed in 2005.
There has been some progress. The atmosphere changed with the ascension of King Mohammed VI in Morocco. The appointment of a distinguished person as chair of the commission on human rights in Morocco offers the prospect of some improvements. However, the reality is that not all prisons are visited. The headquarters of the occupying forces is in Laayoune which is located on the coast. It is in the old prison there that the confined conditions which are in complete violation of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment prevail.
I suggest that the sub-committee make several recommendations. First, there must be clarification of the Government's position on the recognition or otherwise of the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic. The Government should bring to the attention of the United Nations Commission in Geneva the ill-treatment that has occurred and point out that the United Nations's visiting group failed to examine the prisons to which most of the allegations related. It should also make a strong recommendation, through the Moroccan ambassador in Ireland, that Mr. Ali Salem Al Tamek should not be arrested if he returns to Laayoune, as he intends to do early next year. He is not a person inclined to use physical force, as he believes in the peaceful advancement of the rights of his people. Moreover, the sub-committee should recommend that the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination should be placed on the agenda for the next General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting. Ireland should give assistance, if sought, to the Saharawi people and offer assistance in stating a case to the International Court of Justice in respect of the allocation of fishing rights, an extremely important issue. As for the International Court of Justice, the applications to it and so forth, international law would be seriously limited if only recognised states could apply to seek vindication of fundamental principles of international law.
I wish to add a footnote. Having been interested in human rights throughout the world for a long time, it is the case that bedouin people or those who live in desert areas are subject to the least vindication of their rights. However, in this case there is literature that provides clear documentation on the identity of the Saharawi people. While their circumstances have changed as the desert has changed, they are a people whom the United Nations has acknowledged are entitled to self-determination. In that moment in 1975 they were robbed of that historical right. Nearly 30 years later the European Union is behaving in a similar fashion for the sake of aggrandisement of some of its member states. For example, France has been selling technology to the Moroccan Government. Members should also remember that the Spanish Government reneged on its responsibilities in times of dictatorship. It is time for Ireland to take a lead in restoring this issue to where it should be. I refer to the circumstances of those who have suffered and died in the refugee camps and occupied territories. Women run everything because the men are involved in a war.
I apologise to the Chairman for speaking at such length, but I make these points because having been there, I am under an obligation to tell the truth as I see it. I discern an incredible fudge in the Irish position. When he spoke to me, the late Brian Lenihan was so convinced of the points I have just made that he rang the Irish delegation to the United Nations and instructed officials to recognise the people's case and change the Irish vote at the United Nations. Some of the permanent officials remonstrated with him and me in this regard. However, immediately after that decision was taken in the 1980s, several European countries followed the Irish example and gave de facto recognition to the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, as I do.