Progressive fiscals give Sánchez the change of stance on Sahara and ask him to advance towards the referendum

They urge the Executive to comply with Spain's international obligations with the territory

MADRID, 10 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Progressive Union of Prosecutors (UPF) has regretted this Monday the change of position that the Government of Pedro Sánchez has materialized in relation to Western Sahara, considering that it "contravenes current international law", while urging it to adopt " the necessary measures" to achieve the holding of the self-determination referendum in the territory.

UPF has made this statement in a letter sent to Sánchez, collected by Europa Press, after a delegation of prosecutors and jurists visited the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria) between April 2 and 9 to "deeper in the legal study and analysis of the current situation of the Saharawi People and the current legality".

The association of prosecutors reproaches this turn in international politics, understanding that "it aggravates the positions held by our previous governments and, what is even more worrying, contravenes current international law."

"We consider that your support for the autonomy proposal for Western Sahara within Morocco -which this Kingdom has been proposing since 2007- flagrantly fails to comply, among others, with the 1991 Peace Plan that the Kingdom of Morocco itself signed with the Polisario Front, later approved by the UN Security Council", specified UPF.

In this context, he urges Sánchez to "adopt the necessary measures to ensure compliance with all the international obligations that correspond to Spain to achieve the holding of the referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara."

In this regard, it stresses that these are "obligations contracted not only as a member of the European Union and of the international community, but, fundamentally, as a colonial power".

UPF recalls that "since 1963 --when the United Nations considered Western Sahara as a non-autonomous territory and declared that it should be decolonized through a self-determination referendum-- our country has not effectively complied with the obligations derived from its condition of administrative power".

And it points out that, "in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter, Spain has the duty to promote the interests of the Saharawi people, in order to obtain their social, economic, political and educational progress; as well as promote the help said people, to form appropriate forms of self-government, in accordance with their political aspirations and transmit periodic information to the UN on the situation in which the Saharawi people find themselves".

For the association of prosecutors, "the failure to comply with said obligations is a chronic legacy from the times of the Franco dictatorship" and the new position of Spain "not only perpetuates this historical inaction, but also seems to align itself with the unworthy and illegal agreement signed in 1975 by our country (Madrid Pacts), by which Spain ceded part of the territory of Western Sahara to Morocco and another part to Mauritania".

"This situation worries us enormously, since his decision regarding Western Sahara, far from contributing to the completion of the decolonization process, constitutes an alliance with the Kingdom of Morocco, which has been responsible for blocking this process for almost 50 years," he denounces.

However, the UPF warns that "any solution outside the framework of international law and compliance with the obligations that correspond to Spain will mean the loss of a historic opportunity to consolidate Spain's leadership in the conquest of democracy and the liberties and to return the stolen future to the people of Western Sahara".