In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate
Sahrawi people everywhere,
Today, we celebrate forty-eight years of the establishment of the Sahrawi State, which was the culmination of a long history of resistance and continued hard struggle, through which the Sahrawi people have created a unique and distinguished experience in the history of peoples and national liberation movements.
First, we would like to pay a well-deserved tribute to all the martyrs of the national cause, notably Martyr of Freedom and Dignity, El Wali Moustafa Sayed, and Martyr President Mohamed Abdelaziz.
The proclamation of the Republic was the first practical and eternal embodiment of the sovereign will of the Sahrawi people to live free and dignified, with their distinctiveness and independence, as a lofty goal that our people have sought throughout their decades-old resistance, which was strengthened in its invigorated nationalist dimension by the Zemala uprising led by the late Mohamed Sid Bahim Basiri.
The proclamation of the Sahrawi State was the necessary, urgent, and appropriate move made by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (Frente POLISARIO) as a response to the abhorrent and undisguised colonial manoeuvres aimed at circumventing the right of an entire people and confiscating their whole homeland.
In addition, the establishment of the Sahrawi State was a turning point in our people’s existential struggle for freedom and independence in of a series of other successive and decisive milestones starting with the establishment of the Frente POLISARIO and the commencement of the armed struggle, the declaration of the national unity and the establishment of the Sahrawi National Council, leading to the establishment of the State, the formation of the Government and the building of the national administration.
Sahrawi people everywhere,
Today, forty-eight years have elapsed during which time our people have created an epic tale of struggle and determination on all fronts to build the Sahrawi State with its national bodies and institutions and establish its standing and its international relations.
The Sahrawi people have the right to be very proud of their State, which has made great strides in various domains. Today, with its executive, legislative and judicial powers, it is carrying out aptly its national affairs despite all the difficulties of war and the hardships of refuge and exile, setting good examples and creating distinguished experiences in vital sectors such as administration, health, and education, among others.
The Sahrawi State is proud of the pioneering role played by Sahrawi women in our struggle and on various fronts of national action. It equally applauds the tireless and effective participation of young people, reflected today in their presence in all national institutions, foremost of which is the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army, as an epitome of engagement and continuity now as well as in the future.
Sahrawi people everywhere,
On its forty-eighth anniversary, the Sahrawi Republic extends its thanks, appreciation and gratitude to all brothers, friends, and allies in the world, foremost among them brotherly Algeria. We congratulate this great country, with its great people and army, on the profound transformation it is witnessing under the comprehensive reforms led by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. This great country has not budged an inch from its positions of support for just causes and peoples’ struggles for freedom and self-determination, notably the Palestinian and Sahrawi peoples.
Like the peoples and countries of the world, the Sahrawi people, as is the case of Algeria, the country of the glorious November Revolution, and South Africa, the country of Nelson Mandela, only want a world where justice prevails and where international law and international humanitarian law are applied without hesitation or discrimination.
This is an occasion to convey a message of solidarity and support to the brotherly Palestinian people in their just struggle to establish their independent State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. We condemn and denounce the genocidal policy pursued by Israel against defenceless civilians in Gaza and elsewhere.
In these days when our people everywhere are proudly and enthusiastically commemorating Sahrawi State Day, we salute the international solidarity movement whose members have been present with us in many events and activities, such as the Sahara Marathon that is gathering many participants from Africa, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
Europe is called upon today, as individual States and as the European Union, to contribute practically to the establishment of genuine and lasting peace in North Africa with strict respect for international law, international humanitarian law and European law regarding Western Sahara.
That contribution will be genuine and successful only by supporting a solution that is based on legitimacy and enables the Sahrawi people to exercise their legitimate right to self-determination and independence, by abstaining from encouraging injustice, expansionism, and aggression of Morocco, and by refraining from concluding any agreement with the Kingdom of Morocco affecting the airspace, territory, or territorial waters of Western Sahara.
This is also an occasion to remind the President of the Spanish Government that the Spanish State, by trying to treacherously stab the Sahrawi people in the back again as was the case in the banditry Madrid Accords of 1975, cannot change its legal status as a colonial power with the obligation to complete the decolonisation of Western Sahara.
Any relationship between the Spanish State and the Kingdom of Morocco at the expense of the Saharawi people and their legitimate rights would be nothing but a flagrant violation of international law and a new crime that would stain the Spanish State with more blood of defenceless Sahrawis.
Sahrawi people everywhere,
As a founding member of the African Union, the Sahrawi Republic plays its international role and fulfils its obligations within the framework of the continental organisation in the interests of peace, stability and prosperity in Africa and the world.
We expect the African Union to assume its responsibility towards Western Sahara, as an African issue par excellence, and to address it urgently to resolve the conflict between two of its member States by ending the illegal Moroccan military occupation of parts of the territory of the Sahrawi Republic in line with the principles and objectives of the Constitutive Act of the Union, notably respect for the borders existing upon independence.
While noting with satisfaction the level of fraternal and neighbourly relations with brotherly Mauritania, we call on the countries and peoples of the region to strengthen cooperation and coordination efforts to address the great dangers besetting our region, especially those resulting from the expansionist and aggressive policies pursued by the Moroccan Makhzen regime.
As we have repeatedly warned, we warn today once again against the gradual and escalating actions of the occupying states of Morocco aimed at creating hotbeds of tension and instability in our region, not only by flooding it with its drugs and encouraging and supporting organised crime gangs and terrorist groups, but also by involving infamous criminal colonial powers and opening the door wide for them through suspicious alliances to promote their subversive agendas.
We appeal to the brotherly Moroccan people with an outstretched hand to achieve a real, just, and lasting peace. We are confident that the free people of Morocco do not accept the injustice and oppression being inflicted on their Sahrawi brothers and neighbours. They know very well how firm and strong the Sahrawi people are in defending their right, but they also realize how good, peaceful, and generous the Sahrawi people are in the framework of proper relations based on mutual respect, good-neighbourliness, and cooperation among all the peoples and countries of the region.
Sahrawi people ,
Since 13 November 2020, the national cause has entered a new phase because of the torpedoing by the occupying state of Morocco of the ceasefire agreement and its occupation of new parts of our national Territory.
On such a historic day, we would like to pay a well-deserved tribute to the heroes, the combatants of the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army, as they fight the enemy with firm steadfastness and unrelenting fortitude, all determined to complete the task of liberation.
The grave violations and targeting of defenceless Sahrawi civilians and their property by the occupying state of Morocco indicate a new escalation of the policies of brutal repression, abuse, and siege because of its dismal failure to legitimise its occupation and break the valiant Sahrawi resistance.
Our message to our steadfast people in the Occupied Territories and southern Morocco is a message of solidarity and support, a message of loyalty to the martyrs. We salute the Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails, the heroes of Gdeim Izik, their fellows and families, as they raise the banner of resistance, steadfastness, and defiance high in the face of the invading executioners.
The occupying state of Morocco continues to obstruct international efforts to decolonise Western Sahara, with the undisguised and shameful complicity of some known parties, including within the UN Security Council.
We emphasise the duty of the United Nations to protect defenceless civilians in a conflict zone under its direct responsibility and to expedite the implementation of the mandate of its mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO, which is the holding of a referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi people, thus completing the decolonisation of Africa’s last colony.
Once again, the decisive response of the Sahrawi people to the intransigence and escalation of the occupying state of Morocco will be greater cohesion, close ranks, attachment to the sacred bonds of national unity, and a firm resistance to the enemy’s plans and plots and its increasing attacks on our domestic front.
As was the case with the Moroccan military invasion of our country on 31 October 1975, the Sahrawi people today, with the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army at the forefront, are more determined to meet the challenge. Nothing will dissuade our people from attaining, by all legitimate means, their sacred rights, which are inalienable, imprescriptible, and non-negotiable.
On its forty-eighth anniversary, the Sahrawi Republic is an irreversible national, regional, and international reality that cannot be bypassed as a deep-rooted reality, a factor of equilibrium and stability in the entire region, and an unstoppable force that will move forward on the path of liberation and construction, until the completion of its sovereignty over all its national territory.
Long live the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Long live the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro
Long live the Sahrawi people Intensifying the Struggle to expel the Occupier and regain Sovereignty.
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