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Spanish parliamentary intergroups call for holding of self-determination referendum

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Madrid, May 27, 2018 (SPS)- Spanish parliamentary intergroups “Peace and freedom in Western Sahara,” met recently in Zaragoza, issued a statement in which they renew their commitments to the cause of Western Sahara and the right of the Sahrawi people to hold a referendum on self-determination.
The members of the 14 intergroups of Spanish regional parliaments reaffirmed in their final document their commitment to the Sahrawi cause which is based on the resolutions of the United Nations, on the strict compliance with the international law and legitimate rights of the Sahrawi people to self-determination through a referendum, as a last stage of the decolonization process that has persisted for decades.
They underlined that the Polisario Front is the legitimate and the only representative of the Sahrawi people, recognized by the United Nations and the international community.
The Spanish parliamentarians pointed out that Western Sahara is a Non-Self-Governing Territory in accordance with the international law and has never belonged to Morocco and therefore, they added, “we demand to end the illegal occupation of Western Sahara and the exercise by the Sahrawi people of their right to self-determination.”
They also insisted on the immediate release of the Sahrawi political prisoners, calling “to stop human rights violations in the Moroccan prisons to ensure the physical and mental integrity of the detainees,” while urging the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to appoint “a rapporteur” on human rights for Western Sahara.
They also denounced the plundering of the Sahrawi natural resources, exhorting companies and countries to “start negotiations with the Sahrawi people’s legitimate representative which the Polisario Front.” (SPS)
062/SPS/APS