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Namibia calls on the 4th Committee to send a visiting mission to Western Sahara to report on the situation on the ground

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New York (United Nations) 14 October 2022 (SPS)- Namibia Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ms. Helena Ndapewa Kusee, reiterated Namibia’s call to the UN General Assembly’s 4th Committee to send a visiting mission to the occupied territories of Western Sahara to report about the situation, in her country’s statement before the Committee on Thursday.
“We reiterate our long standing call for a visiting mission to Western Sahara to provide more accurate accounts of the situation on the ground,” she said.
“The Question of Western Sahara has been on the agenda of the UN since what now feels like time immemorial and still we struggle to find a lasting solution to this long standing conflict,” she regretted, adding however that “Namibia is testimony to the reality that the aspirations towards self-determination and decolonisation do not have to be pipedreams.”
It should be recalled that Nambia had been on the Committee’s list of colonies until it attained independence thanks to the efforts of the UN.
She thanked the UN Secretary General for his report on the Question of Western Sahara and applauded “the efforts by Steffan di Mistura to engage the parties in the conflict”, she regretted however “that, as enumerated in the report of the Secretary General Mr. Di Mistura was forced to call off his visit earlier this year” referring to the obstacles put in front of that visit by the Moroccan authorities of occupation.
She also regretted that “the continued disregard for the UN-brokered referendum and the lack of implementation of Security Council Resolution 658 of 1990 offers no hope for generations of Saharawi who have been born into a state of desolation, characterised by colonial occupation.” (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)