New York (United Nations)- 03 Mars 2020 (SPS)- Polisario Front Representative at the United Nations, Dr. Sidi M. Omar, called on Security Council to hold Morocco accountable for human trafficking and drug smuggling leading to more instability in the region.
in his letter to the President of the Security Council, Mr Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations, Dr. Sidi Omar considered that “Morocco should he held accountable for its well-documented role in human trafficking and drug smuggling across our region and beyond.”
He recalled that Polisario Front “strongly calls on the Security Council to compel Morocco to uphold its regional and international responsibilities and to desist from its destabilising actions that are threatening security and stability of its neighbours and the whole region.”
He further recalled that Polisario Front has alerted on previous occasions that “he well-documented connivance between Moroccan military and drug lords is what explains how many tons of Moroccan-produced cannabis are smuggled across the illegal Moroccan military wall in Western Sahara.”
The Saharawi diplomat believed that “Morocco therefore should explain to the United Nations and the international community how it is possible that drug and human traffickers are able to pass through Western Sahara, which is entirely encircled by one of the most heavily manned, guarded and militarised walls in the world, which is infested with millions of landmines and equipped with sophisticated radars and surveillance systems.”
The letter comes following the success by a unit from the Sahrawi Army, on Sunday 1st March 2020, to “intercept and seize 725 kilograms of Moroccan cannabis in the region of Ausard. The drugs were being transported across the illegal Moroccan military wall in Western Sahara.”
The letter explains that “the operation is part of the anti-drug-trafficking operations carried out by the Sahrawi Army throughout the Sahrawi Liberated Territories. In conformity with our obligations as an AU Member State and thanks to the growing cooperation with our neighbours, we have actively contributed to curbing the illicit flow of drugs, especially Moroccan-produced drugs, into and across our region,” Polisario Front’s Representative stresses.
It is well known, the letter emphasises, “that Morocco remains the world’s largest producer and exporter of cannabis, as confirmed by many international reports including the 2018 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report of the US Department of State and the World Drug Report 2019 of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.”
In this regard, Dr. Sidi adds “the illegal breach opened by Morocco through its military wall in Guerguerat in southern Western Sahara serves as a point of passage for all sorts of illicit goods including Moroccan produced cannabis and other drugs, which are becoming a major source of funding for transnational terrorist groups operating in the Sahel-Sahara region.” (SPS)