POLISARIO Front’s Representative to Australia and New Zealand, Kamal Fadel, was the guest speaker of the Faculty of Law of the University of New South Wales (Australia), which organised a talk on Western Sahara, on Thursday.

The presentation by the Saharawi diplomat was under the title: “Western Sahara – Africa’s last colony, Denial of basic human rights”, and tackled the background of the issue of Western Sahara from the period before Spanish colonialism until now.

The speaker concentrated on the issue of the breaches of the Human Rights of the Saharawi People by Morocco, mainly the denial of the right to self-determination, the denial of civil and political rights, the refusal to allow peaceful demonstrations, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, degrading treatment and political murder.

He also brought up the question of the Illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the Saharawi people stressing on the Australian companies’ involvement in such exploitation.

On the other hand, the speaker outlined the recent developments of the Saharawi issue underlining Morocco’s obstructions of the peace process and its lack of cooperation during the recent rounds of the negotiations under UN auspices.

He concluded the talk by emphasising two facts that he estimates necessary to always stress to understand the issue: the first is that Western Sahara is a decolonisation issue that has been on UN agenda since 1963, the second is that Moroccan adventure in Western Sahara is an invasion and occupation by force of another country in violation of UN resolutions and the ICJ verdict of 1975.

He considered therefore, that a just, democratic and viable solution entails giving the final word to the Saharawis to decide their future in accordance with UN decolonisation doctrine and resolutions through a free and fair referendum