Today, exactly 20 years after the signing of a UN ceasefire agreement MPs, campaigners and former senior British diplomat Carne Ross, will visit Downing Street to deliver a letter calling on Britain to use her role within the UN Security Council to help enforce the terms of the ceasefire and hold a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara. The letter includes the signature of former UN special representative in Western Sahara who resigned his post in 2006 in protest at UN inaction on the issue.

The UN negotiated-ceasefire agreement signed in 1991 brought to an end 16 years of fighting between the Polisario Front and Moroccan forces who had unlawfully annexed the territory in 1976. Under the terms of the ceasefire a referendum on self-determination was promised. Twenty years later it has yet to be carried out. In the meantime over 100,000 Saharawi continue to live in refugee camps in the Algerian desert whilst the rest of the population suffer under an unlawful occupation.

The letter will be delivered by a delegatation led by Jermey Corbyn MP and members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara and will include the former diplomat reponsible for Britain’s policy on the Western Sahara at the UN, Carne Ross. The letter will also raise the issue of human rights abuses suffered by Saharawi’s in the occupied territories.

After the delegation, there will be a public meeting in the Palace of Westminster – Western Sahara and the Arab Spring – where leading academics and experts will discuss the impact that the democracy reform movements sweeping the region might have on this “forgotten conflict”.

Cathy Jamieson MP said today:
“With the Arab Spring reshaping the political landscape of the region now is the time for the UN Security Council to fulfil its obligation to enforce international law in Western Sahara. On this, the 20th anniversary of the 1991 ceasefire agreement, we call on David Cameron to increase efforts to ensure that the agreed referendum on self-determination is carried out. Twenty years is too long but it is not too late for international law to be applied and a peaceful resolution brought to this conflict.”

Jeremy Corbyn MP said today:
“After 36 years the injustice goes on; the people of the Western Sahara are denied their basic legal right to their own self determination and right of return home. Instead most of the rest of the world looks the other way whilst they remain in refugee camps and their fish and minerals are exploited. Time to wake up and act.”


DETAILS:
4.30pm Delegation to Downing Street

6.30pm Public Meeting: Western Sahara and the Arab Spring.

Location - Palace of Westminster.
Speakers include: Dr Catriona Drew, Lecturer in International Law at SOAS
Paul Whiteway, Director of Independent Diplomat's London office,
Lamine Baali (POLISARIO Front)

To attend email:  cathy.jamieson.mp@parliament.uk

Signatories to the letter include:

Francesco Bastagli (UN Special Representative on Western Sahara (2005 – 2006))
Cathy Jamieson MP (Vice Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara)
Jeremy Corbyn MP (Vice Chair, Parliamentary Human Rights Group)
Mark Williams MP (Secretary APPG on Western Sahara)
Ann Clwyd MP
Kelvin Hopkins MP
Jonathan Edwards MP
Paul Flynn MP
Andy Love MP
John Hilary (Executive Director, War on Want)
Dr Dimitrina Petrova (Executive Director, Equal Right Trust)
Stefan Simanowitz (Chair, Free Western Sahara Network)
John Gurr (Western Sahara Resource Watch)
Danielle Smith (Director, Sandblast)
Natalie Sharples (Western Sahara Campaign UK)
Johanna Svanelind (Students for a Free Western Sahara)