UN decolonization committee to meet on Western Sahara soon

United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (Committee of 24) is to hold a special session on Western Sahara shortly, said the agency's chairman, Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno.

The committee's members have agreed on holding the meeting to push forward the decolonization process in Western Sahara, through an "effective and broad" exchange of ideas on the issue, Ramirez Carreno said.

The Committee of 24, during the ordinary session closed Thursday in New York, reiterated Western Sahara people's right to self-determination, adopting by consensus a note through which it stressed that the Polisario Front is the only representative of Saharawi people.

The note comes following vain attempts by Morocco's delegate to prevent Polisario's representative, Ahmed Boukhari, from speaking during a committee's meeting.

Morocco's delegate insistently demanded that a certain Mohamed Abba, "a Saharawi elected at the regional poll held last year in Morocco," may also speak on behalf of the Saharawi people.

The committee's reply was that the only poll it is expecting is a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara.

Speaking at the meeting, Boukhari was strongly heckled by Morocco's delegate who broke the diplomatic rules, according to the committee's members.

The committee's chairman firmly answered to the representative of Morocco, describing his behaviour as "deplorable to diplomacy."

He clearly emphasized that according to UN General Assembly, the Polisario Front was Saharawi people's only representative.