Morocco replies

Morocco replies

On May 5, 1997, The Jakarta Post published the right to reply
of the Algerian Embassy contesting the commentary on the photo
published by your daily on April 27, 1997, illustrating the visit
of James Baker to the region of North West Africa. Although your
comment was factual and impartial, the Algerian ambassador
allowed himself to involve explicitly Morocco in his
clarification inserting some tendentious allegations which have
nothing to do with the commentary contested.

Since Morocco was mentioned and some malevolent insinuations
were expressed against my country, I would like to exercise my
right of response to stress what follows:

* Though it did not appreciate the publication of the above
mentioned commentary, the Moroccan Embassy decided not to react
in order to avoid to transpose a conflict opposing two neighbors
in the columns of the Indonesian press.

* The conflict in the Sahara lasts more than 20 years because
Algeria created, financed and equipped with arms a secessionist
movement to oppose the completion of the territorial integrity of
Morocco, whose judicial links with the Saharan territories were
recognized by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Peculiarly, this movement did not exist during the Spanish
occupation.

* In its impulsive gratuitous propaganda, the Algerian right
of response speaks of gesture of good will. However, it forgets
to underline two important specifications:

- the freed people were unfortunately detained for many years in
the Algerian territory, a neighbor, member of the Maghreb Arab
Union.

- the gesture of good will could have been highly appreciated if
it had concerned the thousands of sequestered people in what is
called "refugee camps of Tindouf". The violations of elementary
human rights in these camps have been reported to the UN Human
Rights Committee by dozens of people who risked their lives to
escape these camps.

* The affirmation supported in the third point of the right of
response according to which "Algeria and Mauritania are in
conformity with the settlement plan" implies that Morocco is not.
This is a fallacy because it is Morocco which always calls for
integral implementation of the settlement plan initiated by the
United Nations. The maneuvers of the "Polisario" and its
protector -- which acts not as observer, but as a concerned party
-- bring to a dead lock in the Settlement Plan for more than one
year because they fear the outcome of the referendum.

* The insidious excesses of the Algerian clarification remind
us of the days, we believed gone to no return, when Algerian
embassies were the official horn of propaganda for the
"polisario". Obviously, the world has changed while Algeria has
not. Yet, other subjects which heckle the Algerian Embassy are
not lacking. They might have surely interested the readers of The
Jakarta Post.

OMAR HILALE

Ambassador of Morocco

Jakarta