PRETORIA, South Africa (CU)_A former South African Ambassador to Cuba has called on US President-elect Joe Biden to provide assistance in ending the illegal occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco.
In an open letter addressed to the President-elect, Phatse Justice Piitso urged Biden to set things right, noting that “Africa is not complete without the independence of the state of the Saharawi people.”
“[…] to implore upon you (Biden), that in the responsibility entrusted to you by the majority of the people of the great American nation, that you change what the past history could not change,” the letter read.
The Ambassador further noted that the international community has a responsibility to bring to an end “the brutality of the Moroccan government against the people of Saharawi”, and to liberate them from “the bastion of Moroccan colonialism”.
Piitso went on to say that the people of West Sahara deserve freedom of expression, freedom of movement and freedom of speech, and that a peaceful resolution of the conflict is in the best interest of international peace and security.
“There is not a nobler a cause than to give freedom to the last remaining colony on the African continent,” he concluded.
Senior government officials and diplomats from the African continent are not the only ones who have voiced their concern and called for support from the United States for a peaceful resolution of this conflict.
Several American politicians, diplomats and intellectuals, including former US Secretary of State, James Baker III, Ambassadors John Bolton and Christopher Ross, have strongly criticized the outgoing US President, Donald Trump’s decision to recongnise Morocco’s illegal occupation of the territory of Western Sahara, as part of a deal under which, the North African country agreed to normalise its diplomatic ties with Israel.
The United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, members of the UN Security Council, as well as many other countries, trade unions and world leaders have taken similar views regarding the matter.
