Morocco's state-owned news agency MAP has slammed Algeria for publishing a report on Western Sahara. The latter is reportedly conducted by the research services of the German parliament, but to MAP, Algeria is the one behind it. Pro-Polisario media have published a report by the research services of the German parliament (Bundestag) entitled «International Law Aspects and the Western Sahara Conflict», drafted in March 2019. The latter went unnoticed one year before being republished recently by the media. The report describes Morocco's presence in the territory as an «occupation» and «annexation». It makes reference to resolution 3437 adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. The latter urged Morocco «to join in the peace process and to terminate the occupation of the territory of Western Sahara» and described the Polisario as «the representative of the people of Western Sahara». The resolution which reaffirmed «the inalienable right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination and independence», however, was non-binding. In 1981, King Hassan II accepted the referendum proposal in principle. Since then, the situation on the ground has clearly evolved. In 2000, Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, put an end to the Commission for the identification of eligible voters to take part in the referendum. And for good reason, from 1993 to December 1999, only 2,130 candidates were entitled to vote on a list of 51,220 applicants in Western Sahara. MAP calls the report «fake news» On Sunday, Morocco's official news agency reacted to the report in question. «A real large-scale disinformation operation that Algeria is trying to foment by inventing a document which it attributes to the Bundestag», wrote MAP. «This new media ambush was set up by 'Western Sahara Resources Watch', an Algiers platform which orchestrates, from Brussels, all toxic lobbying and anti-Moroccan propaganda operations», it argued. Furthermore, MAP accused in particular German MP Katja Keul (Alliance 90/The Greens) of having presented this report that is largely biased against Morocco to the members of the parliament who ignore the stake of the Sahara question. Indeed, in addition to resolution 3437, the 18-page document refers in particular to the opinion of the Attorney General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Melchior Wathelet, on the agreements between Morocco and the EU and on the 2002 advisory opinion of the Swedish Hans Corell, ex-legal adviser of Ban Ki-moon, on the natural resources of the province. And even when the report's writers mention Morocco's development projects in the territory, they do so with reserve and attribute it to «information from the German government». The media close to the Polisario as well as the Front press agency immediately relayed critical passages from said report.
