Communist MP Jean-Paul Lecoq is intending to organize a conference on the Sahara, Morocco's Southern Provinces, which is claimed by the Algerian-backed Polisario separatists.

   "The move of the French Communist Party is inappropriate," Mr. Poniatowski told reporters at a lunch-debate, describing the Polisario as a "remainder of the cold war."

   "This is sheer agitation and activism" Mr. Poniatowski said, noting that the communist party "remains locked in a stream of ideas that belongs to the cold war."

   "It is an action which is above all a political movement that will allow it (the party) to exist,” he said.

   French socialist deputy, Marietta Karamanli had earlier voiced surprise to see her name included in the list of the deputies supporting the conference, slated for June 19.

   “I discovered with surprise my name on this invitation,” she told Mr. Lecoq in a mail. “As I told your collaborator, the negotiators of this file are not among the invitees, while they can speak about Morocco’s commitments” in this regard, she wrote.

   The Sahara was a Spanish colony until 1975, when Spain pulled out, ceding the territory to Morocco under the Madrid Accord.

Source: MAP
News and events on Western Sahara issue / Corcas