Full text of the interview:

Interviewer: Assalamu alaikum warahmatu Allah wabarakatuhu, good evening and welcome, dear viewers, to this special meeting inviting Mr. Khalihenna Ould Errachid, President of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs.

Welcome Mr. President.

KOE: Welcome to you.

Question: Mr. President, after the nine vice-presidents’ election and the approval of the Council’s internal regulations, you went on a visit to the Sahrawi provinces and cities. No doubt you listened to thousands or hundreds of questions  and interventions about citizens’ economic and social problems, what is your evaluation of this visit?

KOE: This visit was very positive as its aim was to explain the tasks entrusted to the Council by His Majesty, and which were stipulated in the Royal Council founding Decree. The objective was the direct dialogue with citizens about issues relating to the Council's mission within the context of defending territorial integrity, and the national unity for what concerns the economic, social and cultural development and discussing other projects that are of interest to the region and its inhabitants.

There was a direct and straight forward dialogue concerning human rights, and all the reproaches whether right or unfounded.  It was a fruitful and a positive dialogue. We discussed with all the social classes including elected representatives, young people and women, all of them presenting  their problems. We have heard them with great interest. All these problems would be part of a program which would be given the priority in the Council’s daily work. Actually, we have started working on that. People should know that the Moroccan Kingdom allows freedom of expression and anybody can express his opinion without finding himself in prison just for having expressed his opinion. What people should know is the difference between expressing one’s opinion and violence.

Question: This is on the domestic level, at the international level you carried out visits to France and Spain and you met different parties and parliamentary operators. How would you evaluate this visit and to what extent these countries welcomed this visit?

KOE: The visit was really successful in France and Spain, as we met, in France, the parties of the majority and the parties in the opposition as well as the parliamentary groups, the general opinion, the press, TV and radio and all the media means in addition to the strategic studies institutions who play an important role in these countries. The visit to France was a short one which we would complete, but it was very positive. In Spain, we had discussions with the political bodies, especially, the socialist majority party, the popular opposition party, heads of the parliamentary groups of the Socialist Party and the Popular Party, with the strategic studies centers which prepare the decisions in these countries, the press and unions, especially the two important unions in Spain, the one which was depending of the previous communist party, which is called now the Unified Socialist Party, the other union depending of the socialists.
The visit to France and Spain was an occasion to present the Royal Council and the tasks assigned to it concerning the autonomy proposal and reconciliation with our brothers in the Polisario Front.
 My personal evaluation for these visits is that they were successful ones and we were fully supported in our attempts to establish peace, dialogue and negotiation in the Sahara region.

Question: Mr. President, you had a meeting, last Tuesday, with the Human Rights Commissariat depending of the United Nations, at the Council's headquarters and you had a long discussion with its members. What is your evaluation of this meeting, while they are now in laayoune meeting with a group of political and human rights operators in the region? How do you see these meetings?

KOE: I talked frankly with the Delegation which members are persons specialized in human rights. I have told them that Morocco is a country with laws and references and when human rights are not respected, the State institutions take the necessary measures.

However, human rights are linked with the Sahara issue. The human rights is not a separate aspect from the Sahara issue, this is why the goal of this Council is to achieve, as we were asked by His Majesty the King, a final solution for the Sahara conflict and all its consequences related to the human rights, which are painful. The main violation of human rights is families separation, the fact that people are not free in their personal behavior, movements, dealing with their property as they wish, and also the fact that people who are 60 or 70 years old do not possess anything, and this is what we are trying to make up for. 

So, human rights are to facilitate the solution of the Sahara issue so as not to remain in a situation of dead end that creates a case of despair. We have asked them and they have understood they should contribute, as human right are parts of the whole issue. That we have to solve the whole, to be able to tackle our real interests which are development, progress, citizens’ happiness, satisfying economic, social and cultural needs, and avoid dealing with things of no interest for us.  
They will see that in Laâyoune, there is democracy as anybody may say anything he likes apart from one thing, and I have been clear with them on that point and they understood me, no democratic country would allow freedom of expression to become a kind of violence. Those who practice violence can not make their voices heard in such kind of organizations, especially, the UNO. But, apart from this, who ever wants to say anything can say it, and we will negotiate with all young people who adopt any kind of stand or ideas, to convince them let down that kind of ideas as they won’t be of any good to anybody.

Question: Talking about dialogue, Mr. President, the last United Nations’ report calls for negotiation and dialogue after the failure of the referendum and the war schemes and even the war option is out. So, What is the Council's strategy in opening dialogue with those who adopt this ideology inside the southern region? And what about the Council's strategy in opening a dialogue with the Polisario?

KOE: The Royal Council's strategy is reconciliation, reconciliation an nothing but reconciliation and our final goal is to consider the Sahara matter closed for ever with the consent of everybody, we don’t want to have a looser or a winner. This is what we said during our visit to the provinces and outside Morocco, autonomy is the kind of decisions existing only in developed countries, not in third world countries, it is a characteristic of developed countries, especially those who are democratically, economically, technologically, culturally and socially developed. Only those countries accept the decentralized governance, and Morocco has chosen this historical concept because His Majesty wants to establish autonomy in the Sahara.

 I am frankly telling our brothers in the Polisario that the war is over, and we can not promise  people to start it again, it is impossible, it is even a crime or rather a suicide. Referendum is impossible for well-known reasons.

The choice is between remaining in the current situation for ever or adopting the autonomy proposal.

To keep things as they are would be beneficial only to those who are doing a deal at the expense of the Sahrawi people’s present and future It is of no interest for any Sahrawi to remain in such a situation as it would lead to further sufferings. People in the camps were not like that since twenty years ago. They were dreaming of revolution, victory, they were militating, but now it is no more the case, because this is life, nothing can continue as it was. If we do not do anything to find a solution, things would become worse.

This is why I am telling our brothers in the camps, I know that people in the camps have no power of decision. I am telling to Polisario and its leaders, my brothers don’t play the card of the big loss, the eternal loss, don’t be like the ONITA front in Angola who thought itself the winner without paying attention to time passing, it thought itself the winner and that it could ask for many things but at the end it has lost everything.
I am saying to them, don’t let our brothers get lost in Lahmada, come and join us as winners and let’s establish autonomy. Autonomy that allows us to manage our affairs.

Question: You have always talked about reconciliation, how do you define it? How can you, in your opinion, achieve this reconciliation with the administration and with citizens?

KOE:  Reconciliation in all fields, first of all with the administration, meaning the Sahrawis who left the Moroccan Kingdom in the 70's should know that things have changed and that His Majesty has set up reconciliation on March 25th, 2006 in Laayoune, the historical reconciliation. The reproaches Sahrawis were making about the administration do not exist any more. Sahrawis  are called today to build this history where they would be responsible for their political, economic and social affairs.

The reconciliation is then a reconciliation for citizens between themselves because there is a real conflict, a conflict between Sahrawi people, there are those who are calling for separation, and those are the minority, and a majority calling for unity. So, there should be a reconciliation, first of all, between us, and then with our administration, then building our future on freedom, dignity, self-governance, hand in hand with this Council established by His Majesty. We have the honour that His Majesty has established this Council to set up autonomy and  reconciliationn on strong and real basis.

Question: Mr. President, what are the practical steps you have taken in order to achieve this reconciliation?

KOE: First of all, we are on the way to put an end for ever to all internal issues. We don't want to see a Sahrawi who goes to jail for his ideas. Human rights are respected but there are also obligations. Rights mean you are free to express your opinion but within the law and constitution context and we can allow young people who have different opinions to enjoy such a freedom but without any kind of violence as violence is not allowed. I told that to the committee which has visited us, and its members understood that.

This is the first reconciliation. The second one is tackling all issues, phosphate issue, young people issue, those who are coming back to Morocco, housing issue, the problem of holders of bachelor's degree and the jobless, all the problems in general. People are asking the Council to achieve all this in one month, which is impossible. We have taken the path that would lead us to surely solving all these problems. This is the first reconciliation to open the door for hope.  
The important reconciliation is with our brothers in Tindouf or more exactly in Rabouni, because we have no problems with our brothers in camps. Our brothers in the Lahmada call me everyday to say that they dont want to stay anymore in Lahmada and that they agree about the reconciliation.

Question: What is your answer to these kind of calls?

KOE: I answered them: with great pleasure, and said we would do. We are here for that, I discuss with the Polisario everyday and people should know we do. Most of them say that they have been in Tindouf  for 30 years and they have no more patience to stay in Lahmada. That's why I have a problem in talking with Rabouni but I am sure the situation won’t last and that some day we would agree with Rabouni, this is why I said to my brother Mohamed Abdelaziz, 30 years of suffering is enough.

Question: Mr. President, inside the Council, there are some members who talk about the fact that the procedure for the election of the committees, as stipulated in the Internal Regulations of the Council, has been slow. Even outside the Council, people ask: What is your work strategy in the future within the framework of these committees?

KOE: Your are asking the Council to solve things that have lasted many years within a short time. I do undertsand these claims as they reflect people’s confidence in the Council. We can  achieve what the administration failed to do for many years, this is great, but we have to work with professionalism and with the assistance of implementation mechanisms available in the other departments of the State.

Thus, an exceptional session will be held to constitute the committees and then, we will start discussing autonomy in this session.

Committees should, first of all, discuss identified studied issues which will be presented in recommendations to the Council and then to His Majesty for the decision to be taken about them. This is why we are preparing files related to housing and to other sectors and it will be the ground for committees' work, then there would be recommendations which would constitute the implementation mechanisms.

Question: When would the extraordinary session be held?

KOE: The extraordinary session will be held within the next days.

Question: Mr. President, some citizens noticed during your meetings with them in the southern regions that you were aggressive, and those who were present during these meetings said that there were new aspects in the President’s speech, how would you reply to these sayings?

KOE: This is an interpretation. I was straight forward with people of the region and with our brothers in the Polisario Front. I said to them: you have or you had some claims and we are trying to find a solution. They are right in some claims but who wants to achieve a solution has to commit himself, that is he has to know the Sahrawis’ interest, but, sometimes they are wasting time in too much talk and many useless interpretations. I wanted to talk frankly to people so there would be no interpretation. I will tell them what the State would be doing for them in different fields, and what is asked from them as a national obligation, as we should not receive only but give as well. You are asking for something, you have to give something. The minimum is to be rigorous.

For instance, to the youth people, I will say : you want to express your point of view, please do, nobody would stop you from doing so, but do it peacefully, no need for violence and then your families come to cry about your situation. What for?
 Express your opinions but peacefully, with no violence, and we are hearing you.

Question: Did you listen to them?

KOE: We listen to their claims, and to prove that we presented a special requisition to His Majesty in order to ask  for his amnesty. Did we not hear them, in what we are doing while looking for those who escaped, did we not hear them concerning all those still in jail and whose case we are tackling. We do listen to them but we ask them in the same time to be positive, as we are, too.
I am asking only for dialogue and commitments, through dialogue we reach solutions even for political issues, dialogue in all fields even with separatists to convince them that separation is not possible and it is useless, and even harmful. 

Why do we quarrel about something that can not be achieved, which is impossible, and unrealistic, while we have, in hand, realistic and possible things such as the autonomy  which gives full right to participate in political elected institutions managing political and economic affairs,  and to enjoy wealth and administration. Sahrawis have their own wealth and they should seize the opportunity to take advantage of it, otherwise they would cry when it is too late.

Last question:   Mr. President, what is the meassage you would like to transmit via Laayoune Regional  TV Channel?

KOE: I would like to transmit a message to Mohamed Abdelaziz, Secretary General of the Polisario Front and its leaders and ask them to stop this problem which is continuing for interests you know they are not possible to achieve. Stop lying to our people in Lahmada camps, to our families and to young people. Don't make promises about things you know are not to take place. You know that Baker's project is dead for forever and that there is no way for a referendum to take place.

So, since there is no referendum, let’s negotiate with our heads up. Come to say your word about the autonomy and face the citizens' real problems.

Interviewer: Thank your Mr. President
KOE: Thank you
Interviewer: Thank you dear viewers and see you soon.