Many African, Caribbean and Asian countries strongly supported Monday the participation of two elected representatives from the southern provinces in the works of the Committee of 24. Several of these countries co-signed a letter to the Chairman of the Committee at the last meeting Caribbean Seminar, calling for the hearing of those elected.
Faced with the determination of the countries hostile to the territorial integrity of the kingdom, the president of the Committee, the ambassador of Venezuela to the United Nations, executor of the Algerian agenda, used a surprise vote for the first time in the history of the Committee of 24, accustomed to making its decisions by consensus.
Several members of the C24 denounced this precedent imposed by the president who had recourse to the vote. This split the Committee further on the first day of its works.
During this close vote, the Committee refused all requests for hearings on the Moroccan Sahara issue, including those of five pro-Algerian petitioners, who were registered at the last minute, including a representative of the Lobbyist Group Independent Diplomat, paid by Algeria to defend the separatist thesis.
By his Machiavellian maneuver, the Chairman of the Committee, Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Ramirez, preferred to sacrifice his own petitioning friends, in order to prevent the hearing of the two elected representatives of the southern provinces.
-News on Western Sahara issue/ Corcas-