"If he understands that there is a nuance in the socialist party on the (Sahara) issue, M. Philippe Moureaux deems inappropriate the mobilization around the Polisario, while Morocco is trying to open talks by offering internal autonomy for the southern region of the Sahara," a press release of the Brussels Federation of the SP said.

    The statement came in reaction to a meeting held Thursday at the initiative of the socialist party senator Christiane Vienne, with the aim of creating an inter-parliamentary group in support to the Polisario.

    The polisario is claiming the separation of Morocco's Sahara, a former Spanish colony ceded to Morocco in 1976 under the Madrid Accord signed with Madrid and Nouakchott.

    Moureaux also voiced support to Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara, a plan that was widely welcomed as serious and credible, and that has triggered a process of negotiations under the UN aegis.

    The plan “seems to be the only (initiative) to meet the interests of the populations,” he said.

    Vienne’s move has sparked the indignation of the Moroccans in Belgium and elsewhere.

    The association of the Moroccans living in Belgium denounced it as “irresponsible and provoking,” while the World Alliance of Moroccan Expatriates (known with the French acronym, AMOME) condemned the “use of such a painful issue which is that of the suffering of the populations” of the Polisario-run Tindouf camps, southwestern Algeria.

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