Letter to President Bush Supports Morocco's Western Sahara Initiative and Receives Bipartisan Congressional Support Says Peace in Western Sahara Could Be Major Blow to al-Qaeda

WASHINGTON, April 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a serious example of bipartisanship in foreign policy, 169 members of Congress signed a letter endorsing Morocco's recently released peace plan to solve the 30-year humanitarian crisis in North Africa's Western Sahara. Signers include House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Virtually all of the House leadership on both sides the aisle endorsed the letter (summary below). The Moroccan initiative, deemed "serious and credible" by U.S. Department of State, would grant autonomy to the Western Sahara while respecting Morocco's territorial integrity. In the letter to President Bush, members of Congress stated, "[t]his compromise is a breakthrough opportunity to find an enduring political solution, and U.S. support is critical to its successful implementation. [ ... ] With al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups expanding their presence in North Africa, we are concerned that the failure to resolve this conflict of more than 30 years poses a danger to U.S. and regional security, while simultaneously preventing the economic integration of the Arab Maghreb Union." In a March 3, 2007 op-ed in The New York Times, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, Fredrick Vreeland wrote, "Here is a rare instance, in the post-9/11 world, in which a little encouragement from the United States and other nations could pay large dividends, fostering not only a final resolution for the region's refugees, but a stable North African peace for the first time in decades and a model for conflict resolution in the Middle East." Additional supporters of the letter included: Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman, Tom Lantos and Ranking Minority Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; Majority Whip Clyburn, Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, Rahm Emanuel; Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, John B. Larson; Minority Leader Boehner, House Republican Whip, Roy Blunt; Chairman of the Republican Conference, Adam Putnam; and Chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee, Thaddeus McCotter. More than 80 of the signers are either committee chairmen or ranking members of key committees, subcommittees and elected leadership of the House. Morocco Caucus Chairman, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Gary Ackerman, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, led the effort. Congress urged President Bush "to embrace this promising Moroccan initiative so that it" precipitates a mutually acceptable settlement, and undertake actions "necessary to achieve international acceptance" of the initiative. As a result of unresolved conflict between Morocco and a stateless rebel group called the Polisario Front, 80,000 men, women and children remain in the camps located in southern Algeria. In 2003, an Amnesty International human rights report on the camps expressed serious concerns about the lack of freedom of movement, association and expression granted to the refugees living under Polisario control. The report also noted the Polisario leadership was responsible for grave human rights abuses in the camps. While a cease-fire was signed in 1991, Algeria and the Polisario Front have warehoused tens of thousands of refugees awaiting a long-term autonomy plan. Recent terrorist attacks in Morocco and Algeria highlight the need to resolve this issue and move the region toward greater economic stability, regional security and increased international cooperation. The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principle mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and an interested public in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. This material is distributed by DJE, Inc. and the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.