EU - Western Sahara: Morocco Intervened to contain a Dangerous Situation

11/12/10

Mr Eneko LANDABURU, left, and EU Commission Director General for External Relations,Mr Luis AMADO

Washington  / Morocco Board News Service-     Following EU's chief diplomat, Ms. Catherine Ashton, call for calm -She asked the two sides [of the western Sahara conflict] to "remain calm and refrain from any act of violence.", The European Union ambassador to Morocco, a Spanish national, Mr. Eneko Landaburu, in an interview with Spanish Right-Wing Media leader, with a hard-line-anti-Morocco-editorial-line, "LA RAZON", said that Morocco was forced to intervene in the protest Camp stand-off because the [Western Sahara Separatists] group, the polisario, was able to turn what was essentially an economic grievance into a political conflict to benefit its position and thus politicizing the protest and prompting the Moroccan authorities to intervene and dismantle the camp.
He added that the western Sahara Separatists were ready to make a much bigger mess had they succeeded.
The EU ambassador, who is a veteran of European politics, said flat out to the Spanish media outlet “La Razon” that the spanish press has not been partial in its coverage of this conflict
"The spanish press made its coverage to be all in favor of the western Sahara Separatist group, the Polisario Front. I'm not saying that it is not legitimate, but it does not correspond with the reality of what  we are investigating" he added.

As an example of Anti-Morocco media bias in Spain, he mentioned the case of the Western Sahara Dissident, former Chief of Police of the Western Sahara separatists camps in Algeria, Mr. Salma Mustafa, who publicly backed Morocco’s autonomy proposal, and who was then promptly arrested, on his return to the Separatists Camps, located in South-Eastern Algeria.
"He has been arrested, no one knows where, it has been months now, and it is believed that he had been been tortured" explains Mr. Landaburu, who regrets that nothing appeared in the spanish media on this important issue.