Fórum Canario Saharaui denounces the constant support of the Polisario Front by Canary Islands institutions
The Fórum Canario Saharaui has denounced the constant presence and support of the Polisario Front by the Canary Islands institutions at the expense of the taxpayers.
The Forum indicated that "on a disproportionate number of occasions, those responsible for the public management of the Canary Islands turn their headquarters into a sort of headquarters of the Polisario Front, or its unofficial delegation on the island".
The official communiqué of the Polisario Front is reproduced below:
COMMUNIQUÉ FÓRUM CANARIO SAHARAUI:
The Fórum Canario Saharaui denounces the constant presence and support of the Polisario Front by the Canary Islands institutions at the expense of the taxpayers.
Following the recent and umpteenth visit in recent days to the Cabildo of Gran Canaria of Abdulah Arabi, the highest representative of the Polisario in Spain, this Forum wishes to record that:
We observe with perplexity and disapproval how every year, on a disproportionate number of occasions, those responsible for the management of the Cabildo turn its headquarters into a sort of "headquarters" of the Polisario, or its unofficial delegation on the island. All this is done through a wide range of events (conferences, concerts, etc.) organised by the heads of the Solidarity Department of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, headed by Carmelo Ramírez. By coincidence or not, he is also president of the State Federation of Institutions in Solidarity with the Sahara (FEDISSAH). The last and infinite episode happened a few days ago with the conference "48 years building the Saharawi state: SADR, an irreversible reality".
It is for this reason that we must denounce the use of public funds and resources, through personal, arbitrary and militant decisions, for a cause alien to both the main interests that this institution should serve and the Canarian taxpayers who support it. A constant waste of money to repeatedly and ostentatiously extol and support an organisation whose terrorist past caused so much pain and tragedy to a considerable number of Canary Islanders. This is a grotesque paradox worthy of the greatest shame and ignominy. An economic waste extended to other island institutions, as is the case of the recent financial subsidy approved by the Canary Islands Parliament in favour of the Polisario de la Canaria, a party that governs the Cabildo, Nueva Canarias.
Parliament in favour of the Polisario, which suddenly went from 300,000 euros to one million.
We understand that it is aberrant to shower money on the Polisario, putting sympathy and solidarity with those who at the same time perpetrated these execrable acts in the past against Canarian workers. And where we should also not rule out a more than likely misuse by those who manage these funds, since the lack of accountability on the part of the Polisario and its constant "oversights" in the administration of humanitarian aid were reflected in the UN Security Council Resolution 2654 of October 2022 regarding the issue: "The delivery of humanitarian aid should be carried out in accordance with UN good practices".
Thus, we believe it is shameful that such amounts continue to be given to the Polisario rulers who manage them, without any control or monitoring other than the exercise of faith in trusting that they will be put to good use, assuming that they will reach those who really need them, the population. It is worth reminding the institutions (Canary Islands, Spanish or European) that act in this way with public money, that this way of proceeding, where there is no reliable justification as to how, when and to whom the funds have been allocated once they have reached their destination, is far removed from the basic standards established in any administration. If it is not permitted here, it is equally unethical to do so in the knowledge that the aid may be lost along the way once it has been delivered. In this case, it rains on wet ground, but we keep stumbling over the same stone (OLAF Report, 2015).
In this way, the abject events that took place in the 'black decade' (1977-1987) with the Polisario's attacks on Canary Islands fishing boats on the Saharan bank, which caused so many human losses, are once again disregarded. In this sense, these Canarian victims are waiting, in the midst of their weariness, for justice and reparation through the oft-promised draft of the regional Victims of Terrorism Law. A law that has been suspiciously delayed after empty promises by previous presidents or repeated and dilatory non-compliance by the political parties in the Canary Islands parliament.
That is why, from this association, we demand that the new Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, by virtue of the power that his new post and functions confer on him, to promote these reparations to the victims in a definitive manner. That which, as president of the Canary Islands, he did not dare to implement, deliberately remaining in a drawer indefinitely.
At this point, and due to all of the above, it goes without saying that we reject the content of what was said by the speakers at the town hall event. We believe that the time has come for the Canarian institutions to honour and restore the memory of those who fell at the hands of those who receive so much servile and submissive praise from the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, at the time the Polisario victimiser. A terrible contradiction that represents an incomprehensible public whitewashing.
