PSM delegation touring the Southern Cone
A delegation of the Saharawi Movement for Peace (MSP) composed of its first secretary, Hash Ahmed Bericalla and the person in charge of External Relations, Mohamed Cherif, paid a visit to Argentina from 13 to 18 May at the invitation of the International Committee for Dialogue and Peace.
During their stay in Buenos Aires, the delegation took part in several colloquiums and held meetings with numerous political and academic personalities and the Argentinean media. Upon arrival on 14 May, the delegation participated in a dinner organised by the Committee and attended by its President, Graciela Cosentino, its Coordinator Adalberto Agozino and numerous personalities, including Dr. Julio C. Spota, Rector of the Argentine National Defence University, the Secretary of International Affairs of the Ministry of Defence, Ambassador Juan Carlos Olima and several high-ranking officers and university professors.
On Wednesday, 15 May, the delegation took part in a conference entitled "Promoting Peace Projects in Conflict Areas" held at the Officers' Club of the National Gendarmerie of Argentina. Both the President of the Committee, Dr. Graciela Cosentino, and its Coordinator, Adalberto Aghozino, explained the circumstances in which the International Platform for Dialogue and Peace was created, stating that "it is an NGO created as a result of the International Conference for Dialogue and Peace organised by the MSP in the Senegalese capital Dakar at the end of October 2023". They stated that the committee is composed of intellectuals, politicians and parliamentarians from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Peru and its purpose "is to support the path opened by the MSP to contribute to a peaceful solution of the Western Sahara problem which has been going on for more than fifty years".
In his speech, the First Secretary of the MSP pointed out that the Movement was formed in 2020 as a response "to the anti-democratic attitude of the Polisario which claims to represent all Saharawis and closes any possibility of internal debate and other political currents and options contrary to its totalitarian system". Hach Ahmed added that the "MSP was born with the vocation to set itself up as a third way and to generate a new and realistic alternative capable of rescuing the Saharawis and opening to them a horizon of peace and prosperity in their land".
The First Secretary of the MSP sharply criticised the intransigence of the Polisario leaders and their determination to maintain an impossible war and force the Saharawis into an "absurd and useless numantine resistance instead of rectifying and seeking an honourable way out".
In conclusion, Ahmed reaffirmed that his movement "accepts Morocco's 2007 autonomy proposal as a starting point for a compromise solution, without winners or losers, and recalled the road map announced in Dakar", which, he underlined, proposes, after a transitional period of three years, to set up a Saharawi entity with its three powers: executive, legislative and judicial, in the framework of a special status agreed with the Kingdom of Morocco with the necessary guarantees.
For her part, the President of the International Committee for Dialogue and Peace, Dra. Graciela Consentido stated that the approach of the MSP is based exclusively on dialogue which "implies much more than a simple exchange of ideas, but a tool to promote peace and to build realities" and added: "it is a means to mobilise the efforts of the international community to promote peace and trust between nations and peoples based on inclusive dialogue, negotiations and cooperation in order to achieve sustainable peace and harmony in a world marked by violence causing the suffering of millions of people".
The MSP aims to contribute to the resolution of a conflict that has been stagnating for more than fifty years, affecting thousands of people forced to live in harsh conditions in the camps in southern Algeria, concluded Dr. Graciela Consentido.
In this vein, Professor Aghozino pointed out that "the birth of the Sahrawi Movement for Peace or MSP, in opposition to the Polisario and representing a part of the Sahrawi population that does not identify with the political project of the Polisario and that is committed to dialogue and negotiation to reach a political solution to the conflict was acclaimed by politicians of recognised international prestige" adding that "the MSP advocates for an inclusive dialogue involving all components of Sahrawi society; representatives of the traditional authority, tribal notables, as well as civil society".
Professor Aghzino also stated that the "presence among us of the Saharawi delegation is part of the vocation and efforts of the MSP to consolidate itself as a "third way" in the search for a peaceful solution to the problem of Western Sahara and to put an end to the tragedy that the Saharawis have been suffering for half a century".
