Former Minister of Defense Jose Bono He went to Dakar to assert the Moroccan identity of Western Sahara. The Castilian socialist from La Mancha was the main demand of a conference organized this weekend by the Sahrawi Peace Movement, an organization opposed to the Polisario Front, which advocates accepting the autonomy promoted by the Moroccan regime and abandoning the recognized right to self-determination. from ONU.

“In the current political and diplomatic disputes there are guilty, there are guilty and there are innocent,” the former Zapatero-era minister said, interrupted by the noise of those present. “If you would lower your voice in the back, I appreciate it,” he can be heard saying in the live stream, which barely got fifty views. Bono spoke at the second International Conference on Dialogue and Peace in Western Sahara in Dakar, organized by the Sahrawi Peace Movement (MSP) in collaboration with the African Center for Strategic Peace Studies (CISPAIX).

“The Sahara needs solutions. I wish that Morocco, the Polisario Front and all those who have any representation, such as the Sahrawi Peace Movement and Algeria, will sit down at the negotiating table. And this Spain, which bears its historical responsibility and has experience in autonomous matters, helps in the negotiations. The African Union recognizes a country that the United Nations does not recognize. This is an anomaly that no other international organization has,” Bono explains in a 20-minute speech with persistent audio problems.

“Can an independent state be created for several tens of thousands of people, many of whom come from other countries in the region, making decisions autonomously and sovereignly? “Would this pose a threat to security and stability in an already unstable region?” asks Bono. “But what I am absolutely sure of is that this situation does not benefit the victims of this dispute: the families forced to secede and the Sahrawis forced to secede from their land. From the heart of Africa, I humbly dare to call on the wise men of this very rich continent to support a political initiative to end the suffering of the people,” he adds.

According to the socialist, there are two options: “to support a group of Sahrawis who want to create a state, which I consider not very viable for several tens of thousands of people; a state that they sometimes want to base on ethnicity, the resonance of which can sometimes seem xenophobic”; or “to support a solution of self-government and integration that aims at the coexistence, prosperity and dignity of its citizens, and that Morocco and Algeria, the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi Peace Movement and everyone who has something to say in favor of the Sahrawi people. “Let them sit down and think about more than just success at a conference or a speech about finding a solution to the problems of those who are dying and living in poverty in some part of the Sahara.”

Bono became, along with Rodriguez Zapatero and Maria Antonia Trujillo, a staunch defender of the postulates of Morocco, which has illegally occupied the territory of the former Spanish colony since 1975. A year ago he visited the occupied territories. The former defense minister and former president of Castile-La Mancha went from being a staunch detractor of the Alawite regime, which he accused of being a mafia in 2001, to stepping into the last territory in Africa awaiting decolonization with self-confidence. A referendum to determine resolve was thwarted three decades ago in Rabat.

In 2001, Bono went so far as to say: “The King of Morocco talks about his brother, the King of Spain, and the north of Morocco is dominated by the mafia, which sends deceived people here. We should stop talking about it so much.” brotherhood and such good relations with a kingdom that is not a democracy and cannot have the level or respect of a friendly country because it is a dictatorship hidden by the personal power of a monarchy that should be in an archaeological museum,” he said. then.