APS : Monday, 26 February 2018
ALGIERS-The Algeria-Western Sahara brotherhood and friendship committee was installed Sunday at the People’s National Assembly (Lower House)
under the chairmanship of the Assembly Deputy Chairman Djamel Bouras and in the presence of Ambassador of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) to Algeria Bouchraya Hamoudi Bayoune, recently appointed as Minister of Teaching and Education.
Chaired by MP Saida Bounab, the installation ceremony was attended by MPs, members of the committee and members of the Algerian Committee on Support to the Sahrawi people, including its Chairman Said Layachi.
The committee, made up of friendship groups, aims to “defend the just Sahrawi cause in international events and provide material and moral support to the Sahrawi people until the liberation of all their occupied territories,” said Bouras in a speech.
For his part, the Sahrawi ambassador hailed the Lower House’s permanent support to the Sahrawi cause and people’s right to self-determination, and welcomed “Algeria’s constant stance in favour of peoples’ right to freedom and independence.”
He also hailed Parliament’s participation in the events organized by SADR in the Sahrawi refugee camps.
The Sahrawi diplomat also welcomed the fact that the Algeria-SADR brotherhood and friendship parliamentary committee was the first committee to be installed among the 104 friendship parliamentary committees to be installed by the Lower House’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and the National Community Abroad.
Speaking during the installation ceremony, she underlined the key role MPs should play in the Sahrawi cause by means of parliamentary diplomacy in international forums.
“The Algerian Parliament’s position is clear: respecting and working for the implementation of the United Nations (UN) relevant resolutions, notably the right to self-determination,” stressed the Committee chairwomen.
Moreover, she called to cease the plundering and exploitation of the Sahrawi people’s resources, endow the MINURSO with a human rights monitoring mechanism in the Sahrawi occupied territories and free all Sahrawi prisoners in Moroccan jails.
The installation of the Algeria-SADR brotherhood and friendship parliamentary committee coincides with the celebration of the 42nd anniversary of SADR, she said.
