Joe Pitts: “I rise today on behalf of 165,000 refugees living in the middle of the harsh Western Sahara Desert. Just last week I…”

“I rise today on behalf of 165,000 refugees living in the middle of the harsh Western Sahara Desert. Just last week I returned from a visit to these refugees. I was deeply impressed with the strength and determination these people showed in their ability to survive in the midst of such a harsh environment. The Sahrawi people are in refugee camps because of a 20-year territorial dispute with Morocco over the land known as Western Sahara. The conflict ended with an agreement that the United Nations peacekeeping force, called MINURSO, will conduct a free, fair and transparent referendum. Unfortunately, as I saw last week, according to the July 10 report from Kofi Annan to the UN Security Council, Morocco continues to obstruct this process by denying the Swedish de-mining contingent the use of their equipment to carry out their task to remove the hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of land mines, that have been placed in Western Sahara. Mr. Speaker, I urge the Kingdom of Morocco to review its position as requested by the UN so the process agreed to by both parties can continue and the lives of innocent civilians be spared by permitting the team to de-mine the area.”