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afrol News, 11 October - Front Polisario Minister of Health and member of the National Secretariat of the liberation movement, Mr Mansour Omar, yesterday ended a successful 3-day visit Norway, which is a current member of the UN Security Council. Further Norwegian support was assured of. During their stay in Oslo, Mr Omar and Yahiaoui Lamine - Front Polisario representative to the Nordic countries - met representatives of the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Norwegian Parliament's Committee of Foreign Affairs, as well as a number of Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum. Mr Omar expressed his satisfaction with the Norwegian position on Western Sahara in the Security Council. Norway, as a member of the Security Council, has clearly opposed the Moroccan "framework agreement" as a solution of the conflict. Mansour Omar raised the humanitarian situation in the refugee camps, and asked for sustained humanitarian assistance to the Sahrawi refugees. As a keynote speaker at a seminar at the University of Oslo, Mansour Omar spoke of the Sahrawi people's struggle for the right of self-determination, a fundamental right firmly rooted in international legality and jurisprudence. He stressed that no one, not even Front Polisario, can decide for the Sahrawi people what they want to be and warned against thinking that Front Polisario would give in to pressure from Morocco and the UN to accept anything less than a free and fair referendum. Given that the UN operation MINURSO had arrived in Western Sahara eleven years ago with the specific objective of organising a referendum, he questioned the UN's continued presence in the territory as long as it was not ready to put sufficient pressure on Morocco to comply with the signed Peace agreements and international legality. A separate meeting was held with the chairman and several members of the Norwegian Parliament¹s Committee of Foreign Affairs. The committee is chaired by Mr. Torbjørn Jagland, former Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, chairman of the Norwegian Labour Party and member of the Mitchell Commission for Palestine. Omar and Lamine were also delighted to hold a special meeting with Mrs Trine Skei Grande, parliamentary leader for the governing Liberal Party ("Venstre"). It was Mrs Grande who had nominated SADR President Abdelaziz for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002. In their meetings, the Polisario delegation expressed openness and willingness to discuss the various peace proposals for Western Sahara. At the same time, they underlined the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination through a free, fair and transparent referendum. The Sahrawi delegation also had meetings with the Norwegian Church Aid, The Norwegian Students' Union and the Norwegian Students' and Academics International Assistance Fund. The Norwegian Church Aid hosted the Sahrawi delegation. Sources: Based on Norwegian Sahara Committee and afrol archives.
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