By Kevin McCauley
The Polisario Front, the liberation group that has waged a decades-long fight for independence for Western Sahara from Morocco, has extended its contract with Independent Diplomat through next March.
ID is the New York-based firm of Carne Ross, a 15-year veteran of the British foreign service and United Nations.
Ross resigned from Britain’s diplomatic corps in 2004 after giving then-secret evidence to the inquiry into the use of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the Iraq war.
According to its website, ID’s goal is to address the “diplomatic deficit” created by a “diplomatic system that excludes or marginalizes many governments and groups most affected by the decisions made within in.”
The PF, which has been recognized by the U.N. since 1979 as the representative of the people of Western Sahara, is outlawed by the Moroccan government.
ID also works for the Government of South Sudan, which received independence from Sudan last year.
The Government of Switzerland and Humanity United, a non-governmental organization, provided ID with $450K during the six-month period ended April to support the South Sudan work.
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