A diplomatic celebration of African unity in Canberra has degenerated into an undiplomatic altercation, with officials from the Moroccan embassy verbally abusing a representative of the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara while attempting to block him from entering the venue.
The representative Kamal Fadel, who had been formally invited to the Albert Hall event on Thursday evening, was initially stopped from entering by Moroccan diplomats. Australian federal police officers and other African ambassadors were forced to intervene, a video seen by Guardian Australia shows.
“This is a total embarrassment for the African missions here and I, as a police officer, shouldn’t have to be dealing with this,” AFP agent Chris Hedley said in the video.
Hedley later told the three Moroccan officials, as they blocked the entrance to the hall: “You have embarrassed yourself and any goodwill you had with the people here is gone.”
There is a long-running dispute over the status of Western Sahara, a disputed territory on the north-west coast of Africa.
Western Sahara is partly controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which Fadel represents, but the territory is largely occupied by Morocco after it illegally annexed a vast swathe of land in 1976.
Morocco’s claim to the territory is mostly unrecognised internationally and has been dismissed in the international court of justice. Western Sahara remains on the UN’s decolonisation list of non-self-governing territories.
Last week’s event was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Organisation of the African Unity (OAU), the forerunner to the African Union (AU).
Video of the fracas shows three officials from the Moroccan embassy in Canberra waiting at the Albert Hall entrance, standing in a line barring Fadel from entering.
The video shows Fadel pushing forward in an attempt to enter and being blocked. One of the Moroccan officials claims: “I swear he hit me, he punched me!” Hedley responded: “For the record, he did not hit you.” The Moroccan official then calls out “stupid” several times.
After 30 minutes of negotiation, Fadel was allowed to attend the event, escorted inside by other African diplomats. Inside, Fadel was greeted by and posed for photographs with the Australian governor-general.
As a representative in Australia of the Polisario Front – the Western Sahara independence movement – Fadel was invited to the event by the South African high commissioner, Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, who is also the dean of the African diplomatic corps in Australia.
Fadel’s invitation – as a guest of South Africa – was agreed by African ambassadors in Australia ahead of the event.
In a statement, Fadel expressed his “sincere thanks and gratitude to all the African ambassadors who did the right thing and prevented the attempt to hijack the Africa Day event in an unprecedented and illicit manner”.
He thanked the AFP for “providing security and dealing with the incident in a highly professional manner”.
In a letter to Van Schalkwyk, Fadel wrote: “This was a very serious incident. I was mistreated, pushed around … and intimidated.”
Fadel said the actions of the officials “caused grave embarrassment to all the Africans and their friends who were celebrating an African historical and important day”.
“The celebrations held on this auspicious occasion are also meant to showcase our unity and pride as Africans. It is an occasion of joy and hope, not of aggression and intimidation.”
Subsequently, the South African high commission wrote to Fadel, telling him it regarded “the efforts to prevent your attendance as serious, unacceptable and in no way an indication of how our guests should be treated”.
“You were fully within your rights to attend the event at our invitation but also to attend it without any obstruction or abuse.”
A spokesperson for the AFP confirmed officers attended the function “as part of their usual duties”. “No complaint of assault has been received by the AFP.”
The Moroccan embassy in Canberra did not respond to a request for comment.
