Global Policy Forum

Annan Pessimistic

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By Robert Holloway

Agence France Press
February 20, 2002

In his bleakest report to date on the Western Sahara, Secretary General Kofi Annan said Tuesday it might be time to write off the UN's 11-year bid to solve the dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.


In a report to the Security Council, he recommended extending the mandate of the 260-strong UN observer force until the end of April while the council decided what to do. "The high level of animosity" between Morocco and Polisario and their "winner-take-all mentality" had made it impossible to hold a referendum which they both asked the UN to organise in 1991, Annan said.

He said it was "pointless to pursue" talks on alternative proposals to give the territory extensive autonomy -- favoured by Morocco -- or its possible division, as suggested by Polisario and Algeria. Morocco occupied the Western Sahara -- 260,000 square kilometres (102,000 square miles) of potentially mineral-rich sparsely populated desert -- when Spain, the former colonial power, withdrew in 1975. Polisario fought a guerrilla war for independence until a ceasefire was signed in 1991. The two sides then asked the UN to organise a referendum on the territory's future, but they have disagreed over who should be allowed to vote and more than 48,000 appeals against exclusion from the electoral roll are pending.

Annan set out four options for the council, but the wording of his report suggested that at least two of these were non-starters. A third option was to present the two sides with a non-negotiable division of the territory, giving each "some but not all of what it wants". The fourth option would bring to end the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and write off almost 11 years of UN work and the expenditure of almost 500 million dollars. Annan said MINURSO -- a mission comprising 203 military observers, 25 police officers and 27 soldiers -- had made a significant contribution to maintaining the ceasefire.

But he said "there is no indication that either side intends to resume" hostilities. The report was drafted by Annan's special envoy for the past five years, former US secretary of state James Baker, who met Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in November and King Mohammed VI of Morocco late last month. Endorsing Baker's "pessimistic but realistic assessment," Annan said "we are currently faced with a rather bleak situation with regard to the future of the peace process in Western Sahara."

The UN might revive the referendum plan "but without requiring the concurrence of both parties before action could be taken," he said. But he acknowledged that it "might not be able to hold a free and fair referendum" and said there would be no way of enforcing the result. A second option was to revive Baker's framework agreement and to present it to the parties "on a non-negotiable basis," he said. The third option was to ask the parties "one final time" to discuss a possible division of the territory. If they still disagreed by November 1 this year, the council could present a non-negotiable division to them, he said. Finally, the Security Council could acknowledge that "the United Nations is not going to solve the problem of Western Sahara without requiring that one or the other or both of the parties do something that they do not wish to voluntarily agree to do," he said.

Annan said he was aware that none of his four options would appear ideal to all the parties. "In order to the give the Security Council time to decide, I recommend that the mandate of MINURSO be extended for two months until April 30, 2002," he said.


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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.