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UN Security Council Faces

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By Jerome Hule

Panafrican News Agency
June 21, 2002

The UN Security Council faces a huge challenge over the Western Sahara question when it meets in July to decide on what move the UN should make on the territory's deadlocked peace process.


Pending before the Council are four tough options put forward since February by Secretary General Kofi Annan, as to the way forward to defining the status of the former Spanish colony.

The options were prompted by the inability of Morocco and the POLISARIO Front, the pro-independence organisation in Western Sahara, to reach a common agreement on how to resolve the status problem.

"We are currently faced with a rather bleak situation regarding the future of the peace process in Western Sahara," the Secretary General noted in his February report to the Council, referring to the inability of both Morocco and POLISARIO to agree on any measure to get around the problem.

While the two parties have considered most of the options proposed by Annan in previous negotiations since 1991, a major departure now is the recommendation that the Council pursue any of the options without the concurrence of the parties. In one of the options, Annan has asked the Council to consider resuming implementation of a settlement plan agreed to by the parties in 1997.

The plan called for the holding of a referendum on the status of the Territory, to be preceded by the identification of persons eligible to vote in the referendum. The identification exercise was concluded in 1999 but it was overwhelmed by appeals by almost all persons who were not registered, an indication of great dissatisfaction with it.

Concerned that the final outcome, even of a tedious appeals process or the subsequent conduct of the referendum would not be accepted, particularly by Morocco, Annan held back from proceeding to the hearing of the appeals and suggested that the parties sit across the table in search of a political solution.

Those negotiations were held in 2000 and 2001 under the guidance of Annan's personal envoy for Western Sahara, James Baker of the US. Baker proposed to the parties another approach, termed the Framework Agreement, that would make Western Sahara an autonomous part of Morocco for a five-year period, after which a referendum would be held to determine whether the territory could become independent.

While Morocco was disposed to consider the proposal, the POLISARIO was opposed to it.

Annan has put forward the Framework Agreement as a second option that the Council could adopt. Should the Council go for the option, Annan indicated that his envoy would revise the framework, taking into account concerns that had been expressed by the parties without seeking their agreement to his proposals.

"The revised framework agreement would be submitted to the Security Council, and the Council would then present it to the parties on a non-negotiable basis," Annan proposed.

The Secretary General has also presented another option that would allow for the division of the territory of Western Sahara, with one part going to Morocco and the rest becoming an independent Western Sahara State.

"Were the Security Council to choose this option, in the event that the parties would be unwilling or unable to agree upon a division of the Territory by 1 November 2002, my personal envoy would also be asked to thereafter show to the parties a proposal for the division of the Territory that would also be presented to the Security Council," he indicated.

Algeria, a neighbouring country backing the POLISARIO, had proposed the division of the territory during negotiations in the past two years. POLISARIO has expressed readiness to take a look at it, while Morocco has discountenanced it.

The division of Western Sahara was earlier considered between Morocco and Mauritania in 1976 when they were administering powers over Western Sahara following the departure of Spain as colonial overlords.

Explaining the difference, Morocco's Ambassador to the UN, Mohamed Bennouna said the 1976 division considered with Mauritania did not envisage an independent state.

In the last of the options, Annan presented a worst-case scenario in which the Council would conclude that, after 11 years of fruitless efforts, the UN could no longer find a solution to the Western Sahara problem.

In such a situation, the Council would then decide to terminate MINURSO, the UN mission for Western Sahara, for which about 500 million dollars has been spent.

MINURSO's current mandate expires on 31 July, before which the Council is expected to decide its fate and the fate of the peace process.

It is not possible to guess what decision the Council would take in regard to Annan's four options but the decision would certainly not be easy.

When he proposed the options, Annan had hoped that the Council would take a decision in April when the then mandate of MINURSO was to expire. But unable to reach a conclusion, the Council merely extended the mandate of the mission to 31 July without deciding on the options.

PANA has learned that some members of the Council, mainly the Western Permanent members, with the backing of Cameroon and Guinea, had tried this year to impose the framework agreement on the process. The resolution was defeated as the majority of the 15-member body were opposed to it.

Ahead of the July meeting, Council members have been consulting at the level of the experts on the way forward.

But feelers from both Morocco and POLISARIO indicate that the way forward will not come easy. In an interview, Bennouna insisted that Morocco would never accept the division of Western Sahara. The most and only realistic option, he said, is the framework agreement, which he said Morocco is ready to negotiate.

According to him, Envoy Baker is willing to complete his work on the basis of the framework agreement, which he had proposed during the talks of the past two years. "We are ready to negotiate on the basis of Moroccan sovereignty," he said.

POLISARIO's New York representative, Ahmed Boukhari said his organisation would not accept the framework agreement, charging that it is against the fundamental rights of Saharawis to self- determination.

The organisation is, however, ready to explore a solution in the division of the Territory. "Baker should explore that option. Maybe it would work and there might be a breakthrough," he remarked.

He also saw a way out in the settlement plan, noting that it could be implemented if technical obstacles were cleared for the referendum to hold. To Bennouna, however, years of trying have confirmed that the settlement plan was not workable.

The only point the two representatives agreed on was the proposal for withdrawal of MINURSO, which they said, should not be done. "Nobody accepts the withdrawal of MINURSO because it the guarantor of peace between Morocco and POLISARIO," Bennouna said.

Besides the issue of the status of Western Sahara, there are also the problems of refugees and prisoners of war. More than 10 years after the cease-fire between Morocco and the POLISARIO came into force, more than 1,300 Moroccan prisoners of war are still being held by POLISARIO. The organisation had recently agreed to release those prisoners but only 115 were freed.

A number of POLISARIO combatants have also remained unaccounted for, though Morocco has agreed to work on the issue and granted amnesty to 25 of them in November. The problems of Saharawi refugees also remain hard to resolve.


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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.