UNITED NATIONS
The U.N. Security Council
called for a revival of U.N-led negotiations on the disputed Western Sahara in
a resolution adopted Thursday that expressed “deep concern” at the breakdown of
the 1991 cease-fire between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front
whose decades-old dispute shows no sign of ending.
The vote was 13-0 with Russia
and Kenya abstaining.
Morocco annexed Western
Sahara, a former Spanish colony believed to have considerable offshore oil
deposits and mineral resources, in 1975, sparking a conflict with the Polisario
Front. The United Nations brokered the 1991 cease-fire and established a
peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the
territory’s future that has never taken place because of disagreements on who
is eligible to vote.
Morocco has proposed
wide-ranging autonomy for Western Sahara. But the Polisario Front insists the
local population, which it estimates at 350,000 to 500,000, has the right to a
referendum.
The U.S.-drafted resolution
extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission charged with carrying out
the referendum, known as MINURSO, until Oct. 31, 2023.
The resolution calls on the
parties to resume U.N.-led negotiations without preconditions, “taking into
account the efforts made since 2006 and subsequent developments with a view to
achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which
will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”
It says this should be done
“in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of
the Charter of the United Nations and noting the role and the responsibilities
of the parties in this respect.”
Kenya’s U.N. Ambassador Martin
Kimani said his government voted for the resolution last year in hopes that the
U.N. mission would return “to its core objective of implementing a referendum
for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.
But he said progress has been
limited and the resolution adopted Thursday “continues a gradual but noticeable
shift away from the mandate and will not assist the parties to achieve a just,
lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution as originally intended.”
U.S. deputy ambassador Jeffrey
DeLaurentis welcomed the council’s support, saying the Biden administration
continues “to view Morocco’s autonomy plan as serious, credible, and
realistic.”
He called a political solution
“vital to promoting a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Western
Sahara and the region.”
But the Polisario Front ended
the cease-fire in November 2020 and resumed its armed struggle following a
border confrontation with Morocco which continues today, and in comments after
the vote the two sides remained at odds about the future.
The resolution calls on the
parties to “to demonstrate political will and work in an atmosphere propitious
for dialogue in order to advance negotiations.” It expresses “strong support”
for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy for Western Sahara,
Staffan de Mistura, and “strongly encourages” Morocco, the Polisario Front and
neighboring countries Algeria and Mauritania to engage with him.
Two round-table meetings of
the four parties in December 2018 and March 2019 failed to make any headway on
the key issue of how to provide for self-determination.
But Morocco’s U.N. Ambassador
Omar Hilale said after Thursday’s vote that they were “very fruitful and
positive and substantial” because “we had very deep discussion on autonomy, on
the guarantees, on the need for Polisario to design and to accept autonomy, and
also on the elections.”
He expressed hope that de
Mistura “will succeed in calling for another round-table,” lamenting that a
year has been lost because Algeria, which backs the Polisario, has said it will
not attend.
“Let’s hope that the wisdom
will prevail in Algeria, and we can come back to the round-table because there
will be no solution without discussion all together and having compromise” on
Morocco’s autonomy proposal, Hilale said.
He claimed that the resolution
adopted Thursday “irreversibly consecrates, like the resolutions of the council
since 2007, the pre-eminence, credibility and seriousness of the Moroccan
autonomy initiative as the sole and only solution to this regional dispute.”
The Polisario Front’s U.N.
representative, Sidi Omar, strongly disagreed.
He said the Security Council
resolution refers to the referendum but again fails to empower MINURSO with
“practical and concrete measures” to implement its mandate and carry out a
referendum.
The Saharwi people “will
continue using all legitimate means, including the armed struggle, to defend
our inalienable and individual rights to self-determination, independence, and
to restore the sovereignty over the entire territory of the Saharwi, our
democratic republic,” Omar said.
He said the Polisario Front
will only participate in direct negotiations with Morocco under the auspices of
the U.N. and the African Union to enable the Saharwi people to exercise their
free and democratic right to self-determination.
No comments:
Post a Comment