UN Security Council to urge direct WSahara talks

By Staff
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United Nations, Apr 21: The UN Security Council will likely call next week for talks on Western Sahara in a shift that could boost peace efforts between Morocco and Sahara's independence movement, diplomats said.

The council didn't support negotiations when it last considered the issue six months ago despite a call to do so by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Earlier last year, the Polisario movement had rejected direct talks with Rabat.

But this month, both the Polisario and Morocco handed the United Nations proposals for the future of the resource-rich territory of 260,000 people, annexed by Morocco after Spain abandoned its colonial occupation in 1975.

Each side now says it is ready in principle to talk to the other, but wide differences remain on the basis for talks.

Diplomats said the two proposals encouraged the Security Council, which discussed Sahara yesterday, to throw its weight behind a renewed appeal for talks this week by the current secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon.

''Members of the council are enthusiastic there should be negotiations between the parties,'' said current council president, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry.

He said the council was also expected to renew the mandate of the 220-member UN peacekeeping force for Western Sahara, which expires on April 30.

The Western Sahara, spanning an area larger than Britain, has lucrative phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds. Many thousands of Sahrawis live in refugee camps across the border in Algeria.

Morocco sees talks as dealing with the nuts and bolts of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, in line with its new proposal. The Algeria-based Polisario wants them to discuss a referendum that would offer independence as one option.

Both sides say they have made concessions. Morocco says it has broken new ground in its self-rule plan, which if agreed in talks would be put to the vote by Sahrawis in what Rabat says would be the self-determination Polisario and the United Nations seek.

Polisario says that for the first time it is prepared to offer Sahrawis a choice between independence, autonomy or integration into Morocco rather than a straight yes-or-no vote on independence.

Both sides have their supporters in the Security Council.

France and the United States have praised the Moroccan proposal. South Africa and some other developing countries are sympathetic to Polisario.

Diplomats said a draft resolution renewing the mandate of the UN force, to be circulated on Monday, was key.

''If the resolution tries to equate one plan being better than the other, we will definitely oppose it,'' said South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo.

Reuters

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