Western Sahara: Annan urges attention to humanitarian concerns

With the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) set to expire at the end of this month, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for international support for relief efforts in the region pending a decision on the future of the UN’s involvement there.

In a new report to the Security Council, Mr. Annan underscores the “current low levels of food supply” in camps in the Tindouf area and urges the international community to support efforts by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to assist the refugees.

“As the same time, I expect Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO to cooperate without further delay with UNHCR in the implementation of the long overdue confidence-building measures, as repeatedly called for by the Security Council since 1999,” he writes. “The plight of the separated refugee families demands no less.”

The report voices concern about some 1,300 prisoners of war currently in detention. “It is my earnest hope that members of the Council will join me once again in urging the Frente POLISARIO to release all remaining prisoners of war without further delay,” Mr. Annan says. “I also hope that both parties will continue to cooperate with the efforts of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to solve the problem of the fate of all those unaccounted for since the beginning of the conflict.”

The Secretary-General expresses hope that the Council will soon decide “how it wishes to proceed with regard to the future of the peace process in Western Sahara.”

In a previous report to the Council, Mr. Annan had presented four options to break the present stalemate. The first would have the UN resume trying to implement the 1988 settlement plan, even without the concurrence of the two parties, the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco. The second would have Mr. Annan’s Personal Envoy, James Baker III, try to revise the draft Framework Agreement – again without necessarily gaining the agreement of the parties. The third option would be to mandate Mr. Baker to discuss a possible division of the territory with interested parties, and the fourth would see the Council terminate MINURSO due to the lack of progress.

In his latest report, the Secretary-General says Mr. Baker “stands ready to undertake the activities that will be required under the option the Security Council chooses, in order to steer the parties towards a resolution of their dispute over Western Sahara, provided that the Council does not support any changes to options one, two or three that would require the concurrence of the parties” as that would “simply encourage a continuation of the conflict and the current stalemate.”