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UN committee head calls for continued work on decolonizing last 16 territories

UN committee head calls for continued work on decolonizing last 16 territories

Committee chairman Enrique Loedel
Despite difficulties in implementing proposed solutions for the question of whether the Western Sahara territory should become independent or not, a political solution was still possible, the chairman of the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee said today.

Acknowledging that he was always optimistic about solutions, Uruguayan representative Enrique Loedel told a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York: “At each stage in the negotiations of the question of Western Sahara it seemed that a solution was out of reach, but in the end some alternative proposal always came up.”

“The good will and creativity of all the parties involved has now generated a new proposal which is being considered,” he added, referring to the latest peace plan devised by Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, James Baker III.

Mr. Baker has presented the plan to representatives of all the parties involved, including Morocco, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO Front), Algeria and Mauritania.

Representing something of a compromise, “[the plan] provides each side some, but not all, of what it wants,” Mr. Annan wrote in a report to the Security Council in May. It envisages a period of transition during which there would be a division of responsibilities between the parties before the holding of a referendum for self-determination within four or five years. And unlike an earlier proposal, the new peace plan does not require the consent of the parties at each and every step of its implementation.

Earlier this week Mr. Annan urged Morocco to accept the peace plan, but he agreed to a Moroccan request for more time to study the proposals. He also recommended an extension of time for the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

Questioned about the continuing role of his committee, whose main agenda includes decolonization, Mr. Loedel said although only 16 territories were yet to achieve self-determination, the effort was still relevant.

Failure to help the 16 territories choose their political future for themselves would be similar to “a family not taking care of younger children once the eldest child has grown up,” he said.

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Video of the press briefing