Citing instability, Annan calls for six-month extension of UN mission in Western Sahara

Citing continued instability in the Western Sahara stemming from the political impasse between the Moroccan Government and the Frente POLISARIO independence movement, as well as continued violations of their military agreement and alleged human rights abuses, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for a six-month extension of the United Nations peacekeeping mission there.

"In view of the prevailing situation, I believe that the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) continues to play an important stabilizing and ceasefire monitoring role on the ground," he says in a report recommending the extension to 30 April 2006. The present mission is scheduled to end on 31 October.

Mr. Annan's personal envoy to Western Sahara, Peter van Walsum after meeting with country leaders in Morocco, Algiers, and Mauritania said on 17 October that the parties in the region are "quasi-irreconcilable."

The 14-year old UN Mission has been monitoring a ceasefire between the two sides, and is seeking to organize a vote on a referendum in the former Spanish colony which Morocco has claimed as its own, and where the POLISARIO has been fighting for independence.

Mr. Annan details in particular a "serious deterioration" in compliance with "military agreement no. 1" by the Moroccan Army and the POLISARIO, by enhancing their military structures in the restricted areas, staging incursions in the buffer zone, and restricting movements of the UN military observers. On the positive side, he notes progress on the removal of unexploded mines, and the release of 404 prisoners of war after 20 years of incarceration by the POLISARIO.

The UN will also modify parts of its annual budgeted $47.9 million dollar operation, by restructuring its military posts to decrease some stations while simultaneously increasing the number of military observers, and reducing 57 administrative positions to be replaced by 18 full time staff and 24 UN Volunteers (UNV) to monitor progress in the area, he says.

Mr. Annan regrets that family visits between the Territory and the refugee camps in the Tindouf area of Algiers had not been held since April 2005, and indicated that he expects them to resume next month.

The Secretary-General also says the World Food Programme (WFP) will be fine-tuning the nutritional content of its food assistance because so many women and children in the camps had developed anaemia, and indicated that WFP and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assistance would be narrowed from 158,000 people to the 90,000 of those most in need.