WESTERN SAHARA: U.N. Group Seeks Tighter Control over Mission

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 22 1995 (IPS) - A U.N. Security Council mission to the Western Sahara warns that the Council will have to monitor that country’s sluggish peace process closely, or else the U.N. peacekeeping mission there will fail.

The group, which comprised diplomats of six of the Council’s 15 member states, visited the region earlier this month. Its report says a U.N.-supported referendum to determine the territory’s eventual fate may have to be delayed yet again.

The referendum, now scheduled for January 1996, has been put off repeatedly over the past five years. But the Council mission finds even that date may be unrealistic.

The U.N. group, chaired by Botswanan U.N. Ambassador Legwaila J. Legwaila, concludes that “the time necessary to perform the functions associated with the identification process and other aspects of the settlement plan has been underestimated.”

The Legwaila report adds that voter identification, which has lagged badly from U.N. timetables, could easily go on beyond next January, delaying the referendum again.

The delays have left in doubt the fate of the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony which was invaded by Morocco and Mauritania in 1976, and wholly annexed by Morocco in 1979. The rebel Polisario Front, supported by Algeria, continues to hold out against Rabat’s occupation.

A new delay could also jeopardise the 288-troop U.N. Mission in the Western Sahara (called MINURSO). The Security Council has recently conditioned its MINURSO’s extension on the timely holding of the referendum.

The Legwaila mission, however, stressed that all parties in the Sahara conflict — Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, and the Saharan rebel Polisario Front — want MINURSO to stay.

“In the event of MINURSO’s withdrawal before completing its mandate, the risk of a return to some form of hostilities would increase,” the report argues.

Instead, the mission suggests that MINURSO be kept on a tight leash to ensure a swift and fair rate of voter registration.

“Reports on the progress of identification should be made to the Security Council every two weeks,” the report concludes. “Should the identification operation be interrupted or slowed down for any reason, this should be reported immediately to the Council.”

That approach could prove uncomfortable for MINURSO. Traditionally, U.N. peacekeeping missions take their direction from the Security Council’s mandate. They generally do not have to report further, unless they need the Council’s specific approval.

U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in his own report on peacekeeping to the Council several months ago, warned the Council to stay out of “micro-management” of U.N. missions.