WESTERN SAHARA: U.N. Voices Frustration over Stalled Process

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 29 1996 (IPS) - The long-stalled process to hold a referendum on Western Sahara’s self-determination is pushing many U.N. diplomats to question whether U.N. efforts there accomplish anything.

U.N. peacekeeping efforts have lagged in Western Sahara ever since Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared in May that “the conditions to achieve the…holding of a free and fair election do not exist at the present.”

The world body has since suspended voter identification for a referendum and trimmed a U.N. peacekeeping force, called MINURSO, in the territory.

A referendum of the native Saharawi population was to have decided whether the former Spanish colony would become independent, or would become part of Morocco, which invaded in 1976 and seized the entire territory by 1980. Without it, the United Nations has been at a loss over how to end the two-decade struggle conclusively.

Now, the United Nations is exploring other avenues to restart the peace process between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front. A resolution before the General Assembly, approved Monday by the Assembly’s political and decolonisation committee, suggests the need to hold direct talks between King Hassan of Morocco and the Polisario Front.

The direct talks are necessary to re-launch the peace plan, argued Tanzanian Ambassador Timothy Bandora. The resolution also calls for a resumption of the referendum process that was stalled in May.

The call for direct talks is also an indication of the frustration of many diplomats here, after the referendum process has already missed several deadlines.

“The member states of the European Union are seriously concerned that the registration process for the long-awaited referendum…has come to a complete halt over the past twelve months,” Irish Ambassador Niall Holohan told the committee Monday.

Holohan noted that the U.N. Security Council has set a Nov. 30 deadline for the parties to make “significant progress” towards peace if they wish to avoid the possible withdrawal of MINURSO altogether. Accordingly, he said, the two sides should exchange prisoners and negotiate directly to build some momentum toward peace.

But some diplomats openly question whether Morocco and the Polisario Front are equally committed to the U.N. process — especially given Rabat’s desire to hold on to the phosphate-rich territory.

“This is not a poorly organised referendum,” one U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. “In fact, it is a well-organised referendum. It is just not being organised by the United Nations.”

The Moroccan government is afraid of losing the referendum and has used such strong-arm tactics as placing its soldiers outside all U.N. voter identification centres to stack the deck in its favour, the envoy argued.

Morocco has repeatedly denied charges of attempting to influence the vote. But Frank Ruddy, a U.S. diplomat who formerly headed the U.N. voter identification effort, has testified that Moroccan soldiers intimidated potential voters and discouraged the U.N. effort.

Nor has Morocco provided any indication that it would be prepared to leave Western Sahara, almost all of which it controls, if the Saharawi voted for independence. “Whatever the circumstances or complications, whether there is a referendum or not, we will remain in our Sahara,” King Hassan told the Spanish press in July.

The final straw that broke the referendum process, however, has proven to be Rabat’s insistence that the United Nations process more than 180,000 applications to vote in the referendum submitted by Moroccan residents who claim to be Saharawi.

“That figure would represent an increase of almost 250 percent over the 1974 Spanish census,” complained Bokhari Ahmed, the Polisario’s U.N. representative, referring to the estimate of 74,000 Saharawi in the last census made before Spain’s departure.

Many diplomats here also grumble that the Moroccan submissions would rig the election by ensuring from the start that Saharawi voters are outnumbered.

At any rate, the United Nations has been unable, even after several revisions of its criteria over which voters can be considered legitimate Saharawi, to satisfy either side about the composition of the voter pool. Morocco even refused a U.N. offer to publish a list of all eligible voters so far, Boutros-Ghali noted in May.

For its part, Polisario refuses to accept a continuation of the largely peaceful status quo if the referendum option fades away entirely.

“A cease-fire with no prospect of the peace plan being transparently and credibly applied is not an acceptable solution either to the Saharawi people nor to the United Nations, since it would imply the perpetuation of a colonial fait accompli under the protection of the (U.N.) blue helmets,” Ahmed argued.

Yet Polisario forces, largely beaten back to Algeria, which now faces its own political problems, may be unable to offer much resistance if Morocco holds on to the region. As Ruddy argued to IPS, “If the United Nations pulls out, Morocco wins.”

“Morocco does not need territories, much less territories conquered by force,” Ahmed argued. “What interests Morocco are the resources of the Western Sahara.” What needs to be resolved, he contended, is simply how the Saharawi and Morocco can share those resources peacefully, without “wip(ing) a people from the map.”