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afrol.com, 7 September - Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975. The United Nations has had authority to organise a referendum since 1991. Morocco has consistently obstructed the process. The UN has now been in Western Sahara for ten years and spent over US$ 550 million. Yet the Saharawis are still waiting for a referendum of self-determination. - How long should they have to wait? The International community must put pressure on Morocco to stop their delaying tactics, Australian Senator West asked the UN this week. "The International community must put pressure on Morocco to stop their delaying tactics," she continued. The UN Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established in 1991 to assist in implementing a Settlement Plan, which was meant to conclude with a referendum in which the people of the Western Sahara would choose between independence and integration with Morocco. The referendum was originally scheduled for January 1992, but the parties continue to have divergent views on some of the plan's key elements, including those on the question of criteria for eligibility to vote in the referendum. While the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) wants to assure that only Sahrawis participate in the referendum, Morocco seeks to include as many voters from the newly settled Moroccans as possible. The population issue of Western Sahara has become a complicated matter. It is calculated that there exists a total population of 307.000 Sahrawis, of which 120.000 live in the Saharan territory occupied by Morocco and a majority of 187.000 in refugee camps (some in liberated Sahara territory, but the majority in the Tindouf area of neighbouring Algeria). The complicating matter are the approximately additional 200.000 Moroccans, settled by the Moroccan government in Western Sahara with the sole reason to consolidate its occupation. There is an agreement that these 200.000 occupying Moroccans cannot be given a vote in the Sahrawi referendum, but the Moroccan government is delaying the process with demands on hearing each and everyone who could have a right to vote. It is all delaying tactics, but is has worked for nearly ten years now. Examples of Moroccan demands to drain the process include "the conduct of the appeals process; the reversal of the identification results of some 7,000 applicants, which should be reinstated, in Morocco's view; the repatriation of Saharan refugees; and the issue of Saharans who had reached voting age after December 1993, but had not been included in the identification process. According to Morocco, those individuals should be identified, or at least permitted to lodge appeals, in order to allow all Saharans to participate in the referendum." As it is in Moroccan interest not to conduct a referendum, these detailed demands only underline their delaying tactics. Meanwhile, the MINURSO keeps existing, and its mandate is renewed once in a while, this constituting the only dealings the UN Security Council has with Western Sahara. It doesn't make headlines anymore and even the UN seems to have lost interest. The Secretary-General has a Personal Envoy to the region, James A. Baker III. After consulting with the Moroccan government and the POLISARIO this spring, he stressed that the prospects for holding the referendum were as distant as ever. When presenting a plan for further negotiations between the two conflicting parties, Baker was heavily criticized by several member countries of the Security Council (most notably Namibia) for watering down the UN resolutions demanding a referendum in Sahara. On 25 July, the mandate of the MINURSO was extended for a further three months until 31 October, and noting once again that no progress had been made in the talks the last months. In a meeting, taking 3 minutes (!), the Security Council allegedly went through a report by Baker and recommended further UN "commitment" in Sahara. Since then, the UN has been quiet about Sahara. Yesterday, afrol reported about the widespread dissatisfaction among the POLISARIO and organisations in its support with the UN efforts. Organisations who support the Sahrawians indicate that "there is a risk of renewed military confrontation in the area, which not only represents a failure for the UN and the OAU, but also deprives all Maghreb of prospects for peaceful coexistence between free nations and ability to build their future in a regional unit." This should be taken seriously, as ten years of UN failure to solve the referendum demonstrate that this is becoming a dead end. The UN and the news media seem to grow tired of the Sahara conflict, which has lost its momentum. Thus, to regain international attention and to regain momentum, a strategy of renewed armed conflict by the POLISARIO would be quite understandable, though not desirable. While the UN is losing credibility, the Sahrawian people only can trust in the POLISARIO in solving its problems. And in a long list of friendly nations and organisations. The POLISARIO government (of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) is recognized
by over 70 countries and is represented in the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). However, it is not represented in the UN, and Sahrawi president Abdelaziz as such is not invited to the ongoing Millennium party in New York.
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