Western Sahara
Sahara crisis grows while Baker busy in Florida

afrol.com, 22 November - The question of the mediating duties of James Baker III, the UN Special Envoy to the conflict in Western Sahara, was brought up in the UN yesterday. Baker is currently campaigning for US republican presidential candidate George Bush and his legal actions to be named the winner of the Florida elections.

Ex-US Secretary of State in George Bush's (senior) government, James Baker III, now serves George Bush (junior) in controlling that the Florida votes are being counted correctly - or rather not counted at all. A Florida Supreme Court verdict this night, however, gave a major blow to Baker's campaign as it ruled that all the hand-counted votes should be recognised - an "unfair and unacceptable" verdict, according to Baker.

Baker's mission, when not helping out George Bush, is to he review "with the Moroccan Government and the Polisario how to move forward on the referendum on the future of Western Sahara and, if that is not possible, what other alternatives, if any, might be acceptable to the parties," as the spokesman of the UN Secretary General put it yesterday.

The Special Envoy, however, on 8 November took over the leadership of the republican's army of lawyers and supervisors in Florida. Bush's "private army" consists of some 140 lawyers and supervisors, spread over the 66 counties where the re-counting takes/took place.

The spokesman of the UN Secretary General however states that the mediator's presence in Florida is not in conflict with his role as a UN Special Envoy. The Spokesman said that it was "not a full time occupation and that he did not think his current activities in Florida had an impact on his UN mandate." Baker however had said on 10 November that he trusted in finding a solution to the US election conflict within a week. As things move on in Florida, most Americans do not believe they will know who will be their next president before December.

In answering a query on the duties of Special Envoy's as relating to James Baker III, the UN spokesman further said that "as a Special Envoy he gets $1 a year plus expenses," playing down the duties of the envoys.

Meanwhile, the Sahrawi conflict is rapidly getting closer to turn into an armed conflict again. The POLISARIO, which for a long time has been discontent with Baker's role (as he has opened up for discussing alternatives to the Referendum which has so far been urged by UN resolutions), has warned that it might take to arms again. This week, the Sahrawi liberation movement thus had it military training maneuvres, preparing for a possible new confrontation with Morocco. Morocco reportedly has been preparing for new confrontations for at least a year.

Things do not seem to go to well for Baker neither in Florida nor in Sahara, time being.

Source: Based on UN  sources and POLISARIO

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