UN Special Envoy finds Western Sahara independence unlikely

2008-04-28

In a written statement last week to the UN Security Council, UN Special Envoy to Western Sahara Peter van Walsum said the independence of the disputed territory is no longer realistic within the current negotiations.

Naoufel Cherkaoui in Rabat contributed to this report – 28/04/08

[Getty Images] Peter Van Walsum, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy to Western Sahara, told the UN Security Council last Monday that "the independence of the Western Sahara is not a realistic option".

In a message delivered last Monday (April 21st) to the UN Security Council, Peter van Walsum, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Western Sahara, said the independence of the disputed territory is no longer a realistic option.

Van Walsum's argument hinges on what he called a lack of pressure on Morocco to abandon its claims of sovereignty over the territory. In order for talks to progress beyond the current impasse, van Walsum wrote, they should be based on two "realities" – that the Security Council would not force Morocco into a referendum, but that the UN would not recognise Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara without an international accord.

Van Walsum's remarks resonated strongly in the region and within the United Nations. Non-aligned members of the Security Council criticised van Walsum for contradicting the position of the Secretary-General, who submitted his own report earlier this month. Leading up to a vote on the extension of the MINURSO peacekeeping operation, Security Council President Dumisani Kumalo said the panel will "focus upon the report of the Secretary-General".

Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz said the statement threatens both his exclusion as an international broker and the UN Secretary-General's efforts to solve the dispute. He said the Sahrawi people will never relinquish their national right, no matter how long it takes.

Nevertheless, Abdelaziz repeated the Polisario Front's willingness to forge ahead with dialogue in order to reach a political and peaceful solution to the dispute, provided it is based on the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination.

Hama Ould Sid al-Bachir, member of the Moroccan Royal Advisory Council for Sahara Affairs (CORCAS), said in a statement to the Maghreb Arab Presse (MAP) news agency on Wednesday that van Walsum's statements, although not surprising, have created relief among the Sahrawi people, adhering as they do to the "right direction" adopted by the major powers.

Moroccan Communications Minister and government spokesman Khalid Naciri said Thursday that the envoy's assessments are "based on the tasks he has undertaken for some three years in his capacity as special envoy, and also based on the three visits he made to the region".

"This is in addition to the fact that he headed the four rounds of negotiations under UN Security Council's resolutions 1754 and 1783. As a result, he was able to form a clear and neutral vision based on very accurate knowledge of objective facts," Naciri added.

Calling van Walsum's remarks "the voice of wisdom", Reda Taoujni, President of the Moroccan Sahara Association told Magharebia they are "a message to all who don't know that the Sahara negotiations have taken a new turn based on the principle of autonomy, and that independence has now been by-passed."

On Thursday, the Algerian National Committee for the Support of Sahrawi People called van Walsum's statements "negative", saying that "the only solution to the Western Sahara issue is for the Sahrawi people to enjoy the right to self-determination".

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's own report on the Sahara issue, presented to the Security Council in mid-April, commended both Morocco and the Polisario for their commitment to continued negotiations. He noted that the confidence-building programme was the only one in which progress has been made, adding that it has a direct effect on the quality of life of Western Sahara residents on the humanitarian level.

The Secretary-General said the work of the MINURSO mission, up for renewal on April 30th, is still necessary. He recommended the extension of the mandate for another six months, drawing criticism from the Polisario, which called last Thursday for setting up a timeframe for referendum in the Western Sahara and warned that any delay would give Morocco more time to "perpetuate colonisation".