Meeting set in Western Sahara dispute
by Edith M. Lederer

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
21 June 2007

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Morocco and rebels seeking greater control over Western Sahara ended their first direct talks in seven years Tuesday without resolving a 32-year dispute over the region, but agreed to meet again in August.

Morocco, whose occupation of the former Spanish colony in 1975 sparked a 16-year war with Polisario Front guerrillas, stuck to its proposal for limited autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty for Western Sahara.

The Polisario Front, an independence movement backed by Algeria, maintained its demand for a referendum with a choice of autonomy or independence.

Morocco's Interior Minister Chakib Benmussa told a news conference that Morocco's autonomy plan, unveiled in early April, offered ``a new element for negotiations ... and the only realistic solution.''

It would permit the election of a parliament and create a regional government in Western Sahara to oversee day-to-day affairs, but sovereignty over the territory would remain with Rabat.

``Despite this good faith spirit expressed by Morocco during the negotiations,'' Benmussa said, ``the other party remained committed to its previous positions and did not suggest or submit any constructive proposal that can help us overcome the impasse.''

Mahfoud Ali Beiba, president of the Saharawi Parliament who led the Polisario delegation, insisted that its April proposal for a referendum with independence as an option is crucial to achieve self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

Polisario offered to share administration of Western Sahara's resources—including fishing grounds and possible offshore oil—with Morocco if an independent state finally emerges.

Ali Beiba reminded Morocco that it had accepted a referendum with independence as an option in 1991 and again in 1997.

Morocco's autonomy plan ``appropriates unilaterally and unduly the sovereignty over a non-self-governing territory without consulting its people,'' he said. This is ``at the heart of the impasse of which consequences are worsening day by day.''

Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to meet after the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on April 30 urging negotiations over the phosphate-rich region to end the long stalemate.

Negotiators from the two sides met for two days at a secluded estate in Manhasset, about 25 miles east of New York, under the auspices of the secretary-general's personal envoy for Western Sahara, Peter Van Walsum.

At the end of the talks Tuesday evening, the U.N. issued a communique from Van Walsum which said: ``During the meeting, negotiations started as requested by Security Council resolution 1754. The parties have agreed that the process of negotiations will continue in Manhasset in the second week of August 2007.''

Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara after its Spanish colonizers left the territory in 1975. Full-scale war broke out, and Morocco took over the whole territory after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.

The fighting, which pitted 15,000 Polisario guerrillas against Morocco's U.S.-equipped army, ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on the region's future. But after 15 years and the expenditure of more than $600 million, the U.N. has been unable to resolve the standoff or hold the referendum.

Khalihenna Ould Errachid, the chief adviser on Western Sahara to Morocco's King Mohamed VI, said ``all of us realized today that there's a need for compromise and for a renunciation to extremist positions and demands.''

``What we need now are concessions, patience and dialogue, and also a renunciation to dogmatism,'' he said.

But Ahmed Boukhari, the Polisario's U.N. representative, said it was not giving up the possibility of independence.

``We told then that the option of autonomy can be brought to the people of Western Sahara through a referendum with the other option, which is independence. That is the correct meaning of the right of self-determination,'' he said.

___

Associated Press Writer John Thorne in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.