Help | Sitemap | Archive | Advanced Search | Mirror in USA   
  CHINA
  BUSINESS
  OPINION
  WORLD
  SCI-EDU
  SPORTS
  LIFE
  WAP SERVICE
  FEATURES
  PHOTO GALLERY

Message Board
Feedback
Voice of Readers
China Quiz
 China At a Glance
 Constitution of the PRC
 State Organs of the PRC
 CPC and State Leaders
 Chinese President Jiang Zemin
 White Papers of Chinese Government
 Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping
 English Websites in China
Help
About Us
SiteMap
Employment

U.S. Mirror
Japan Mirror
Tech-Net Mirror
Edu-Net Mirror
 
Friday, October 27, 2000, updated at 08:52(GMT+8)
World  

Annan Reports Lack of Progress in Western Sahara

The U.N. Security Council began a closed-door session on Thursday afternoon to consider a report by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who reported lack of progress in the peace process of Western Sahara.

In a report to the Security Council on the third round of direct talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front in Berlin last month under the auspices of his personal envoy, James Baker III, the former U.S. secretary of state, Anna said: "Regrettably, I cannot report any progress in overcoming the obstacles to the implementation of the United Nations settlement plan." Meanwhile, Annan recommended to the Security Council that the mandate of the mission be extended for a period of four months until February 28, 2001.

Asked if Annan had given up on the mission due to lack of progress, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told a press conference Thursday that if the secretary-general had given up, he would have said so directly.

"Furthermore, an extension of the mission would not have been requested if there is no hope for progress in the future," the spokesman added.

Talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front over the disputed territory of Western Sahara broke up in Berlin in late September. The key dispute is the U.N. plan for a referendum to decide whether the former Spanish colony should be incorporated into Morocco, which controls most of the territory, or become independent, as called for by the Algeria-based Polisario Front.

The two sides held similar talks in London on June 28 that ended without a resolution.

The proposed U.N. referendum, originally set for January 1992, has been repeatedly postponed, due mainly to disagreement over who should be eligible to vote. About 130,000 people, most of them now in Morocco, appealed against the rulings excluding them from the vote.




In This Section
 

The U.N. Security Council began a closed-door session on Thursday afternoon to consider a report by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who reported lack of progress in the peace process of Western Sahara.

Advanced Search


 


 


Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved