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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.
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