WEEKLY NEWS

 

WEEK 44

28.10.-03.11.1996

 

Headlines

Draft resolution of 4th Committee of UN G.A.

Visit of President Abdelaziz to Madrid

Proposal of mediation

Liberation of Sahrawi POWs

 

 

 

28.10.96
Draft resolution of 4th Committee of UN G.A.
A draft resolution on the question of Western Sahara, sponsored by 58 member states*, adopted without vote by the 4th Committee, will be submitted soon to the UN General Assembly .
By the text of the draft, the Assembly would take note of Security Council resolution 1056 (1996) of 29 May 1996, by which the Council decided to suspend the identification process and to reduce the military component of the MINURSO, owing to the absence of progress in the implementation of the settlement plan.
Also by a preambular text of the draft, the Assembly would express its serious concern about the risks that this impasse has on the implementation process of the settlement plan for the holding of a free, fair and impartial referendum for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, and on the peace and stability of the region, approved by the Security Council in resolutions 658 (1990) and 690 (1991).
By the text of the draft, the Assembly would reiterate its support for further efforts by the Secretary-General for the United Nations organization and supervision, in cooperation with the Organization of African Unity (OAU), of a referendum for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, in conformity with the settlement plan. The Assembly would reaffirm that the goal on which all were agreed consists of the holding of a free, fair and impartial referendum for the people of Western Sahara, organized and conducted by the United Nations in cooperation with the OAU, and without any military or administrative constraints, in conformity with the settlement plan.
It would further express its serious concern about the persistence of obstacles to the implementation of the settlement plan, and would reaffirm the responsibility of the United Nations towards the people of Western Sahara, as provided for in the settlement plan, and would fully subscribe to the commitment of the Security Council and the Secretary-General concerning the free, fair and impartial referendum for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.
The Assembly would further declare its conviction of the importance and usefulness of direct contacts between the two parties with a view to overcoming their differences and creating propitious conditions for a speedy and effective implementation of the settlement plan. It would encourage Morocco and the POLISARIO to start, as soon as possible, direct talks for the relaunching of the peace process.
The Assembly would also request the Fourth Committee to continue to consider the situation in Western Sahara, bearing in mind the ongoing referendum process, and to report thereon to the fifty-second session of the Assembly. The Secretary-General would be invited to submit a report to the fifty-second session of the Assembly on the implementation of the present resolution.
The Moroccan Representative intended to state that his country could not be bound to the resolution as if this were regarded as a question of decolonization; Morocco believed the question could be dealt with only in the context of his country's territory; Western Sahara was part of the territory of his country. It had been transferred from Spain in accordance with the Madrid Accord and registered with the United Nations. That was why a referendum had been proposed, and he believed the referendum would confirm the people living there were Moroccan. It was not a decolonization matter.
Minister Mohamed Salem ould Salek exprimed the satisfaction of the SADR governement for this important support of the Sahrawi cause by the international comunity .

*Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Suriname, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

29.10.96
Visit of President Abdelaziz to Madrid
The Sahrawi President, Mohamed Abdelaziz, meets the Spanish foreign minister Abel Matutes. These talks deal with the developments of the situation in Western Sahara and the role which Madrid can play in the implementation of the peace process.
President Abdelaziz declared the discussions with Moroccan officials give some hope. He affirmed his wish to continue talks in order to reach a serious dialogue. The Spanish Minister underlined, in the same way, that a serious and rigorous dialogue is the only way to find an issue for the Peace Plan. No comment of the Moroccan side after the meeting, but according to diplomatic sources the Moroccan government told to the Spanish Ambassador at Rabat its preoccupation about this meeting.

30.10.96
Proposal of mediation
Libya and Tunisia have decided to take steps to resolve the dispute over Western Sahara, in order to protect the Arab Maghreb Union

31.10.96
Liberation of Sahrawi POWs
66 POWs jailed in Morocco since 1977 and 1978 were transfered by a German airliner from Agadir to Tinduf and handed over to the Polisario by the International Committee of the Red Cross, in presence of the UN Representatives of USA and Germany and the German Ambassador in Algiers. In a statement, the Polisario Front said that this initiative came as a response to the release, last year, of 185 Moroccan POWs by the Polisario, following a joint Argentinian-American mediation. The Polisario Front has expressed its thanks to the USA, Germany and the I.C.R.C. It also said that the release of the prisoners (only a part of all the POWs) was merely a humanitarian operation which should not be regarded as an end of the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front nor a part of the settlement plan which has to be implemented entirely.

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