Letter to UN SG by Margot KESSLER, Member of the European Parliament, President of the European Parliament intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi People"

Mr Kofi Annan
Secretary General of the United Nations
United Nations New York USA

Brussels 25th July 2002

Dear Mr Secretary General,

As president of the intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi People" in the European Parliament, I wish to reaffirm the fundamentals of our opinion about the options you presented in your 19th February 2002 report on Western Sahara to the Security Council.

First of all, the intergroup and myself reiterate our support to the fact that the first option presented in your report in order to solve the conflict in Western Sahara, remains the 1991 UN Peace Plan towards the holding of a referendum of self-determination for the Saharawi people. As you clearly stated in the same February 2002 report on Western Sahara, Morocco remains to this day the party that prevents the full implementation of the 1991 UN Settlement Plan.

Yet the intergroup and myself wish to express our highest concern and objections about the other options put forth to the Security Council:

- As far as the second option is concerned, we object to the fact that Mr James Baker's "framework accord", revised or not, is still presented as a solution: the "framework accord" was clearly, totally, and repeatedly rejected by the other party in conflict, that is the Polisario Front, as well as by Algeria as observer country. The "framework accord", revised or not, has no legal basis in international law: it is contrary to the mandate of the United Nations since 1963 regarding the decolonisation of Western Sahara with a referendum of self-determination.

- As far as the third option is concerned, that is, the partition of the territory of Western Sahara, it can never be a solution: international law stipulates that the territory must be decolonised in its totality, and the principle of the intangibility of frontiers inherited from the colonisation obviously also prevails in that case.

- As for the fourth option envisaged by your report, that is, the departure of the MINURSO, it would leave the territory under the threat of an immediate resumption of military hostilities, and the whole Maghreb region, under the risk of unprecedented destabilisation.

The European Parliament intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi People" and myself therefore call on you to clearly and tangibly implement the next phase of the 1991 UN Peace Plan towards the holding of a referendum of self-determination for the Saharawi people, and set a date for this consultation.

We also wish to express our total support for all measures taken in order to improve the humanitarian situation of the Saharawi refugees, and to protect the natural resources of occupied Western Sahara.

We therefore wish to inform you that we call on the members of the United Nations Security Council to exert the highest sense of responsibility possible, uphold and defend international legality, the UN fundamental principles, and the previous resolutions on Western Sahara by returning to the strict and rapid implementation of the 1991 UN Peace Plan adopted by both parties in conflict, that is Morocco and the Polisario Front.

Yours sincerely,

Margot KESSLER

Member of the European Parliament
President of the European Parliament intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi People"

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