Rt. Hon. Malcolm Rifkind QC MP
Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs
Downing Street
London SW1A 2AL
5th December, 1995
Dear Mr. Rifkind,
I am writing to bring to your attention our concerns about the United
Nations Settlement Plan for Western Sahara.
We have become aware that the United Nations Security Council is
currently considering new arrangements for the identification of
voters for the proposed referendum on the future of Western Sahara.
The new arrangements under consideration have been set out in the
report of the Secretary General to the Security Council of the 24th
November, 1995 (S/1995/986).
We would like to express our grave concerns about the proposals
currently being advanced by the Secretary General. In short, we see
these proposals as allowing the occupying power, Morocco to add in
excess of 100,000 of its own citizens purely on the basis of the oral
testimony of Moroccan nominated tribal chiefs.
Unfortunately, the history of the Settlement Plan has been one of
continued accommodation of the wishes of the occupying power. Not
only did the United Nations choose to ignore the clear breach of the
Plan by Morocco when it decided to transfer en masse around 40,000
people into the territory (a violation of paragraphs 71 and 72 of the
Settlement Plan), but it is also clear that the UN has made a number
of serious errors in relation to voter identification.
These errors are well documented in evidence given before US Congress
by the former Deputy Chairman of the Identification Commission, Mr.
Frank Ruddy, but also more recently by an independent report of the
New York-based Human Rights Watch.
According to these informed sources, the catalogue of errors have
included: allowing the parties to the conflict to distribute voting
application forms to voters; allowing Morocco to completely control
access to voter registration centres in the occupied territory and
ignoring intimidation of voters and tribal leaders; failing to make
proper provision for independent observation of the voter
identification process; refusing to announce in a transparent way the
rules which will be used to actually construct the final voting list;
failing to deal with UN staff who are acting in a partial manner in
favour of the occupying power and influencing subordinates to favour
Morocco; and the creation of conditions which have enabled Morocco to
introduce some 100,000 voting applications en bloc on behalf of its
own citizens, which the Secretary General in his own report of 8th
September 1995 notes could not have been resident in or could not
have been connected to the territory, as their tribal groups were not
represented individually by a large group of people at the time of
the Spanish Census of Western Sahara in 1974.
The current proposals will compound the flaws in the identification
process to date, as they will create new conditions where voter
identification can take place purely on the oral evidence of a
Moroccan-nominated tribal leader. This is particularly relevant to
the 100,000 applications registered by Morocco which primarily relate
to three tribal groupings based in Morocco. The introduction of such
a procedure given the history of the voter identification process
will represent a complete capitulation of the UN to Moroccan demands
and will end any prospect of a free and fair referendum.
We would like to express our view that the implementation of such a
process of voter identification will inevitably lead to the weaker
party to the conflict (Polisario) withdrawing from the Settlement
Plan, with all its attendant implications for an already unstable
region. This will not be a course of action which Polisario will
follow lightly as evidence to date suggests that Polisario has
cooperated willingly with the UN, despite the very real problems with
the Settlement Plan. However, conditions which allow the
enfranchisement of such a large number of Moroccan citizens with no
or questionable ties to the territory will effectively lead to the
domination of the referendum by Morocco. Such an outcome would not
only be perverse, but would represent a complete failure of the UN to
carry out its long standing promise to the Saharawi people to decide
their own future.
Given the settlement of recent conflicts it is clear in our view that
the international community is failing to recognise the essential
elements required in successful conflict resolution, namely ensuring
that parties enter dialogue and resolve matters together. The UN has
not been able to achieve this in Western Sahara, and instead has
chosen to back the stronger power in a misguided attempt to hold a
referendum to meet its obligations. We therefore urge HM Government
through its representation at the United Nations not to support the
proposed new voter identification procedures.
Yours sincerely,
M P Hughes
Co-ordinator