WEEKLY NEWS |
HeadlinesDraft resolution of 4th Committee of UN G.A. Visit of President Abdelaziz to Madrid Proposal of mediation Liberation of Sahrawi POWs
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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.