Western Sahara’s independence movement Polisario has proposed a ”flexible” solution to Africa’s oldest territorial dispute that provides for a vote on self-determination and cooperation with Morocco, the group said.
A statement by the movement, which has contested Morocco’s control of the north-west African territory of about 260 000 people for more than 30 years, said the plan had been presented to the United Nations on Tuesday.
The move coincides with preparations by Morocco to present its own solution to the dispute at the United nations later this month.
”Out of concern to contribute to the more than 30-year-old decolonisation conflict between Morocco and the Sahrawi people and consequently to the advent of a fair and lasting peace in our region, the Polisario Front has submitted a proposal for a solution,” said a Polisario statement dated April 10.
”It is a flexible and constructive solution which guarantees Sahrawi national rights in conformity with resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council which all call for the exercise of Sahrawis’ right to a vote on self-determination though a free and legitimate referendum.”
”It is also a project that it open to cooperation and good neighbourly relations with the Moroccan kingdom and all of the countries of the region.”
The statement did not elaborate.
Morocco, claiming centuries-old rights over the territory rich in phosphates, fisheries and possibly offshore oil, annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975.
That triggered a low-level guerrilla war with Algeria-backed Polisario, which seeks an independent state.
A UN ceasefire agreement in 1991 promised Sahrawis a referendum to decide the fate of the territory. The vote never happened and Rabat now says autonomy is the most it will offer.
The UN Security Council voted in October to keep peacekeepers in Western Sahara for six more months but, after French objections, left out of a resolution a Danish-backed call for Morocco do more to safeguard human rights in the territory.
Morocco sees France as the main supporter for its autonomy proposal drafted by a Moroccan advisory council in December.
France is a close ally of Morocco but denies any partiality in Morocco’s dispute with the Algerian-based Polisario. – Reuters