A restricted United Nations report says the human-rights situation in the Western Sahara is of serious concern.
The report, released this week by the office of the UN’s high commission for human rights, says ”the Saharawi people are not only denied their right to self-determination, but … severely restricted from exercising a series of other rights … [such as] to create associations defending their right to self-determination and to hold assemblies to make their views known”.
Western Sahara was invaded by Morocco in 1975 and has been occupied since then. In 1991 King Hassan II of Morocco agreed to a referendum when the kingdom ended its 16-year war with the Saharawi liberation movement, the Polisario Front. However, his successor, Mohammed VI, reneged on the deal and proposed autonomy for the Saharawi within the borders of Morocco.
The UN report recommends that ”the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara be ensured and implemented without further delay”.
The report was sent only to the governments of Algeria, Morocco and the Sahara Arab Democratic Republic, indicating the sensitivity of the issue.
Delegations from these governments and from Mauritania — which also occupied Western Sahara in 1975, but was subsequently driven out by the Polisario Front — met in a New York suburb this week to try to end the 32-year impasse.
The two-day meeting ended inconclusively, but the parties agreed to resume deliberations in August.
”There were no tangible results,” said the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic’s (SADR) chief representative, Ahmed Bujari, accusing the Moroccan side of sticking to its ”intransigent position” on autonomy.
To date the Saharawis’s acceptance of a 2003 plan by then-UN special envoy James Baker for limited Moroccan control of the territory, culminating in a referendum, has been the most significant step forward in the process.
”The only proposal the Moroccans are willing to entertain is a referendum on autonomy, which in their view means that the territory is Moroccan,” Bujari said.
SADR said this week it was prepared to test the Moroccan proposal for a referendum on autonomy in a ”UN-supervised free and democratic referendum”, with other options such as independence or incorporation within the Moroccan kingdom.
The UN Security Council has two choices. The first is to discharge the responsibility it assumed to secure the right to self-determination of the 300 000 people of Western Sahara, 160 000 of whom live in refugee camps in Algeria and the rest in the territory occupied by Morocco behind a 2 000km sand wall.
Alternatively, if it accepts that it is powerless to do this, it must encourage Morocco, the SADR and Algeria to resolve matters among themselves on whatever basis they can.