Algeria makes vehement accusations of shameless siding of UNO in Sahara issue
Algeria-Morocco, Politics, 6/27/2001

Algeria accused the United Nations secretariat general of "deviating from its neutrality and objectivity mission in reporting facts and presenting arguments" in the UN secretary general latest report on the Sahara issue.

In a vehement letter to the Security Council, Algeria's delegate to the UN, Abdallah Baali, says "it is more serious that the secretariat general has decided, with the same lightness it shows when it comes to the Polisario proposals, to refute Algerian objections which were destined to it as the Secretary General was requested to forward them to member states which are the sole judges."

The letter also argues that by rejecting objections expressed by Algeria against a status project (for the Sahara), the secretariat has not only taken sides but is simply ignoring the viewpoint of an important actor (Algeria-backed Polisario). It also accuses the secretariat of breaking the confidentiality rule when it published Algerian remarks as an annex to the report at a time Algeria was only asking to forward its remarks to the member states.

By shamelessly taking side, overtly criticizing the positions of a member state and intervening in a field which falls strictly within the member states competence and more particularly the security council's, the secretariat general has discredited itself and produced evidence that it is not after the interest of member state and not behaving in conformity with the spirit and letter of the UN charter, says the letter which asks the World Body first executive to punish authors of this serious behaviors.

Regarding the new proposal, Algeria refused that the settlement plan be brushed aside and that the Polisario proposals to re-launch it be overlooked without due study. It also refused that the autonomy plan be presented as the sole and only means to settle the conflict.

Algeria also called the security council to renew its adherence to the settlement plan and renew the mandate of the MINURSO (UN mission supervising the holding of a referendum in the Sahara) in the same words it has been using for a year.

On Friday, the UN secretary general proposed to put on hold for five years the referendum it has been trying to hold since 1990 and give Sahara population some autonomy.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan-Algerian parliamentary cooperation discussed in Algiers   (6/4/2001)
  Morocco does not interfere in Algeria's internal affairs, prime minister   (5/4/2001)
  Royal message to Algeria's bouteflika   (4/16/2001)

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