Hungarian national appointed chief of UN sahara mission
Morocco, Politics, 7/24/2002

The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed General Gyorgy Szaraz (Hungary) commander of the MINURSO (French acronym of the UN mission for the holding of a referendum in the Sahara).

In a letter to the security Council, Annan said after he conducted the usual consultations, he appointed General Gyorgy Szaraz commander of the MINURSO, who will replace General Claude Buze (Belgium) as of August 11, under the reservation that the council decide to prorogate the MINURSO term beyond July 31.

The Security Council members took note of the appointment.

In another development, the Security Council decided to hold this Tuesday informal consultations on the renewal of the MINURSO mandate, announced the council's chairman for July, British Permanent Representative, Sir Jeremy Greenstock.

Greenstock had told reporters in New York on Monday "We shall discuss this issue as of tomorrow (Tuesday) and probably also on Friday, for we still have a great deal of work to do to decide on the answer to be given to the options recommended by the Secretary General and to the mission of his personal envoy for the Sahara."

At the end of these discussions, an amended draft resolution will be tabled and will serve as a basis to the formal consultations to be held later on, said the British diplomat.

The UN Secretary General had proposed, in a report he presented to the Security Council last February, four options to settle the Sahara issue.

These proposals are the implementation of the UN settlement plan (worked out in the early nineties), the revision of the framework agreement brokered by his personal envoy, James baker, and providing for a large autonomy of the Sahara provinces under Moroccan sovereignty, the partitioning of the territory or the end of the mission of the MINURSO.

Previous Stories:
  Algeria wants end to Sahara conflict   (7/22/2002)
  Ireland: Sahara issue has lasted too long   (7/20/2002)
  Spain had accepted concrete efforts before invading Moroccan islet   (7/19/2002)

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