UN denies Algerian news reports on adoption of resolution on sahara
Algeria-Morocco, Politics, 4/25/2003

The UN information services in Geneva and the human rights commission secretariat denied news reports by Algerian news agency "APS" that the commission adopted in Wednesday a resolution on "Western Sahara."

The two UN offices told MAP office in Geneva the only resolution on the Sahara adopted by the UN human rights commission was a "resolution of the president" adopted on April 14 as an agenda item, related to the right to self-determination.

Assistant to the information manager at the UN, Helena Ponomareva, said she was "astonished" by APS news item, noting among other "inaccuracies" the mention that the resolution on the Sahara also speaks of the issue of Zimbabwe, knowing that normally each UN resolution addresses a single topic and that resolutions dealing with a given country are exclusively devoted to that country.

The news item contains other biased contents, mainly the title that focuses on "the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination" and leaves out no-less important aspects such as the UN secretary general's call to the "concerned parties" to study "a political settlement" to the dispute.

Actually, in its resolution, the UN human rights commission called concerned parties to live up to their duty to release without further delay all persons detained since the beginning of the conflict. The resolution also "reiterated its support for further efforts by the UN secretary general and his personal envoy for the Sahara in order to reach a political solution to the Western Sahara issue" and "urges parties to cooperate with the UN secretary general and his personal envoy for the Sahara to reach a mutually-accepted political settlement to the dispute."

MAP correspondent in Geneva also reports that the "president resolution" is in fact, like similar resolutions on the "western Sahara issue" adopted in previous years by the commission, a duplicate of the UN general assembly resolution and in this precise case of the resolution dated December 11, 2002.

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