Sahrawi refugees return is the key to Sahara problem, former UN representative says
Morocco, Politics, 5/17/1999

The return of Sahrawi refugees to their areas of origin is the key to the Sahara problem settlement, said Charles Dunbar, former representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to the Sahara.

"If the refugees return to Western Sahara, the Sahara issue will be settled with or without a referendum," Dunbar said at a conference at the Washington-based Middle-East Institute.

"If the refugees do not return to western Sahara, the issue will not be settled, with or without the referendum," he insisted.

Annan's former representative was hinting to the Polisario's claim that the Sahrawis it sequesters in the Tindouf camps (souther-western Algeria) vote between the security belt --built by Morocco to protect its southern provinces against the incursions of the polisario -- and the international borders with Algeria.

"I am sure that most of refugees would vote in their areas of origin west of the belt," Dunbar said.

Relatedly, a Moroccan senior minister, Mohamed El-Yazghi, strongly criticized the Polisario's attempts to have the refugees vote in the area between the belt and the borders with Algeria.

To have the refugees vote in "a no man's land" is totally unacceptable, El-Yazghi told the BBC.

Charles Dunbar also touched on the presence in the Sahara of the MINURSO, U.N. mission for the holding of the referendum in the Sahara.

The MINURSO mandate in the Sahara should not be ended, he said, insisting that the mission does not cost much compared to similar operations in other parts of the world.

"The MINURSO should stay without mobilizing major human and material resources," he said, calling for more reduction of the MINURSO military component. The mission can work at a cost of $ 10 to 20 million, he added.

"The military presence of the MINURSO is presently symbolic, and I think that we should make it more symbolic to acknowledge the progress made by the parties," he said.

The MINURSO which supervises a cease-fire in force since September 1991 currently comprises 203 military observers, 10 staff officers, 248 troopers and 80 civilian police observers.

He related the historical background of the MINURSO presence in the Sahara since 1991, 16 years after the Green March that liberated the Moroccan Sahara from the Spanish occupation in 1975, and three years after "Morocco won the war thanks to a very efficient tactic that consisted in building a long belt across western Sahara."

To a question on a solution to the Sahara issue other than the referendum, Dunbar said that a solution similar to a "certain form of autonomy to the population of the region is not envisioned (by the parties) for the time being."

On the role of Algeria in the issue, Dunbar said Algiers has so far restricted itself to voicing attachment to the U.N settlement plan as a sole solution to the problem. He added that he could not elaborate more on this subject, because his discussions in Algeria "were not totally transparent."

Algeria has been closely involved in the Sahara issue through the political and material support it extends to the Polisario separatists.

Replying to the Polisario separatists' representative in Washington, Mouloud Said, who said that the Sahrawis were "ill-treated" by the Moroccan security services, Dunbar said the security measures are very stringent in the territory for understandable reasons.

The former U.N envoy also said he was impressed by the political and democratic progress achieved by Morocco. "Morocco, where I lived in 1998 is totally different and much more pleasant than it was in 1973 and 1975."

Previous Stories:
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  Security council extends MINURSO mandate to next Sept 14   (5/15/1999)
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