UN Security Council meets Tuesday over UN mission in Sahara

The UN security council is scheduled to meet next Tuesday to renew the mandate of MINURSO (French acronym for the UN mission in charge of supervising the holding of a referendum in the Sahara).

In his latest report to the Council, UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, recommended that the MINURSO mandate, expiring this May 31, should be extended for an additional two-month period.

Parties to the Sahara conflict will hold a meeting early June after a first round held in London last week between delegates of Morocco, the secessionist Polisario group, Algeria and Mauritania.

MINURSO was deployed in 1990 in the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accord. It is supervising a cease-fire and preparations for a referendum to give populations a chance to say whether they want the Sahara to remain Moroccan territory or stand up on its own as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario guerilla movement.