Security Council extends MINURSO term for two months

The United Nations Security Council extended on Tuesday for two months the mandate of MINURSO, French acronym for the UN mission set up in 1991 to supervise cease-fire and preparations for the holding of a referendum in the Sahara.

The unanimously-adopted resolution calls the two parties to "continue to try to resolve the multiple problems relating to the implementation of the Settlement Plan and try to agree upon a mutually acceptable political solution to their dispute." The security council expects these efforts will be conducted under the aegis of UN secretary general's special envoy for the Sahara, James Baker.

The extension of the MINURSO mandate comes upon recommendation of the UN secretary general who, in his latest report, submitted last week, deplored deterioration of relations between the parties to the dispute over the Sahara and lack of progress in the implementation of the settlement plan.

In the light of this state of affairs, he recommends a two-month extension, until 30 April, of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in the Sahara (MINURSO), which was deployed in April 1991 to prepare for a consultation in which people would choose to remain within Morocco, or set up their own independent state, as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario.