Morocco calls for negotiated political settlement with Algeria of Sahara dispute

Morocco has called for a negotiated lasting and final settlement of the Sahara issue between the kingdom and neighboring Algeria, a call that was echoed by several African countries which took the floor before the United Nations 4th committee.

Addressing the committee, in New York Friday, Mohamed Bennouna, Morocco's permanent representative to the UN said, "a lasting and final settlement of the dispute over the Moroccan Sahara should be found through a negotiated political solution between the two neighboring countries, Morocco and Algeria."

Indeed, by its constant support to the Polisario separatist movement which claims independence of this former Spanish colony, Algeria has, since the beginning, become an involved party in this dispute, although the Algerian regime claims the opposite.

"Since it is appropriate to negotiate in order to reach a mutually acceptable solution, it is thus necessary for the parties to reveal their intentions, and embark on the quest of a realistic and lasting solution which will guarantee the stability of the Maghreb region and of its member states," insisted the Moroccan ambassador.

The Sahara dispute is dragging for more than a quarter century due to the position of Algeria, a member country of the Arab Maghreb Union, which continues to support and finance the polisario separatist movement in its claim for independence of this territory retrieved by Morocco under a three-party agreement signed in 1975 with Spain and Mauritania.

"While Morocco is clearly defending without any ambiguity, its sovereignty over its national territory, it would be desirable that Algeria clarifies what it refers to as its 'strategic interests' for the settlement of this dispute which has been unfortunately used in the domestic quarrels of the Algerian Authority," said Bennouna.

Among the six African countries that took the floor before the 4th committee, Burkina Faso, Guinea, the Republic of Congo and Senegal called for a negotiated political solution accepted by all parties. They also voiced their support to the peace plan crafted by James Baker, former US secretary of State and personal envoy of the UN Secretary General to the Sahara. This draft plan which does not take into account Morocco's territorial integrity, is rejected by Morocco and by the inhabitants of these southern provinces who fear its implementation would trigger tribal wars and destabilize the whole region.

"With the same good faith and willingness to preserve peace in the region, Morocco, in response to the Secretary General and his Personal Envoy's request, embarked on the search for what has been called 'a political solution' which, contrary to the latest proposal is a "no-winner, no-looser" approach, said the Moroccan Ambassador.

After recalling that Morocco accepted, in June 2001, to conduct negotiations, "with the same spirit, on the basis of the framework Agreement which was presented to us as 'the last window of opportunity' for peace in our region, Algeria and Polisario, he said, categorically rejected this initiative without consideration of the Secretary General nor for his Personal Envoy, thus demonstrating that they are not after a compromise solution but rather an exclusive satisfaction of geopolitical interests."

This, he went on, was plainly revealed when, during a meeting in Houston (Texas) in November 2001, Algeria purely and simply proposed to Baker the partition of the territory to secure an access to the Atlantic Ocean.

Bennouna who insists that Morocco and Algeria must assume now their responsibilities in maintaining peace and security in the region, said that the draft plan proposed by Baker "should be necessarily reviewed and corrected, mainly when it excludes from the management of local institutions, the large majority of population living in the provinces of the south."

The Moroccan ambassador concluded by pressing the UN organization to exert pressure on the Polisario and Algeria to release the more than 900 Moroccan prisoners of war, some of whom held captives for more than a quarter century.

"We must repeatedly reiterate, again and again, the obligation to release the oldest prisoners of the world who rot in the concentration camps of Tindouf, while their jailers are present here to claim the implementation of the international law," said in conclusion the Moroccan diplomat.

The call for the release of these prisoners was also echoed by the delegates of the four African countries.