October 26, 2000
Morocco should devolve some governmental authority to Western Sahara to ease a standoff with the Polisario Front on the future status of the disputed territory, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a report Thursday. "Further meetings of the parties to seek a political solution cannot succeed, and indeed could be counterproductive, unless the Government of Morocco as administrative power in Western Sahara is prepared to offer or support some devolution of governmental authority," the report said.
Annan recommended that the Security Council extend the mandate of the UN mission in charge of organizing a referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, by four months, to February 28. "Regrettably, I cannot report any progress in overcoming the obstacles to the implementation of the United Nations settlement plan," he wrote.
The plan calls for a referendum to be held in territory enabling voters to choose between independence or continued governance by Morocco.
Morocco and the Polisario Front, an armed movement backed by neighboring Algeria, have fought over sovereignty of the former Spanish colony since 1974. The Polisario Front declared it independent in 1975, and Morocco annexed it the same year. The UN referendum has been delayed since 1991 due to as-yet-unresolved differences between the two sides about who should be allowed to vote. The Polisario Front has accused Morocco of trying to scrap the referendum by delaying it indefinitely.
Three recent meetings facilitated by Annan's personal envoy, former US secretary of state James Baker, did not bring the two sides any closer together.
Annan said that if Morocco does not loosen its grip in Western Sahara, the United Nations would expedite hearings into complaints from thousands of people who are appealing their exclusion from the list of voters.
The 15 members of the Security Council were to discuss Annan's report behind closed doors Thursday afternoon, with Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammed Benaissa in attendance.
