Algiers likes UN W Sahara plan

2004-06-14 13:23

Algiers - Algeria, praising the efforts of former UN special envoy to Western Sahara, James Baker, has urged the United Nations to apply his plan for the disputed northwest African desert region.

"The United Nations must maintain the dynamics created by the peace plan and continue to work towards it being implemented," the Algerian foreign ministry said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

Algeria reiterated its determination to "continue to back the United Nations' efforts to reach a fair and definitive settlement that will allow the people of Western Sahara to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination," the statement said.

Baker resigned last week as the special envoy for Western Sahara, which was annexed by Morocco on independence from Spain in 1975 despite a World Court ruling in favour of autonomy for the territory.

Algiers paid homage to Baker's "qualities as a loyal negotiator and his perseverance" and said his peace plan, which was "unanimously adopted by the Security Council, is the optimum political solution" for the territory.

War erupted in 1976 between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which wants independence for the territory.

A ceasefire was declared and UN peacekeepers deployed in 1991, since when the United Nations has been trying to get the two sides to agree to a plan for the territory's sovereignty.

Baker plan

The so-called Baker plan provides for a large degree of autonomy for Western Sahara during a five-year transition period, followed by a self-rule referendum.

But the plan has stalled as Morocco and Polisario dicker over who is eligible to vote in the referendum.

Meanwhile, the UN peace mission to Western Sahara has cost more than $600m since 1991, and the continuing impasse has added to the peacekeeping expenses of the United Nations.

The Security Council in April voted for a six-month extension, not the 10 months UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had sought in the hope that a deal could be reached. Diplomats said the shorter term was for budgetary reasons.

While Polisario has embraced the Baker plan, backed last July by the Security Council, Rabat has rejected it, saying its implementation would pose "major risks" for security and stability in the region.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa said on Saturday that the north African kingdom regretted Baker's decision to resign, and said it was the "outcome of the tenacity of Moroccan diplomacy".

In Madrid, the Polisario Front's representative in the former Spanish territory, Brahim Gali, on Saturday described the senior US diplomat's move as "an explicit form of protest over Morocco's intransigent position".

Baker was a personal envoy of Annan. The official UN envoy for Western Sahara, Alvaro de Soto, will take over his work, a UN official told reporters.

- AFP