UN's 5yr plan for W Sahara

2003-05-29 10:40

New York - UN chief Kofi Annan urged Morocco, the Polisario Front and Algeria Wednesday to endorse a new peace plan to end the Western Sahara dispute, proposing a five-year self-governing period for the territory followed by a referendum.

The three parties to the dispute released the plan after a closed-door session on Wednesday at the United Nations Security Council.

The UN secretary general proposed that the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) be extended for two more months, until July 31, to allow the Security Council to mull a decision on the proposal.

"I believe that the peace place provides a fair and balanced approach towards a political solution to the question of Western Sahara, providing each side some, but perhaps not all, of what it wants," said Annan.

He recommended that one or both of the parties - Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front which seeks independence for Western Sahara - "do something they are not otherwise prepared to do", suggesting that they go ahead and "endorse the peace plan".

"It is fair and balanced and, following a transitional period of self-government, offers the bona fide residents of Western Sahara an opportunity to determine the future for themselves.

MINURSO has been in the territory for 11 years, at a cost to the United Nations of US$500m.

But the 27-year conflict actually began when Spain, the former colonial power, pulled out of the mineral-rich territory and Morocco marched in. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA