EU seeks solution for W Sahara
2001-11-02 17:32
Algiers - The head of a European Union delegation on a visit to Algeria to gather information on the long-running dispute over Western Sahara called on Friday for the conflict over the territory to be resolved urgently.
"The status quo cannot last forever. We have to find a solution
to this conflict and resolve it correctly to avoid it degenerating," European deputy Catherine Lalumiere, president of the European Parliament's commission on Western Sahara, said.
She was speaking at the end of a three-day visit to refugee
camps for people from Western Sahara near the southwestern Algerian
town of Tindouf.
Lalumiere added that she came away from talks with the president
of the self-proclaimed Arab Republic of Western Sahara (RASD),
Mohamed Abdelaziz, with the feeling that Abdelaziz "wants to find a
solution".
That solution should be balanced and acceptable for the
Polisario Front, which has been calling for Western Sahara to be
granted autonomy for 26 years, and Morocco, Lalumiere added.
"It's difficult but not impossible," she stressed, adding that
ending the long-running dispute in the region was in the interest
of both Morocco and Algeria.
There is friction between Rabat and Algiers over Western Sahara,
not only because of the refugee camps in Tindouf but also because
Algeria supports the Polisario Front, which is demanding
independence for Western Sahara.
After the visit to Tindouf, the EU delegation met in Algiers
with Algerian authorities, including Justice Minister Ahmed
Ouyahia, who told them "a way out (of the conflict) has to be
found", Lalumiere said.
Lalumiere will visit Rabat and Western Sahara at the head of an
EU team after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in
mid-November.
Morocco and the Polisario Front, which have been in conflict
over Western Sahara since the territory gained independence from
Spain and was annexed by Morocco in 1975, signed a UN-brokered
ceasefire for the region in 1991.
But ten years down the line, Western Sahara still has no
definitive status.
A referendum on autonomy for the region has been put off year
after year because the two sides cannot agree on several issues
concerning Western Sahara, including who should be allowed to vote
in the referendum.
A United Nations framework agreement on the region effectively
sidelined the referendum by providing for a degree of autonomy for
Western Sahara, with the population of the disputed territory
electing an executive and legislature with far-reaching powers.
But the UN proposal maintains Morocco's sovereignty over Western
Sahara, and the Polisario Front reiterated at the end of August
that it was opposed to the plan, but did not entirely rule out
discussions with the UN's special envoy, former US secretary of
state James Baker.
- Sapa-AFP
- SAPA