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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

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