
Issue No 78		17 November 2000

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International

Morocco Stonewalls In Western Sahara

Morocco has new king but its old game plan of defying world opinion over its occupation of the Western Sahara continues.

On 28 September 2000 a meeting was organised in Berlin (Germany) between Morocco and the Polisario Front, under the auspices of Mr. James Baker, the UN Secretary General's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, in order to "resolve the multiple problems relating to the implementation of the settlement plan for Western Sahara and to try to find agreement on a mutually acceptable political solution to the dispute".

While the Polisario delegation was willing to discuss all the problems hindering the implementation of the peace plan, Morocco was stalling and did not want to discuss concrete problems at the heart of the current deadlock such as the Appeals Process, repatriation of refugees, release of political detainees and confidence building measures.

Morocco refused to discuss ways of overcoming the deadlock in the UN peace plan and sought to abandon the referendum process itself. It proposed to negotiate directly, with the POLISARIO Front, a solution that would guarantee Morocco's control over Western Sahara.

Polisario's reaction to this proposal was to utterly reject it. In a press release, the Polisario Front expressed its "full commitment to the peace plan and its willingness to discuss with Morocco, under the auspices of the United Nations, all the problems hindering the implementation of the plan, with the aim to organise a fair and free referendum in Western Sahara". For the Saharawi part, the Moroccan proposal was a naked attempt to sabotage the UN peace process. This was the first time that Morocco had publicly declared its intention to depart from the international community's efforts to solve the conflict in Western Sahara. "Morocco is the sole responsible for the present stalemate and will assume alone the consequences of any action which may threaten peace and stability in the region", the press release added.

On 25 October 2000, the UN Secretary General published his Report S/2000/1029, in which he made an assessment of the meetings in Geneva (July/2000) and Berlin (September/2000): no progress towards resolving the main problems, except that Morocco has, for the first time, acknowledged holding 207 Saharawi political prisoners. Confidence-building measures (contacts between families on both sides of the wall) were put on hold because of Morocco's refusal, which also opposed any discussion on the issue of the Appeals process. The Polisario Front maintained its position of faithful commitment to the peace plan.

On 30 October 2000, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution S/RES/1324 (2000), in which the Council "decides to extend the mandate of MINURSO until 28 February 2001, with the expectation that the parties, under the auspices of the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, will continue to try and resolve the multiple problems relating to the implementation of the Settlement Plan and try to agree upon a mutually acceptable political solution to their dispute over Western Sahara."

The Polisario Front welcomed the fact that the Security Council, in its resolution, considered that the two parties should "try to reach an agreement on a mutually agreeable political settlement". This position set limits to Moroccan ambitions, said Ahmed Boukhari, Polisario Front representative to the United Nations, by establishing that "any alternative to the referendum must be accepted by the two parties and not only by one of them."

On the other hand, the Polisario Front believes that the position of Annan had moved away from the settlement plan. Ahmed Boukhari, in a declaration to the Spanish News Agency (EFE), declared that "the UN's clumsiness" in handling the conflict in Western Sahara "increases the risk of a new military confrontation". He added that Kofi Annan now "gives more weight to the search for a political solution than to his own settlement plan."

What we have witnessed from Morocco during the past nine years is foot dragging, blocking and now outright rejection of the UN peace plan. In other words, a sheer procrastination policy carried out with astonishing impunity. It is crystal clear that Morocco is the side, which has obstructed and continues to obstruct UN's efforts to settle peacefully the conflict in Western Sahara. But what is less clear is what UN and the international community at large intend to do to bring Morocco back to fulfil, once and for all, its commitments and fully implement the peace plan.

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Issue 78 contents

Interview: Doubly Blessed
With that unforgettable name, Grace Grace is making her mark as the first female secretary of the Queensland trade union movement.

Unions: On The Line
Trade unions this week entered a landmark partnership with the call centre industry to improve the quality jobs in this growing sector.

History: Conspiracy or Class? The Whitlam Sacking
Never trust a man who wears a top hat and tails in Australia, in Summer. Neale Towart considers this and other evidence of conspiracy in the great shonky dismissal.

Legal: Return Of The Lock-out
Marian Baird reports on the increasing tendency of aggressive employers to use lock-outs to reduce wages and conditions and promote individual agreements.

Activists: Waterfront Hero Bows Out
John Coombs, the man the government compared to Ned Kelly - villain to the bosses, the big land owners and conservatives, folk hero to working Australians - bows out of the union movement next month.

International: Morocco Stonewalls In Western Sahara
Morocco has new king but its old game plan of defying world opinion over its occupation of the Western Sahara continues.

Review: The Identity-Shifting Pragmatist
If New Zealand should have an Australian as its first Labour Prime Minister, then it is only fitting that Australia should have as its first a man who spent much of his formative years across the ditch.

Satire: Hackers Infect Microsoft Computers With Mysterious Windows Virus
SEATTLE, Thursday: Shame-faced workers at Microsoft admitted today that hackers had succeeded in penetrating their network's defences and had installed a sophisticated virus on the Apple Macintosh machines used across the software giant's operations.

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