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SPS "The United Nations could not endorse a plan that excluded a genuine referendum", Annan affirms 21.04.05
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New York (United Nations), 21/04/2006 (SPS) "The United Nations could not endorse a plan that excluded a genuine referendum while claiming to provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara", the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, in reference to the preposition of autonomy Morocco is trying to impose in this Non-Self-Governing territory it is colonising by force since 1975.
"A new plan would be doomed from the outset because Morocco would reject it again", he declared in a report he will present to the UN’s Security Council this Friday, of which international press agencies publicised a large passage.
Annan recommended "direct negotiations" between Morocco and the Frente Polisario, stressing that the latter has immediately "rejected" these negotiations as long as Rabat continues to deny to Saharawi people their right to self-determination through a referendum organised and supervised by the UN.
Mr. Annan also expressed his concern about the impasse in the situation of the Western Sahara and about the human rights violations in the Saharawi territories under Moroccan colonial control.
The actual Status quo, Annan adds, can not continue and "the Security Council cannot afford to adopt this attitude. It cannot wait for the question of Western Sahara to deteriorate from a source of potential instability in the region to a threat to international peace and security".
He further expressed his concern about "heavy-handed (Moroccan-Ed) response to the recent demonstrations in the Territory, including the arrest and detention of several individuals" in the Western Sahara.
Although MINURSO does not have the mandate or resources to address this issue, "the United Nations remains committed to upholding international human rights standards", the document stressed, and fully informed the UN’s Security Council on the Moroccan forces human rights violations in the Western Sahara.
Mr. Annan finally recommended that the mandate of MINURSO be extended for a further period of six months, until 31 October 2006, so as to stabilise and supervise the cease-fire and with the hope of progress in the process of decolonisation of the territory. (SPS)
010/090/666/TRD 210024 Avr 06 SPS
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SPS Polisario Front rejects any negotiations with Morocco that get rounds the self-determination referendum
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New York (United Nations), 21/04/2006 (SPS) Polisario Front formally rejects any kind of negotiations with Morocco that would get round the self-determination referendum, as proposed by the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to avoid the Baker Plan and the UN’s Settlement Plan. The >Front affirmed that negotiations cannot be considered as long as Rabat denies the Saharawi people’s legitimate right to self-determination.
In a written statement by its Representative to the UN, Boukhari Ahmed, the Polisario Front estimated that these negotiations are "incoherent". "As long as Morocco refuses to accept the Saharawi people’s self-determination, these negotiations are absolutely nonsense".
In return, the Polisario insisted on "the implementation of the Baker Plan or the Settlement Plan taking into consideration that the referendum both plans recommend includes all options, among which autonomy and independence", the statement adds.
On another hand, Polisario noted positive points in the UN’s Secretary General’s report presented on Friday to the UN’s Security Council’s Members.
"The Polisario notes with satisfaction the fact that the UN’s Secretary General has fully informed the Security Council on the human rights violations perpetrated by the Moroccan forces in the Western Sahara", but also the consideration of the "illegality" of the presence of Morocco in the Western Sahara when Mr. Annan said that "no country in the world recognises Moroccan claims of sovereignty on the territory", Mr. Boukhari says.
In this respect, the UN’s Secretary General "considers that negotiations on the basis of the autonomy as Morocco would like, is unconceivable, in the sense that that this for such wording would imply the recognition to Moroccan of a sovereignty over Western Sahara it does not have", the Saharawi diplomat added.
He further noted the strong signal the report addresses to Morocco when Annan affirmed that his organisation "could not endorse a plan that excluded a genuine referendum while claiming to provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. Three elements that put the conflict in its right dimension as a decolonisation question".
To the Saharawi diplomat "the violation, by Morocco, of the Saharawi people right to the free self-determination is the direct cause of human rights violations in the occupied zones of the Western Sahara". (SPS)
010/090/100/TRD 211106 Avr 06 SPS
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