SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Algiers, 29/04/04 (SPS)  Algeria welcomed Thursday ''with a great satisfaction'' the unanimous adoption by the Security Council, of the resolution 1541 on Western Sahara, which ''reiterates the Security Council's commitment to work for the completion of a mutually acceptable political solution for the Saharawi people's self-determination''.

In a released statement, the Foreign Affairs Ministry's spokesman revealed that ''the resolution reaffirms its support for the peace plan the Western Saharawi people's self-determination as an optimal political solution for the settlement of the Western Sahara issue ''.

The resolution, the statement underlined, also reaffirms ''the validity of the resolution 1495 of July 31, 2003 by which the Security Council expressed its strong support for Baker peace plan and asked the two sides, Morocco's Kingdom and the Polisario Front, to work for its acceptation and its implementation''.

Underlining that the resolution also decides to extend the MINURSO's mandate to six months, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman told that ''Algeria sincerely hopes that, as wished by the UN secretary general in his report, this delay will be used by the two sides to work for the acceptation and the implementation of the peace plan ''.

Algeria, the same source pointed out, ''wants to express its gratitude to the secretary general and his special envoy, and renew to them its full support and confidence in their research for a just and definitive solution of the Western Sahara issue based on the exercise by the Western Sahara people of its inalienable right for self-determination in the respect of the international legality". (SPS)

020/090/700 292215 Apr 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/ONU
Security Council unanimously reaffirms its support to the peace plan for the self-determination of Saharawi people

New York (United Nations) 29/04/04 (SPS) The UN Security Council reaffirmed Thursday ''its support to the peace plan for the Saharawi people's self-determination ''. The resolution, unanimously voted by the Security Council, recalls that the resolution 1495 of July 31, 2003, underlined that this plan ''constitutes an optimal political solution ''.

Security Council also reaffirmed ''its great support" for efforts of the secretary general and his personal envoy ''to reach a mutually acceptable political settlement of the Western Sahara issue ''.

The Security Council, which has also decided to extend till October 31, 2004 the mandate of the UN mission for the organisation of a referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), asked ''all sides and states of the region to fully cooperate with the secretary general and his personal envoy '' in order to enforce the plan for the self-determination of Saharawi people.


Finally, the resolution asked the secretary general to present before the end of the mission's mandate, ''a report on the situation which includes an assessment on the size of the MINURSO to perfectly carry out its tasks''.  (SPS) 

020/090/700 292109 Apr 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/MOROCCO/UN
According to Polisario, the good faith of Morocco can be judged by the degree of cooperation to the enforcement of the UN's peace plan

Bir Lehlu, 29/04/2004 (SPS) The Saharawi Government considered that if Morocco wants to prove its good faith and its availability to cooperate with the UN to put an end to the armed conflict opposing it to Saharawi people, it should conform with the international community's arbitration on the basis of the UN's Charter and to the peoples right to self-determination.

The Saharawi Government, estimated in a communiqué publicised Wednesday that «if Morocco honestly wants to prove its availability and good faith, it has only to conform to international legality by positively responding to the appeal of the Secretary General and his Personal Envoy, who recommend the acceptance and enforcement of the last peace plan as it is endorsed by the Security Council».

«Acting that way, Morocco will meet with full cooperation from the Saharawi party which will save no effort to the success of the UN's oeuvre of peace in Western Sahara and to the re-launching of the edification of the Maghreb on lasting and healthy», underlined the communiqué SPS received.

The text recalled that Morocco is the «cause of the current deadlock since it rejected all the solutions the Security Council recommended since 1991», added the communiqué, quoting the last SG's report.

the Saharawi Government noted with satisfaction the attachment to «Saharawi people's right to self-determination», which remains, to the UN, «the essential path towards the achievement of the decolonisation in Western Sahara», added the communiqué.

To the Saharawi Government «the Peace Plan for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara», unanimously endorsed by the Security Council in its resolution 1495 of the 30th July 2003, is «the best solution to the Morocco-Saharawi conflict».

«Thus, it is obvious that the Moroccan government assume the full accountability of the blocking that hinder, for more than thirteen years already, the efforts for peace in Western Sahara», underlined the communiqué.

The text, finally, considered that «Moroccan stubbornness, in negating Saharawi people's most fundamental right of determining its future, put the efforts for peace to the test having already cost a lot to our peoples and caused unacceptable delays to the edification of the Maghreb». (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 291457 Apr 04 SPS