Algeria - Algeria's president insisted that his nation will not play an active role in resolving the Western Sahara conflict, rejecting an idea floated by Spain to ease a standoff over the Atlantic coastal territory.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika addressed a letter on Tuesday to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, saying that any attempt to involve Algeria directly was merely a "stalling tactic" to direct away from the real issues.
Morocco claims the Western Sahara as its own territory, while a rebel group there called the Polisario Front is pressing for independence.
Algeria insists it plays no real role in the crisis - though it offers diplomatic, military and logistical support to the Polisario Front. The conflict between Algeria and Morocco has stymied serious co-operation among North African nations.
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| 'Morocco claims the Western Sahara as its own territory' |
In the letter, Bouteflika said the only people involved in the crisis should be the "Saharawis and the occupying force, that is to say Morocco".
"Algeria cannot and will not be a substitute for the Saharawi people in the determination of their future," he wrote.
The conflict took a turn in June when former United States Secretary of State James Baker III resigned as Annan's personal envoy for Western Sahara after failing for seven years to resolve the problem.
Baker had grown increasingly frustrated, initially in failing to arrange a referendum on the territory's future and most recently in getting Morocco to accept his latest peace plan.
That plan would have given Western Sahara immediate self-government and required a referendum within five years to decide if the mineral-rich desert territory on Africa's Atlantic coast should be independent or part of Morocco.
| 'Algeria cannot and will not be a substitute' |
The Polisario rebels, who had been pressing for a referendum, accepted the plan last July. But Morocco continued to oppose the plan on grounds that it could end the country's sovereignty over the territory, and has instead offered the region autonomy.
Spain's new Socialist government, which took power in April, has said from the outset that it hopes to ease tense ties with its neighbour to the south, Morocco.
To do that, it wants to play an active diplomacy role in resolving the conflict over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. Morocco annexed the territory following Spain's pullout in 1975, and Spain does not recognise the annexation.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos went this week to Morocco to address the issue, while another top official went to see the Polisario at its base in Tindouf, in the Algerian desert. The Socialist government said it wants direct negotiations between Algiers and Rabat - the idea that Bouteflika rejected.
The talks appear to have been a failure, and Spain went back to square one by supporting the Baker plan.
When Spain left Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco and Mauritania split it. Full-scale war broke out the following year, and Morocco took over the whole of Western Sahara after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.
About 200 000 local Saharawi people fled into exile and still live in refugee camps in Algeria.
The fighting, which pitted 15 000 Polisario guerrillas against Morocco's US-equipped army, ended in 1991 with a UN-negotiated ceasefire that called for a referendum on the region's future.
But UN efforts to arrange a vote have been frustrated by disputes over who should be allowed to vote. - Sapa-AP
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