By Evelyn Leopold
United Nations, New York - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged on Monday he had spoken out of turn in a report that leaned towards the Moroccan side in protracted negotiations with the Polisario movement about Western Sahara.
The two sides met earlier this month near New York for two days of groundbreaking UN-sponsored talks, the first meeting in seven years, aimed at ending a 32-year-old dispute over the former Spanish territory. Negotiations resume on August 10 at the Greentree estate in Manhassat, Long Island.
Morocco wants talks about self-rule for the territory under Rabat's sovereignty, but the Polisario Front, the rebel movement seeking independence, has demanded a referendum that would include the option of full independence.
On Friday, Ban's office issued a report that recommended the Polisario "could be asked to test Morocco's readiness to take part in serious, constructive negotiations" by making "concrete proposals to clarify or amend Morocco's limited autonomy proposal", but leaving aside final status questions.
There was no mention of Polisario's proposals, suggesting that Morocco's plan was the only viable one under discussion.
"If the negotiations are to lead to a positive outcome, both parties must recognise that the question of sovereignty is, and always has been, the main stumbling block in this dispute, and that it is in this highly sensitive area that a solution will need to be found," Ban said in the report.
But the new report on Monday dropped these paragraphs and made clear that the 15-nation UN Security Council had requested that Ban's office arrange for the talks "without preconditions" and with a view to achieving a "lasting and mutually acceptable political solution."
Still, UN officials would not say whether they had discarded the concept of negotiating on the basis of Morocco's plan. Instead a UN statement said it was "in the best interests of the process" for Ban's special envoy, Peter van Walsum, to brief the Security Council orally next week "rather than in a public report".
Western Sahara, larger than Britain but with a population of just 260 000, has lucrative phosphate reserves, rich fishing grounds and potentially oil. Many thousands of its people live in refugee camps across the border in Algeria.
No country recognises Morocco's rule over Western Sahara but the United States is now impatient for a deal it hopes will bring more co-operation between North African states and help combat terrorist groups in the regions bordering the Sahara.
The United Nations brokered an end to a low-level guerrilla war in Sahara in 1991, but no political solution has followed.
For the Polisario, the recommendations in the original report were unacceptable.
"There are two proposals on the table (and) both parties will remain engaged," Polisario representative Ahmed Boukhari told Reuters. "There's no place for other recommendations or other observations that instead of helping the process may create some problems for it."
Moroccan officials declined to comment.