Morocco, Polisario open Sahara talks

Published Jun 19, 2007

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By Patrick Worsnip

Morocco and Western Sahara's independence movement opened talks on Monday to try to resolve a 32-year-old dispute over the resource-rich territory, but diplomats expected no quick breakthrough.

Pushed to the table by the United Nations, officials from Morocco and the Polisario Front, as well as Algeria - where Polisario is based - and neighbouring Mauritania began two days of meetings at a private estate near New York.

Claiming centuries-old rights, Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony after Madrid pulled out in 1975. The United Nations brokered an end to a low-level guerrilla war in 1991 but no political solution has followed.

The sides have met at least four times before, most recently in 2000 in Berlin, but United Nations officials have billed this week's talks as the best chance so far to end a dispute seen by Washington as hampering its fight against terrorism.

Western Sahara, on Africa's northwest coast, has extensive phosphate deposits, rich fisheries and, potentially, oil.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told the closed talks the stalemate was "intolerable" and an agreement must be reached giving self-determination to Sahara's people, UN spokesperson Michele Montas said.

"The entire international community (is) deeply interested in events unfolding here today. Time has come for a solution," she quoted Pascoe as telling the UN-mediated meeting at the Greentree estate in Manhasset on Long Island.

But there was no immediate sign the fundamental problem of whether Sahara is to become fully independent, as Polisario wants, or an autonomous region of Morocco, as Rabat proposes, could be overcome.

Polisario officials said Morocco's presentation closed the door on any solution other than Moroccan sovereignty over the territory of

260 000 people. On that basis, "I cannot say there is hope for these negotiations," Polisario's UN representative Ahmed Boukhari, who took part in the talks, told Reuters.

Boukhari said Polisario repeated its proposal for a referendum among Sahrawis that would offer a choice of full independence, autonomy or complete integration into Morocco.

The cease-fire deal promised a referendum, but it never took place and Rabat now rules it out. A Moroccan autonomy plan submitted to the United Nations in April keeps key levers of power in Rabat but was hailed by France and the United States.

Moroccan delegates were not immediately available for comment, but Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa on Sunday called the talks an "opportunity for peace that Morocco intends to seize to turn the page and move forward."

His country would take part in the talks "in good faith and optimism," he said in a statement.

Morocco is represented at the talks by Benmoussa and deputy Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri. The Polisario team is headed by veteran leader Mahfoud Ali Beiba, currently speaker of the movement's parliament.

Dutch diplomat Peter van Walsum, the UN special envoy for Western Sahara, is moderating the talks at the estate, which was previously used by the UN for border negotiations between Nigeria and Cameroon.

No country recognises Morocco's rule over Western Sahara but the United States is now impatient for a deal it hopes will bring more cooperation between North African states and help combat terrorist groups in the regions bordering the Sahara.

The Western Sahara dispute is the main cause of friction between Morocco and Algeria whose land borders, closed in 1994 amid security tensions, remain shut. - Reuters

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