ALGIERS • A UN proposal for Morocco and the Polisario Front to discuss confidence-building measures at Western Sahara peace talks is a welcome move that could help lead to a solution, the independence movement said yesterday.
Polisario official Mohamed Beissat said measures to facilitate family visits or coordinate action on landmines would build cooperation that could help end the 32-year-old dispute.
“The measures could be conducive to a political settlement,” said Beissat, who is also ambassador to Algeria of the ethnic Sahrawi people’s self-proclaimed government-in-exile for Western Sahara.
“A lot of mistrust between Sahrawis and Moroccans has built up over many, many years. Confidence-building measures can be the remedy for that.”
At two days of talks near New York last week, a UN mediator proposed the sides discuss confidence-building measures to make tangible improvements in the life of Sahrawis.
Polisario officials said Polisario had agreed to the idea, but a Moroccan official who asked not to be identified said Rabat believed the current talks were not the right forum.
Beissat said the Moroccan position was regrettable because moves to improve the lives of Sahrawis were urgently needed.
A report on the talks by the official MAP Moroccan news agency did not mention the issue.
The talks centred on whether, as Rabat proposes, the territory should be an autonomous part of Morocco, which annexed it in 1975, or have its fate decided in a referendum with the option of independence, as the Polisario Front wants.
WALL OF SAND
The UN-mediated talks were the second round since Morocco and Polisario submitted rival plans for the resource-rich former Spanish colony to the United Nations in April. A further round of talks is expected before year-end.
Western Sahara, on the coast of northwest Africa, is home to some 260,000 people and has lucrative phosphate deposits, rich fishing grounds and, potentially, oil.
No country recognises Morocco’s rule over the territory, but the UN Security Council is divided. Some nonaligned states back Polisario while France and the United States back Morocco.
Tens of thousands of refugees have lived in desert camps in Algeria since 1975. Tension remains high along a 1,500-km wall of sand which runs through landmine-infested desert to the Atlantic coast, separating Moroccan and Polisario forces.
A few Sahrawis have been allowed to return home to towns like Laayoune, and a UN exchange programme now allows some Sahrawis living in the camps to fly to the Moroccan zone for five-day family visits. About 3,000 people have taken part.
“We were saddened by Morocco’s refusal to address the measures at the talks, “ Beissat said. “This is a society torn apart by conflict and it shows a lack of sensitivity towards their suffering. What is the meaning of a political settlement or process that has no impact on the daily life of people?”.
“The berm (sand wall) must be opened so that people can go in and come back.”
