LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Western Sahara Conflict: Referendum
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Although Algeria seems to hold the key to peace in the Western Sahara conflict it could not succeed in persuading the late King Hassan of Morocco to change his mind.(3) To the Algerians, the latest U.N. initiative under Kofi Annan was meant to give impetus to the delayed peace process signed between the Polisario Front and the Moroccan government. A U.N. brokered ceasefire has been in place for the last seven years with the U.N. Peacekeepers (Minurso) ensuring that it is not violated. Morocco, along with the Government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which is a member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and is recognised by about 80 countries, had agreed to a referendum to be held under U.N.
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During the first decade of the 20th century, after an agreement among the colonial powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884, Spain took possession of the Western Sahara and declared it to be a Spanish protectorate. As internal political and social pressures in mainland Spain built up towards the end of Francisco Franco's rule, and as an effect of the global trend in decolonization, Spain began rapidly and even chaotically divesting itself of most of its remaining colonial possessions. Spain planned to divest itself of the Sahara, and in 1974-75 issued promises of a referendum on independence. This had been demanded by the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi nationalist organization fighting the Spanish since 1973.
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Description: This report discusses different proposals to resolve the protracted Western Sahara dispute, commenting on the positions of the parties involved. The paper introduces the evolution of the Western Sahara conflict from 1974 to 2004 and describes how and why conflict resolution stalled. Subsequently, the paper looks at the respective positions of Morocco, the Polisario Front and Algeria, assesses the chances for a fair and free independence referendum and puts forward a new approach based on negotiating reciprocal recognition and legitimation. The paper points to the undecided policy of the UN Security Council.
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The clear subtext to the current UN thinking on Western Sahara is to get Polisario to abandon a vote on independence. This is technically impossible under international law, as only the Western Saharans can, through a referendum, give up their right to self-determination. But former Secretary General Kofi Annan was even bold enough to suggest that the right of self-determination is the prerogative of the Security Council. In his last report on Western Sahara, October 2006, Annan warned that “Polisario would be well advised to enter into negotiations now, while there is still consensus in the Council that a negotiated political solution must provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”
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Before the UN, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had tried to resolve the Western Sahara dispute. The UN settlement proposals of 1988 were almost identical to those originally made by the OAU, laying down the broad guidelines for an internationally supervised cease-fire and a referendum offering the choice of independence or integration with Morocco. King Hassan's response to the OAU resolution was a rather ambiguous acceptance, promising to accept a controlled referendum whose modalities should do justice simultaneously to the objectives of the OAU and to Morocco's conviction regarding the legitimacy of its rights. Although the king's statement was viewed by some as a breakthrough in that he accepted the idea of a referendum, statements before and after the speech should have left no doubt that he had a restrictive interpretation of the referendum plan as a "confirmative" one for Morocco. Such statements by the Moroccan authorities regarding the "Moroccanity" of Western Sahara have continued over the years.
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Now, Mr Baker will go another round with the parties to establish whether there is a willingness to organise the Western Sahara referendum, which they all had agreed to in the 1991 cease fire. The answer is given before the Envoy starts his talks; all parties except Morocco will accept, while Morocco will demand that Mr Baker's proposal of an autonomous Sahrawi province within Morocco must be implemented.
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