LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Western Sahara Conflict: Security Council
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Despite the recent new hopes for Western Sahara, the UN could once more find itself in the unhappy situation of offering humanitarian assistance without security. Michael Bhatia, a researcher with a humanitarian interest in Western Sahara, looks at prospects over the coming months.
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From 1988 to 1999, the Security Council attempted to hold a vote on self-determination in Western Sahara. Then, in 2000, the discourses started shifting away from self-determination to a “third way” that was neither independence nor integration with Morocco. Autonomy has become that “third way” solution, and it seems like the best compromise on paper. Yet, when mapped onto the realities of the conflict, autonomy becomes a recipe for disaster -- both at the negotiating table and on the ground in Western Sahara.
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Clashes between Moroccan security forces and Saharawi demonstrators have broken out in cities across Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, following the violent break up of human rights and pro-independence demonstrations. Saharawi human rights activists say that nineteen people are missing in police custody, including one whole family, and that a young demonstrator was raped by Moroccan forces.
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In June 2006, Amnesty International released its 2005 report on Morocco and Western Sahara [33], again citing excessive police force, leading to the death of two demonstrators. In the section: "Protests in Western Sahara" Amnesty reports: "Dozens of people were charged with inciting or participating in violence in the demonstrations. Over 20 were later convicted and some were sentenced to several years in prison. Among those sentenced were seven long-standing human rights defenders who were monitoring and disseminating information on the crackdown by the security forces. Two alleged that they had been tortured during questioning. An eighth human rights defender was detained awaiting trial at the end of the year.
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The Western Sahara conflict is often described as being in a state of 'neither peace nor war '. Morocco exercises de facto effective control over the vast majority of the territory and its resources, and enjoys the active backing of Security Council member France, and the tacit backing of Security Council members the US and UK. Thus, prolonging the current situation is perceived to be to its benefit.
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[One] complaint concerns the negligible role played by the secretary-general's current Special Representative for the Western Sahara, Sahabzada Yaqub Khan. One diplomat noted that "[Yaqub Khan] is not engaged. He is never in the Western Sahara and does not intervene directly with the parties. The report of the Security Council mission asked that [Deputy Special Representative Erik] Jensen be promoted to Special Representative because there has to be someone on the ground who can exercise this authority. But the secretary-general declined to make him Special Representative."42
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