Western Saharan Leader Says UN Report “Balanced”

Text of report by Algerian radio on 14 April

[Presenter] [Western] Saharan President Mohamed Abdelaziz has described the latest UN secretary-general’s report on Western Sahara as balanced. President Abdelaziz added, on the margins of the conclusion of the fourth international cinema festival in Western Sahara [Saharan refugee camps in southern Algeria], that the latest suggestions put forth by the Polisario Front were included in the report. Over to Mohamed Lemsel, for more details:

[Mohamed Lemsel recording] The president [of the self- proclaimed Saharan Arab Democratic Republic, SADR], secretary general of the Polisario Front, said he was comfortable with the content of the international report on Western Sahara, which was presented yesterday to the Security Council. President Mohamed Abdelaziz described the report, to be discussed in the Security Council in the next few days, as balanced because it recorded both the Moroccan and the Polisario Front’s suggestions and took a neutral stance from the two.

The report also discussed concerns over Morocco’s human rights violations against Saharans in the occupied Western Sahara. It emphasised the need to end the violations and called for negotiations between the two parties, Morocco and the Polisario Front, in order to reach a solution to the problem that includes the Saharan people’s right of self-determination.

Based on these considerations, the Saharan president said that the UN secretary-general’s report, despite all difficulties, maintained the framework of international legitimacy in the issue and the right of the Saharan people to self-determination.

Concerning the Polisario Front’s suggestions that were recently presented to the Security Council, the Saharan president said they are constructive and offer three exit strategies to the issue based on a free and fair referendum – either independence or joining Morocco or accepting autonomy- as opposed to the Moroccan single choice that deviates from international legitimacy. He added that, in the case of voting for independence, there should be guarantees of holding direct negotiations with Morocco to establish good neighbourly and cooperative relations.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.