Polisario urges UN guarantees for referendum

ALGIERS - The Polisario Front urged the Security Council on Saturday to clarify the mission of the new UN envoy for Western Sahara and provide guarantees on a long-delayed referendum on the territory’s future.

The UN considers Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, a “non-self-governing territory,” with the question of its control up in the air for decades.

The issue has pitted Morocco against the independence-seeking Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria.

Rabat, which controls 80% of the vast desert territory and its rich Atlantic fisheries has proposed a plan for Western Sahara self-governance under Moroccan sovereignty.

ThePolisariocontinuestodemandaUN-supervised self-determination referendum, which was agreed in a 1991 ceasefire accord but has still never taken place. Veteran UN diplomat Staffan de Mistura was named as envoy to the conflict last week after a more than two-year vacancy. He is due to take over the position on 1 November.

“Our main objective is to put an end to colonisation, not to appoint a new UN envoy,” Polisario leader Brahim Ghali said Saturday at a press conference in a Sahrawi refugee camp outside the Algerian desert town of Tindouf.

Ghali called on the UN Security Council to “clarify the envoy’s mission” and “set a schedule for the implementation of the referendum... and provide strong guarantees” it will be held.

“In 30 years of United Nations presence in Western Sahara, all the envoys have known failure and have stepped down,” he said. He emphasised the need to “carry out the MINURSO mission”, referring to its formal title, the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara.