General Assembly Session 54 meeting 98

The Acting President

The Assembly will take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 6 of its report. The draft resolution was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I consider that the Assembly also wishes to adopt the draft resolution?

The Acting President

I call now on delegations wishing to make statements in explanation of position on the decision just taken.

Mr. Herrera (Mexico)

Let me reaffirm the position that my delegation stated in the Fifth Committee. My delegation has associated itself with the adoption without a vote of the draft resolution on agenda item 131, but has two concerns. The first relates to the apparent loss of $375 million, which the General Assembly had authorized 10 years ago for the holding of a referendum, which should have already taken place. The second is that we do not yet know what options have been presented to the Sahraoui people relating to its future.

We continue to think that the best way to attain our common objective is to proceed to a referendum.

Mr. Zahid (Morocco)

We are aware that the Assembly long ago decided that delegations should as far as possible explain their vote only once, either in plenary meeting or in Committee. But as another delegation has already explained its vote in both forums, my delegation too wishes to do so, with apologies to the Assembly.

The Assembly has just adopted, without a vote as usual, its resolution on the financing of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). It was Morocco that had initiated the referendum in this part of its territory, which it regained legally following the Madrid agreement and the opinion of the International Court of Justice. Morocco has thus given unreserved material, financial and moral support to MINURSO, as acknowledged in all reports of the Secretary-General.

We are convinced that MINURSO, which has made enormous efforts, should continue to enjoy the support of Member States. In our view, such support is all the more appropriate at this very difficult stage for the mission, when the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, Mr. Baker, is using his good offices in an attempt to break the deadlock that has affected the implementation process for several months.

It is common knowledge that the identification process has given rise to widespread dissatisfaction: some 140,000 applicants have been rejected by the identification centres and have appealed their rejections. Those appeals have been duly received by the relevant United Nations offices. The first problem that is likely to arise is connected with the various provisions of the protocols and guidelines governing such appeals.

The second problem relates to the registration and repatriation of refugees and of all Sahraouis who reside outside the Territory. The third problem is that of what has been termed revision: applicants who were accepted by the identification centres and whose names were communicated to us, but who were dropped from the final lists. Morocco has requested that they be restored to those lists.

There are a number of problems, and we consider that the international community should and must continue to support this peacekeeping mission; we are convinced that, with due effort, it will succeed.

Mr. Belaoura (Algeria)

My delegation fully endorses the statements by the representative of Mexico a few moments ago and in the Fifth Committee last week.

We believe that the resolution of the Western Sahara conflict lies in the self-determination referendum that is the cornerstone of the settlement plan. Through that referendum, the Sahraoui people will be able to express itself on its future in accordance with international law and, particularly, with General Assembly resolutions.

But as we noted last week, we have recently seen certain members of the Security Council and others attempt to change the approach. This change of approach has affected the last three resolutions adopted by the Security Council on this matter, including Council resolutions 1292 (2000) and, most recently, 1301 (2000). It also affected the debate on the adoption of the latter resolution, to the effect that the Western Sahara settlement plan that has applied since 1992 could possibly be abandoned in favour of some other alternative. Let me recall that the settlement plan enjoys the support of the international community and the endorsement of the Security Council and of the two parties. It is a comprehensive plan whose purpose is to carry out the self-determination referendum for which the Sahraoui people has been waiting since January 1992.

Moreover, in addition to the Security Council resolutions to which I have referred, the last two reports of the Secretary-General have given rise to certain interpretations which, because of problems encountered in implementing the settlement plan, could encourage the search for another option. For the information of the General Assembly, I should observe that among the problems with respect to the recent reports and Security Council resolutions is that relating to the context in which the resolutions were adopted and to the voting itself -- in which, for the first time, there were abstentions and even negative votes. This new trend can be explained by the existence of problems impeding the implementation of the settlement plan; generally speaking, these include the appeals and the lack of a proper mechanism for carrying out the referendum.

For its part, Algeria considers these to be normal problems that could arise in any such important and complex process, but that can be resolved through dialogue and cooperation between Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO -- cooperation which has existed over the past nine years with respect to a number of other problems that I need not go into here. On the specific issue of the approximately 130,000 appeals by applicants rejected by the MINURSO Identification Commission, there is good reason to apply the May 1999 agreement accepted and signed by the two parties to the conflict, Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, and endorsed by the Security Council. The protocols on the appeals process have been issued as United Nations documents.

Algeria considers that, in spite of the present problems, the process of resolving the conflict in Western Sahara has made considerable progress towards the full implementation of the settlement plan. It would be unfair to ignore that progress, which includes the ceasefire that has obtained in Western Sahara since 6 September 1991; the progress made in the identification process, which has made it possible to identify at least 200,000 individuals in Western Sahara; and the pre-registration of Sahraoui refugees, of whom the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has registered more than 100,000 to date.

It would thus be unfair and unwise at this stage to contemplate the abandonment of this process or of the settlement plan, which represent the fruit of 10 years of effort and human, material and financial investment by the international community.

The question of Western Sahara is a decolonization issue falling under resolution 1514 (XV) adopted in 1960, on which the settlement plan is based, and under the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly each year, calling upon the two parties, Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, to cooperate with the international community, with MINURSO and with the Secretary-General in the implementation of the plan and in the holding of the self-determination referendum for which the Sahraoui people has been waiting for 25 years, both in its territory and in refugee camps.

The Acting President

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 131.