Mister1979
07-04-2006, 17:52
UN's Annan prepares Sahara plan Friday April 07, 2006 11:22 - (SA) MADRID - United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that he would present a new plan on the disputed Western Sahara to the Security Council by the end of this month. He said the proposal would be cautious, seek to be mutually acceptable by those involved and capable of being put into practice without being imposed on any of the parties. Morocco claims the territory, which it annexed after the withdrawal of Spain and Mauritania in the 1970s. http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/basket6st/basket6st1144401746.aspx A guerrilla war with the Algerian-backed Polisario Front contesting Rabat's sovereignty ended in a 1991 UN-brokered cease-fire. A UN-proposed referendum on final status has been repeatedly postponed. Emerging from a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Annan declined to go into details of his plan and said he had not been informed about another project for autonomy of the region that Morocco intends to present to the UN. The Polisario Front has rejected past Moroccan autonomy proposals, and calls for a referendum on self-determination with the support of Algeria. Morocco has rejected a plan devised by former US Secretary of State James Baker for autonomy followed within five years by a referendum on self-determination. Zapatero said that Spain, as the former colonial power in the Western Sahara, would co-operate with the UN in the search for an agreement. Sapa-AFP