WORLD NEWS | Sat Mar 5, 2016 | 7:12pm EST

U.N. chief visits refugee camps to

push for Western Sahara conflict
talks

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Sahrawi refugee camps in

southern Algeria on Saturday as part of efforts to restart negotiations
to end a dispute between the Polisario independence movement and
Morocco over the Western Sahara territory.

The Polisario Front, which says the territory belongs to ethnic

Sahrawis, waged a guerrilla war after Morocco took over the area from
colonial Spain in 1975 until a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 1991. The two
sides have been deadlocked since.

Many of the Sahrawi refugees, who fled the fighting in Western

Sahara, have been living in mud brick houses in the harsh Tindouf
area for some 40 years.

Ban has said he wants to relaunch negotiations over the desert region
and allow the return of Sahrawi people from refugee camps in Algeria
across the border. Algeria backed Polisario in the conflict against
regional rival Morocco
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U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (C) talks to members of the Sahrawi women's national union after
his press conference at the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic presidential palace in Tindouf southern
Algeria March 5, 2016.REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
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"I will spare no effort to help make progress towards a just, lasting and
mutually acceptable solution for Western Sahara," Ban said, according
to the social media account of his spokesperson.

The U.N. chief will visit refugee camps and schools in the Tindouf area
and meet with the Polisario leadership there.

Before Ban's arrival, Polisario leader Mohammed Abdelaziz said the

U.N. had "lost its way" over Western Sahara but called Ban's visit the
best opportunity in a long time to reset negotiations over a referendum
for self-determination.
 Polisario, backed by Algeria and a number of other African states,
wants to hold a long-delayed referendum promised in the U.N.
ceasefire deal on the region's future.

"We want to hear from the Secretary-General in order to achieve a

solution this year," Abdelaziz said.

But Morocco wants Western Sahara, which is rich in phosphates and

possibly offshore oil and gas, to be an autonomous part of Morocco
and disagrees with Polisario over who should take part in the
referendum.

Morocco's king late last year insisted only the autonomy plan was
acceptable. Rabat invests heavily there, hoping to calm social unrest
and independence claims, and in February announced a $1.85 billion
investment plan for the region.

Ban said last year U.N. envoy Christopher Ross had intensified efforts
to facilitate the entry of the parties into negotiations without
preconditions and in good faith.

"We expect a lot from the secretary general's visit. We expect him to
end the suffering of the Sahrawi and to settle the conflict," Ahmed
Lobate, a refugee at one of the camps, told Reuters. "All of us refuse
to continue any more like this."

(Reporting by Abdelaziz Boumzar; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing

by Ros Russell)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-algeria-un-idUSKCN0W70G2
Western Sahara: Has Ban Ki-Moon Been
Trapped In Algeria?
Sahara News
by Ali Haidar

The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, who visited recently the Tindouf
camps and Algiers, in an attempt to restart talks on the Sahara conflict, has allegedly been
victim of Algerian and Polisario leaders.

This is anyways the conclusion deemed most plausible by many diplomats and political
analysts in the UN corridors and New York lobbies. They cannot find other explanations for
Ban Ki-moons diplomatic blunders and incidents he created between the UN and Morocco.

For these analysts, it is not excluded that Bank Ki-Moon has been convinced, in one way or
another, by Algerian leaders to uphold the Polisarios separatist positions, through using the
word occupation to describe the Moroccan presence in Western Sahara and bringing up
the self-determination referendum option, while the final status of the disputed territory
has not yet been defined by the UN and the UN has never recognized the so-called Sahrawi
Republic SADR.

Some analysts believe that Moroccans have been somehow hasty when they directed their
anger at the UN and its Secretary General, instead of attacking their real enemy, namely the
Algerian regime. Actually Algerian rulers and their media do not miss any opportunity and
do not skimp on providing financial and human resources to make life difficult for their
 Moroccan neighbor and stubbornly reject any political settlement attempt of the Western
Sahara issue.

The oligarchy holding power in Algiers does want the Sahara litigation to drag on to weaken
neighboring Morocco, on the one hand, and to distract the Algerian public opinions
attention from the institutional and social crisis engulfing the country, with an ailing
President who refuses to cede power, on the other, explain the analysts.

The analysts believe that Moroccans should avoid escalation with the United Nations and
rather focus on their main opponent, the Algerian regime which holds the key of the Sahara
conflict settlement. At the end of the day, without Algerias support, the Polisario Front will
eventually disintegrate and fall apart in a second.

http://www.moroccotomorrow.org/western-sahara-has-ban-ki-moon-been-trapped-in-algeria/

In Algeria, the United Nations chief calls to ease 'unacceptable' plight of

Sahrawi refugees
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits MINURSO peacekeepers during his trip to the Western Sahara region. 5
March, 2016. Photo: UN/spokesperson.

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5 March 2016 Calling to alleviate the plight of Sahrawi refugees in Algeria who are dealing with an
unacceptable situation, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said the parties to the
Western Sahara conflict have not made any real progress in the negotiations towards a just, lasting and
mutually acceptable political solution.
What really moved and, even, saddened me was the anger. Many people expressed their anger people
who for more than forty years have lived in the harshest conditions and who feel their plight and their
cause have been forgotten by the world, Mr. Ban told the press after meeting with refugees and youth
representatives at Smara camp, and later with the Polisario Front's Secretary-General Mohamed
Abdelaziz.

Fighting broke out between Morocco and the Polisario Front following the end of Spain's colonial
administration of Western Sahara in 1976. A ceasefire was reached in September 1991, and a UN
missionknown as MINURSOhas been tasked with monitoring this ceasefire and organizing a
referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara, which the Security Council has been requesting
since 2004.

Meanwhile, Morocco has presented a plan for autonomy, while the Polisario Front's position is that the
Territory's final status should be decided in a referendum on self-determination that includes
independence as an option.

My first objective in visiting the region is to make my own assessment and contribution to the search for a
settlement, said the UN chief. My second objective was to visit the United Nations Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara. I will visit the team site in Bir Lahlou, as well as personnel performing
vital demining activities.

Mr. Ban added that he saw the remarkable and demanding work the Mission is doing in harsh conditions
of the Hammada. He is also expected to visit the headquarters of MINURSO in Laayoune, Western
Sahara.

Third, I wanted to bear witness to one of the forgotten humanitarian tragedies of our times. The Sahrawi
refugee camps near Tindouf are some of the oldest in the world. It is heartbreaking to see these families
separated for so long, he stressed, adding that the situation is unacceptable and must be addressed
independently from the political process.

The UN chief further noted that his fourth objective is to finalize the security situation, as the UN is
concerned about increasing criminality, drug trafficking and the possibility of extremists and terrorists
coming to the region.

At the same time, I am calling on the donor countries to increase their assistance to this overlooked
population to provide life-saving humanitarian aid, he added. We must show that the world remembers
the Sahrawi people. To that end, I will soon convene a meeting of donors and assistance providers in
Geneva.

Finally, the Secretary-General noted that the World Humanitarian Summit this May in Istanbul will be
another opportunity to mobilize global solidarity.

I have been heartened by the faith Sahrawis put in the UN, its principles, and international law. Let us
match this with determination to alleviate their plight and resolve this longstanding conflict for the future of
all Sahrawis, he concluded.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53377#.WM38H4F94dU
The Moroccan government has expressed its reservations over comments made by the UN Chief
that no real progress has been made by Morocco and the Polisario independence movement to
end the conflict.

A statement from the government of the north African country described Bans comments as
containing verbal excesses and unjustified complacency.

Ban Ki-moon visited a Sahrawi camp run by the UN in Algeria at the weekend and has asked his
special envoy to Western Sahara to relaunch talks between Rabat and the separatist Polisario Front.
This follows his comments that the two parties have made no real progress in negotiations aimed at
bringing about an acceptable solution to all.

The UN has expressed its preparedness to organise a referendum if the two sides fail to reach a
consensus.

The referendum initiative has been supported by Algeria but Morocco is against moves to grant the
former Spanish colony independence.

The UN has been trying to oversee an independence referendum for Western Sahara since 1992
after a ceasefire was reached to end a war that broke out when Morocco sent its forces to the former
Spanish territory in 1975.

View more

http://www.africanews.com/2016/03/09/morocco-condemns-ban-ki-moon-s-comments-on-western-sahara/

Morocco on Tuesday accused United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon of

speaking out of turn during a visit to restart talks between Rabat and the
Algeria-backed Polisario Front on disputed Western Sahara.
The Moroccan government noted "with great surprise the verbal
outpourings... and unjustified gestures of deference" by Ban during his
visit, according to a statement released by the official MAP news agency.
It was unclear exactly to what comments Rabat was referring.

+1
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon (L) arrives for a meeting with the Polisario Front's
representative at the UN, on March 5, 2016, near a UN base in Bir-Lahlou, in the disputed
territory of Western Sahara Farouk Batiche (AFP/File)

During a weekend stop in the Algerian capital Ban criticised Morocco and
the Polisario Front for failing to make "real progress" towards an
"acceptable" solution to end the 40-year conflict in the disputed desert
territory.
Ban added that the UN mission to the region was "prepared to hold a
referendum if there is agreement between the parties", an initiative
supported by Algeria, the Polisario Front's main backer.
"Far from achieving the stated goal of his visit to relaunch political
dialogue, the secretary general's comments could jeopardise the
process," the statement by the Moroccan government added.
The UN has been trying to oversee an independence referendum for
Western Sahara since 1992 after a ceasefire was reached to end a war
that broke out when Morocco sent its forces to the former Spanish
territory in 1975.
Morocco has ruled out the idea of independence and argues for a broad
autonomy for the territory under its sovereignty.
The UN envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, resumed
diplomatic efforts in February 2015.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3483509/Morocco-slams-UNs-Ban-Ki-moon-West-Sahara-comments.html