Morocco arms move may hit Sahara talks - Polisario
Sun 2 Mar 2008, 12:46 GMT
ALGIERS (Reuters)
- Morocco has embarked on an arms buildup in a worrying move that could
hurt
U.N.-backed talks on the Western Sahara, Algeria's APS news agency quoted
the territory's independence movement as saying.
Polisario Front President Mohamed Abdelaziz added that people in the
disputed territory were concerned about Morocco's "aggressive impulse"
because they did not want a return to conflict, the official agency
re****ted
late on Saturday.
There was no immediate comment from Morocco on the remarks by Abdelaziz,
who
is sup****ted by Algeria.
"This race to arms is a profound worry for the Sahrawi people at a time
when
the Moroccan-Sahrawi conflict is in the hands of the United Nations," APS
quoted him as saying.
"An intention to do harm lies behind the current Moroccan policy of
obtaining all kinds of arms and redeploying military troops in Sahrawi
territories," he said without elaborating.
A fourth round of U.N.-brokered talks between Morocco and Polisario to
settle the status of the phosphate-rich desert territory of 260,000 will
start on March 16 near New York.
But in a statement on Friday, Morocco's Foreign Ministry denounced what it
called plans by Polisario to develop infrastructure in the desert outpost
of
Tifariti, which lies in a small strip of Western Sahara controlled by
Polisario.
"Morocco reiterates its determination to protect by all means its
territorial integrity," the statement said.
Peacekeepers have watched over Western Sahara since 1991 when the United
Nations brokered a ceasefire to end a guerrilla war between Polisario
andMorocco, which annexed the northwest African territory in 1975.
Morocco has poured people and money into the area, bordered to the west by
the Atlantic and to the east by a defensive sand wall guarded by tens of
thousands of its troops and reinforced by landmines.
The ceasefire terms included holding a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide their future but it never took place. Rabat now rules out such a
vote
and has French sup****t for its proposal for only limited self-rule.
Polisario proposes a referendum among ethnic Sahrawis that would include
an
option of independence.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a government in exile proclaimed by
Polisario in 1976, held a meeting of its parliament in Tifariti last week
that discussed public works.
Rabat says the holding of official Polisario gatherings in Tifariti
violates
the U.N. ceasefire agreement, which it says made Tifariti part of a buffer
zone between Algeria-backed Polisario guerrillas and Moroccan troops.
No country officially recognises Morocco's rule over Western Sahara and
the
U.N. Security Council is divided over a solution.
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Source: http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN245947.html
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Forwarded by:
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Norwegian Sup****t Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
www.vest-sahara.no
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
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