Credit: / UN Photo/Loey Felipe /  UN Security Council members voting in favour of the resolution Apr. 30, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution renewing the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in North  West  Africa  Western Sahara (MINURSO) for an additional six months until 31 October 2019. The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the Polisario Front against Spanish colonial forces from 1973 to 1975 and the subsequent Western Sahara War against Morocco between 1975 and 1991.  Today was  the first mandate renewal of MINURSO with South Africa on the Council. South Africa, which joined the Council in January, has maintained its strong support for the Polisario Front position.  The vote was 13 in favour, with 2 abstentions (South Africa and Russian Federation)  South Africa is reported to be upset at the UN over what it perceives to be an ‘unbalanced’ Western Sahara resolution.

“The mandate as approved tends to favour one party over the other, which is not conducive to a neutral political process,” 

-Jerry Matthews Matjila, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations.  

Credit: http://webtv.un.org /   Ambassador Matjila at press conference after UN Security Council Vote Apr. 30, 2019.

Matjila  said he regretted that the Council continues to resist a human rights monitoring mandate for MINURSO  that gives the impression that the human rights of the people of Western Sahara are not held in the same regard as those of other people.  “This lack of consistency undermines our credibility,” he stated. The ambassador further emphasized that the text should differentiate between the parties to the conflict – namely, Morocco and the Frente Polisario – and the neighbouring States, Algeria and Mauritania.  “This is again an example of an African issue being decided by those that are not from the continent.” 

However, Matjila, at a post-resolution press conference,  stated that South Africa overall supports to vital work of the MINURSO.    But the diplomat added, that South Africa “regrets” that the  Security Council  “missed a significant opportunity to push forward the process to follow through on its commitment to end the status quo and to demand Morocco to end its illegal occupation of Western Sahara.” 

On  March 25-26, there was a Southern African Development Community (SADC) “Solidarity Conference with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic” in Pretoria. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa,   speaking  at the Conference,    said  the situation of the Sahrawi   “is a blight on the human conscience, all the more so given that it was three decades ago that UN Resolution 621 called for a referendum.”

On 24 April the Polisario Front sent a letter to the President of the Security Council pointing out what it considered “Morocco’s escalating violations of the ceasefire” and called on the Council to swiftly condemn these actions.

Polisario’s position has been that the territory’s final status can only be decided in a referendum that includes independence as an option, while Morocco has proposed that Western Sahara should be an autonomous region within Morocco.   Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975, and no other country in the entire world  recognizes its sovereignty over the territory. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres submitted a report to the Security Council in early April,  in which he called on the parties involved in the Western Sahara conflict to “take action” to contribute to find an agreed upon and mutually acceptable political solution to end the conflict.