Ban Ki-moon expressed serious concerns about the possibility of the expansion of the war from Mali to neighboring countries and to contribute to the increase of extremism in refugee camps in Western Sahara

By African Bulletin on April 10, 2013

The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon has called on Monday for urgent international efforts to end the Western Sahara conflict because of fears the Mali war will spill over into the territory.
Ban called on the UN Security Council to strengthen the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, where Morocco and the Polisario Front have been locked in a more than two-decade showdown over control.
“The rise of instability and insecurity in and around the Sahel requires an urgent settlement of this long-standing dispute,” Ban said in a report to the 15-member council.
UN envoy Christopher Ross has been holding new talks in the region in a bid to revive dialogue between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
“All governments consulted raised serious concerns over the risk that the fighting in Mali could spill over into neighboring countries and contribute to radicalizing the Western Saharan refugee camps,” Ban said.
One government leader in the region called the Western Sahara camps “a ticking time bomb,” the report added.
While the year-old conflict in Mali, where French-led international forces are battling Jihadist groups, many experts are actually aware about such scenario.
Morocco has regained the Western Sahara to its territories in 1975 after the withdrawal of the colonial Spanish from the region, based on the decisions Advisory International Court of Justice, and the Madrid Agreement, in addition to the organization of a peaceful march involving 350 thousand volunteers who have exercised their pressure for the withdrawal of the colonial Spanish and re-territory to the motherland Morocco. While the Polisario took up arms demanding an independent state until the UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991.Morocco has regained the Western Sahara to its territories in 1975 after the withdrawal of the colonial Spanish from the region, based on the decisions Advisory International Court of Justice, and the Madrid Agreement, in addition to the organization of a peaceful march involving 350 thousand volunteers who have exercised their pressure for the withdrawal of the colonial Spanish and re-territory to the motherland Morocco. While invoked the Polisario Front of the weapon in their quest for the independence of the desert. The fighting continued between the parties until the United Nations was able to persuade the parties to abide by a cease-fire in 1991.
But efforts to reach a negotiated solution to the crisis has come to a standstill, despite the efforts of the United Nations during the nineties, and that due to the disparities in views between Morocco and the Polisario about technical procedures which must be adopted for the implementation of the referendum, while Morocco defended the right of all resident of the territory to participate in the referendum on self-determination, the Polisario cling to the principle of excluding anyone who is not a Sahara ethnic origin, excluding those resided for a long time at the territory and hid strong blood and/or tribal kinships. A position that was illustrated by the Japanese Legal analyst Pr. Matsumoto Japanese as chauvinist and racial thinking.
Therefore yen is not a coincidence that the high-end envoy, former Secretary James Baker when he came to modify his plan to organize a referendum, which was interrupted separatists.
During 2006, Morocco has submitted to the UN security council a political initiative based on the principle of granting the region a great status of autonomy, against preserving to the kingdom its historical and legal sovereignty over the territory. An initiative which was esteemed by several countries ,international organizations, think-tanks and experts in international law as the most appropriate solution that would put an end to the suffering of the population, especially the refugees based in the Tindouf camps.
But Polisario Front’s sticking to the holding of a referendum for self-determination, and the mobilization of several artificial disobedience in the region have made the task of the United Nations difficult despite the negotiations launched by the UN organization since 2007 between the parties.
The UN secretary General also stressed Morocco and the Polisario to “engage in genuine negotiations” and “engage in logic of give and take” because neither side will win everything.
Ban called on Morocco and Algeria to step up efforts to overcome their rivalry. Their frontier remains closed and Algeria traditionally backs the Polisario.
Today, the issue seems taking a different course, after the conviction of the international community that the risk of extended growing, terrorist activities especially after the war of Mali might contribute to increase extremism in the refugee camps run by the Polisario in Tindouf on Algerian soil.
The report, submitted by the Secretary-General of the United does not hide such potential regional threat, and therefore a clear call came to the need to cooperate in order to reach an urgent political solution to this unresolved problem