U.N. renews Sahara unit with scant hope of solution

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- The Security Council on Monday extended the life of its mission in the Western Sahara until February 28 following warnings from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that time was running out on reaching a settlement in the 15-year-old dispute.

The council, in its resolution, pointed to Annan's recent report and encouraged him to resolve "the multiple problems relating to implementation of the settlement plan."

Annan said Morocco should devolve some governmental authority to Western Sahara to ease a stand off with the Polisario Front on the future status of the territory.

He did not spell out details but devolution is a step down from independence, the original choice along with incorporation into Morocco in a long-delayed referendum to decide the future of the territory, a former Spanish colony.

Diplomats said the delays worked in favor of Morocco, which Annan said had made few substantive proposals during three talks with the Polisario, led by former James Baker, the former U.S. secretary of state.

The Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which fought for an independent Western Sahara after Spain abandoned the territory and Morocco annexed it in 1975, is in favor of a referendum to determine its future.

A U.N. settlement plan to decide the future of the former Spanish colony called for a referendum in January 1992. But it has been frustrated repeatedly by disputes over who is eligible to vote.

Annan said that the U.N. operation in Western Sahara should be extended for four months to see whether Morocco was prepared to offer some "devolution of governmental authority" or whether the United Nations would begin appeals on challenges to those on or eliminated from voter registration lists.

The Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, accuses Morocco of trying to pack the voter registration list by sending 65,000 people to register who are not indigenous Saharans. Nearly 140,000 people, most of them living in Morocco, have appealed rulings determining they were ineligible to vote.

Annan said the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, should begin hearing pending appeals on the registration process if Morocco during the next four months was "not prepared to offer to support some devolution of governmental authority."

Last month, Morocco, for the first time, offered to open talks with Polisario Front rebels on "decentralization" as long as its sovereignty and territorial integrity was respected. But diplomats said the proposals they had made to Baker were considered too weak to serve as a negotiating position.

Annan said that further meetings between Morocco and the Polisario Front were "counterproductive" unless there were new proposals from Morocco that were "genuine and substantial."

War broke out in the Western Sahara in 1976 after Spain left its former colony and Morocco annexed it. A ceasefire has been in force since September 1991, monitored by the MINURSO which now has some 277 staff, including 27 troops, 203 military observers and 47 civilian police.

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