Morocco: UN acts in relation to Western Sahara oil dispute
The United Nations on Tuesday proposed a partition of Western Sahara as one of four possible solutions to a 25-year dispute over whether the contested territory should be free or a part of Morocco. While neither side was now willing to discuss dividing up the phosphate-rich territory, which also may have offshore oil deposits, U.N. special envoy and former Secretary of State James Baker said the Security Council could choose to present a partition plan to both sides on a nonnegotiable basis.
Sent: 20 February 2002 18:30
To: hr-africa; hr-news
Subject: [hr-africa] Sah/Mar - UN Security Council members waved red
flag at Morocco in relation to Western Sahara oil dispute.
Nizkor Int. Human Rights Team - Derechos Human Rights - Serpaj Europe
Information - v) messages - 20Feb02
i) SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS WAVED A RED FLAG AT MOROCCO IN RELATION WITH
MOROCCO'S DEALINGS OVER WESTERN SAHARA OIL.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Tuesday proposed a
partition of Western Sahara as one of four possible solutions to a
25-year dispute over whether the contested territory should be free or a
part of Morocco.
While neither side was now willing to discuss dividing up the
phosphate-rich territory, which also may have offshore oil deposits,
U.N. special envoy and former Secretary of State James Baker said the
Security Council could choose to present a partition plan to both sides
on a nonnegotiable basis.
Other options would include the council imposing terms for a
self-determination referendum on a nonnegotiable basis, imposing a plan
making the territory a semi-autonomous part of Morocco, or pulling the
United Nations out of the seemingly intractable dispute.
The nonnegotiable nature of the options presented by Baker appeared to
be a clear message to the 15-nation council that, in his view, the time
has come to make tough decisions or end U.N. involvement in Western
Sahara.
A dispute over whether the former Spanish colony should be independent
or part of Morocco has raged since Rabat took over the sparsely
populated territory in 1976. The Polisario independence movement waged a
sporadic guerrilla war against Morocco until a U.N.-brokered cease-fire
took effect in 1991.
The United Nations has been trying since 1992 to organize a referendum
on the territory's future. But the effort has been stalled amid
arguments over who is eligible to vote. Baker has been the special envoy
for Western Sahara since March 1997.
In a related development, several Security Council members put Morocco
on notice on Tuesday it could not let French and U.S. firms exploit oil
off the coast of the Western Sahara while the territory's status was in
dispute.
But the council, after a closed-door debate, took no action on a request
from the Algerian-backed Polisario for members to block Morocco from
allowing foreign firms to search for oil there.
WAVING A RED FLAG
"The final conclusion was that the council wouldn't intrude in the oil
dealings, but council members waved a red flag at Morocco," one council
diplomat told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The council discussed the oil exploration issue for nearly three hours
after the top U.N. legal counsel issued a memo saying there was nothing
illegal in Morocco authorizing French oil giant TotalFinaElf and
U.S.-based Kerr-McGee Corp., to explore for offshore oil there, as it
did in October.
But legal counsel Hans Corell, in an advisory opinion, said Morocco
would violate international law if it let foreign firms go on to produce
and sell oil from Western Sahara without taking into account the
interests of its inhabitants.
The Polisario had asked the United Nations to annul the contracts,
saying oil exploitation must await the outcome of efforts to resolve
Western Sahara's ultimate status.
Diplomats said France, the United States, Bulgaria, Britain and Norway
had sought to avoid an in-depth discussion of the contracts in the
council, preferring to focus on diplomatic efforts to end the impasse.
But Ireland, Russia, Colombia and Singapore had pursued a prolonged
discussion of Corell's opinion.
In the end, council members agreed they would not intrude in the matter,
so long as both sides showed restraint, the diplomats said.
The options for resolving the territory's ultimate status were set out
in a report to the Security Council based on Baker's views and prepared
by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The report was issued several hours after the council concluded its
debate on the oil exploration contracts.
Annan urged the council to extend the 250-strong U.N. mission in Western
Sahara, known as MINURSO, for two more months, until April 30, to give
it time to mull its options.
Terminating the mission, Annan said, would recognize that after more
than 11 years and nearly half a billion dollars, the world body was not
going to resolve the problem "without requiring that one or the other or
both parties do something that they do not wish to voluntarily agree to
do."
After Spain abandoned the mineral-rich desert region on the Atlantic
coast of north Africa in 1975, Morocco annexed it and moved settlers in.
Some 200,000 local Saharawi people fled into exile and still live in
refugee camps in southeast Algeria.
Fighting ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for
a referendum on whether Western Sahara would become independent or part
of Morocco. But U.N. efforts to identify voters have been frustrated by
disputes over who is eligible which has led to 131,038 appeals over
the U.N. list of potential voters.
Former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III has spent the last
five year trying to negotiate an end to the protracted conflict. Annan
said he and Baker believe there are four options for the council:
- Resume efforts to try to hold a referendum by starting the very
lengthy appeals process.
- Baker could revise the autonomy plan taking into account the concerns
expressed by the parties.
- The council could ask Baker to explore a possible division of the
Western Sahara.
- The council could terminate the U.N. mission, "thereby recognizing
that after more than 11 years the United Nations is not going to solve
the problem.
To give the council time to decide, he asked for the U.N. mission, which
currently has 203 military observers and 25 civilian police, to be
extended for two months until April 30. It currently expires Feb. 28.
Also Tuesday, Polisario Front rebels urged the United Nations to stop
foreign oil companies that signed contracts with Morocco from going
ahead with oil exploration off the coast of Western Sahara.
Polisario Front representative Ahmed Boukhari said the two oil companies
should freeze the contracts and wait to negotiate with the legitimate
authority in Western Sahara.
After discussing a legal opinion by U.N. counsel Hans Corell on the
validity of the contacts, the Security Council decided not to take any
action.
Corell said in the Feb. 12 opinion that the Moroccan contracts with U.S.
oil company Kerr-McGee Corp. and Franco-Belgian oil giant TotalFinaElf
SA "are not in themselves illegal."
But he said if further exploration were to proceed "in disregard of the
interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara," the contracts
would violate international law.
2. The Polisario Front takes note of the recognition by Mr. Corell in
paragraph14 that the preeminent issue in the present case is the
principle of "permanent sovereignty" of the people of Western Sahara
over natural resources in the Territory. The legal question framed by
Mr. Corell in paragraphs 14 and 21 is "whether the principle of
permanent sovereignty' prohibits any activities related to natural
resources undertaken by an administering power in a Non-Self-Governing
Territory, or only those which are undertaken in disregard of the needs,
interests and benefits of the people of that territory." Mr. Corell
concludes that international legal principles and State practice
"supports the latter conclusion."
3. However, Mr. Corell’s conclusion in paragraph 25 ? that the contracts
for exploration in the present case "are not in themselves illegal" ?
seems to assume that Morocco is the legal Administering power, an
assumption that contradicts what is stated in paragraphs 6 and 7.
Mr. Corell reached his conclusion by distinguishing between the legality
of contracts for oil exploration and contracts for oil exploitation.
Clearly, that distinction is not relevant to the present case because
the analysis supporting the distinction is based on legal principles and
State practice that apply solely to administering Powers.
4. Morocco, as stated in paragraph 6, is not the Administering power.
Therefore, it has no legal authority to enter into contracts to
determine the fate of mineral resources in Western Sahara and, as a
result, the contracts signed with Kerr McGee and TotalFinaElf for oil
exploration should be rendered null and void.
5. Furthermore, at this very crucial stage in the peace process, the
involvement of foreign economic interests will make it more difficult
for the United Nations to successfully overcome the obstacles that are
currently hindering the peace process. Morocco should not be permitted
to benefit from obstructing the peace process, nor should it be allowed
to take unilateral actions, which are a clear violation of international
legality.
6. Any action by the Security Council to legitimize or sanction the
contracts would set a precedent that not only is inconsistent with
international law, but also would send an alarming message: that it is
allegedly permissible to conspire or contract to commit illegal
activities, until those activities have been consummated.
In other words, it could be used to justify the unacceptable notion that
a stranger may enter a home, in concert with another stranger, to search
for valuables for sale, so long as the intruder does not physically
remove any property. The danger in such a scenario is reflected in the
basic legal principles that a contract for illegal purposes is void as a
violation of public policy, and that a conspiracy to commit an unlawful
act is itself unlawful.
7. Mr. Corell's conclusion that exploration contracts are not
themselves illegal is based on a fictional distinction between the
exploration and exploitation stages of mineral resource development, and
is inconsistent with the spirit of recent actions by the Security
Council to terminate the illegal control over and trade in natural
resources of Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.
8. The lawful exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in
Western Sahara by third parties can only be initiated on the basis of
negotiations with the legitimate authorities of the territory; such
negotiations may only proceed after full and fair implementation of the
referendum plan for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara,
under the organization and supervision of the United Nations.
9. Against this background, the Polisario Front considers that it is not
only timely and relevant but also essential for the Security Council to
take all necessary measures to ensure that the parties to the oil
exploration contracts in Western Sahara do not proceed to execute said
contracts, and instead await the outcome of the political process and
referendum for self-determination. This is the only path to a just and
lasting peace, one that respects the inalienable right of the Sahrawi
people to self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources in
Western Sahara.
I would appreciate if you could bring the content of this letter to the
attention of the Members of the Council
I avail myself of this opportunity to express to you my highest
consideration.
Ahmed Boukhari
Representative of the Polisario Front to the United Nations
[By way of www.arso.org ]
-------------------------------------------------------------
v) OIL FUELS TENSION IN NORTH AFRICA.
Morocco's decision to allow foreign firms to drill for oil in the
disputed Western Sahara has fuelled tension between Morocco and the
Polisario Front, which claims the independence of the North African
mineral-rich territory.
"The signing of oil drilling accords off the Sahara coasts will never
make the Western Sahara part of Moroccan territory," says Fadel Ismail,
representative of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR, proclaimed
by the Polisario in 1975) in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
In October last year, Morocco signed an oil drilling accord with the
United States Kerr-McGee oil and gas company. The 12-month
"reconnaissance contract" covers 110,400 square kms in Boujdour offshore
area in Western Sahara. Kerr-McGee is already holding, along with the
British Enterprise and South African Energy Africa, six "research
permits" in Cap Draa which is located offshore on the Atlantic coast
near the disputed Western Sahara. The French company TotalFinaElf has
also obtained a drilling permit from Morocco in the Sahara.
But the contracts are being challenged by the Polisario Front (Frente
Popular par la Liberacion del Sagiat Al-Hamra y Rio de Oro) and Algeria,
which backs and shelters the Front in its southeastern desert town of
Tindouf. "Morocco has no right to conduct such activities in a territory
where the United Nations is yet to find a solution to decide its
future," Abdellah Baali, Algeria's ambassador to U.N, said in a note to
the Security Council. Algeria also asked the United Nations to intervene
in order to annul the contracts.
In an advisory opinion to the U.N. Security Council, U.N. Legal Counsel,
Hans Corell, said these pacts "are not in themselves illegal." But he
conceded that "Morocco would violate international law if it allowed
foreign firms to produce and sell oil from Western Sahara without
taking into account the interests of the disputed territory's
inhabitants." Morocco dismissed Corell's statements and said that it has
"every right to conduct any kind of investment in the Sahara, being a
part and parcel" of its territory.
"The southern provinces (Western Sahara) are a part and parcel of
Morocco. We are thus rightfully entitled to conduct any kind of
investment, including in oil drilling and exploitation," said Amina
Benkhadra, head of the Moroccan oil company (ONAREP).
"Morocco had already invested in several fields of economic activity in
the area. Now we are starting a new phase where a growing interest will
be given to mining and energy resources," she insisted.
Morocco's King Mohammed VI recently met with Luke Corbett, CEO of the
U.S. oil group Kerr-McGee. The move was seen by observers as a gesture
meant to give political significance and strength to the drilling
activities in the Sahara. The Western Sahara conflict began in 1975 when
Morocco moved in, occupied and annexed the territory following the
withdrawal of Spain, the former colonial power.
The Polisario, the political movement formed by the Sahrawis originally
to seek independence from Spain, went to war against Morocco and
Mauritania when the country was invaded by Moroccan and Mauritanian
soldiers. The Polisario defeated Mauritania in 1979, but the war
against Morocco continued for many years until a cease fire, brokered
by the United Nations, took place in 1991. The United Nations
established a mission, MINURSO, to oversee the cease-fire and a
referendum allowing the Sahrawis to vote on independence or
incorporation into Morocco.
With the chance of holding the referendum growing slimmer because of
insurmountable differences between Morocco and the Polisario over voter
lists, the United Nations Security Council voted in June 2001 for what
it called a political solution to the Western Sahara question.
The accord, brokered by former secretary of state James Baker, would
confer on the population of Western Sahara the right to elect their own
executive and legislative bodies and to run its own local government
administration, territorial budget, and basic infrastructure.
Moroccan political analyst Ahmed Iraqi believes that the accord, known
as "the third way," was basically drafted to safeguard the interests of
Morocco and its traditional allies - the U.S and France. "That is why it
is rejected altogether by Algeria and the Polisario," he says.
Both Algeria and the Polisario turned down the Baker plan and renewed
attachment to self-determination referendum as the sole solution to the
North African conflict.
For Iraqi, "the appointment of James Baker as the major mediator in this
decisive phase of the (U.N) settlement plan was not a mere chance. The
man is known for his close connections with the Texan oil lobby," he
adds. "What once appeared to some as a trivial fight over a barren
desert is now poised to develop into a real war over more strategic
interests," says Iraqi. "The discovery of oil in the area may add to the
complexity of the issue, as the interests of superpowers, like the U.S.
and France, will be mingled with those of the already warring parties:
Morocco, Algeria and the Polisario Front," he adds.
"Amidst all this, the peoples of North Africa will have to wait (even
longer before) they see their region finally living in peace and
cohabitation," says Iraqi.
http://www.derechos.org/afapredesa/doc/lista.html
- Report of the UN Office of Legal Affairs on the legality of the
Oil-contracts signed by Morocco over the natural resources of Western
Sahara. Jan 29, 2002.
http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/mena/moro/SahOil.html
- UN Documents on Western Sahara
http://www.arso.org/06-0.htm
- International Committee of the Red Cross activities in Western Sahara.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/CountryDetails?Readform&Country=Western…
ra
- Report of the SC on the Question of Western Sahara.
S/2002/41,11.01.02.
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/reports/2002/41e.pdf
- Le rapport de l'ambassadeur Frank Ruddy, 25ene95 [FRA/FRE]
http://www.arso.org/06-3.htm
--
FIN DEL MENSAJE END OF MESAGGE EINDE BERICHT FIM DA MENSAGEM FINE
DEL MESSAGGIO ENDE NACHRICHT FIN DEL MENSAJE END OF MESAGGE
EINDE BERICHT FIM DA MENSAGEM FINE DEL MESSAGGIO ENDE NACHRICHT
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