WESTERN SAHARA: RASD-TV BREAKS MOROCCAN MEDIA EMBARGO

ALGIERS - The Polisario Front, which for over 30 years has continued to fight for independence for the Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara has not showed any signs of surrender. While they have not ruled out a return to arms if negotiations fail yet again, they have now launched a media battle with the first Sahrawi TV station, RASD-TV. The new station aims ''to break the media embargo imposed by Morocco'' and ''show the suffering of the Sahrawi people to the world''. Inaugurated by the self-proclaimed President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (RASD), Mohamed Abdelaziz, RASD-TV broadcasts from Chahid El Hafed. The station's headquarters has just been completed in one of the five refugee camps in Tindouf in the Algerian Sahara, where about 150,000 Sahrawi people have lived since 1975, after fleeing during the occupation of the former Spanish colony by Morocco. RASD TV ''can be seen in the Maghreb, including Morocco, and throughout Africa, as well as in Western Europe and the Middle East,'' said the station's manager, Mohamed Salem Ahmed Laabeid, to ANSAmed.

After press agency SPS, ''this new means of information aims to demonstrate the Sahrawi cause to the world,'' added Laabeid, ''to break the media embargo imposed by Morocco and to provide a realistic view of the serious ongoing situation in the occupied territories.'' News, reports on life in refugee camps, interviews, and historical documentaries will be broadcast daily via satellite and digital cable. An archive of past videos will also be on the Internet, including the self-proclamation of the RASD on February 27 1976, and commercials in favour of the Sahrawi people's cause, with appearances by celebrities such as Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodovar, and Manu Chao. This new ''media weapon will defend the just cause of the Sahrawi people until the inalienable rights of self-determination and independence are obtained,'' underlined the RASD President. The RASD is a member of the African Union (of which only Morocco is not a member) and is currently recognised by almost 90 countries, but by no Western states. In the view of the UN, which has been in the region since 1991 with MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in the Western Sahara) to monitor the ceasefire with Rabat, the Western Sahara is ''not an autonomous territory''. Numerous UN resolutions have reiterated the right of the Sahrawi people's independence, but there have been few tangible developments due to Morocco's close Western allies, most notably France and the United States. Negotiations led by the UN, at a standstill since March 2008, should resume in the coming month in an attempt to resolve an issue that continues to divide the Maghreb. Rabat is willing to grant broad autonomy to the Sahrawi people, but only while remaining under its sovereignty.

The Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria, continues to call for a referendum of independence. If the fifth round of negotiations fails, Sahrawi authorities have already announced that ''we will have no other alternative than to resume the war''.

Fuente:ansamed

U.N. council favors informal talks on Western Sahara

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Security Council endorsed on Thursday a change of approach by the U.N. mediator in the decades-old Western Sahara dispute, focusing on small, informal meetings between Morocco and the Polisario Front.

The mediator, former U.S. diplomat Christopher Ross, believes that will be more effective as a next step, after four rounds of full-scale negotiations in the past two years led to no accord on the future of the territory, U.N. officials said.

Rabat, which annexed the resource-rich former Spanish colony after Madrid left in 1975, has proposed that it become an autonomous region of Morocco. The Polisario movement, which fought a guerrilla war in Sahara until a U.N.-brokered truce in 1991, wants a referendum with independence as one option.

A resolution approved on Thursday by all 15 Security Council members welcomed the parties' agreement to Ross' idea of informal talks and extended the mandate of a 200-strong U.N. military observer force in Western Sahara for a further year.

U.N. officials say the talks, for which no time or venue has been set, might include as few as two officials from each side and would aim to get them talking out of the public eye to prepare for an eventual further round of full negotiations.

One theme could be the expansion of confidence-building measures beyond current arrangements for visits and phone calls between divided Sahara families. Tens of thousands of Sahrawis live in camps in neighboring Algeria, which backs Polisario.

U.N. officials have said past rounds of negotiations, held in the Long Island town of Manhasset near New York, have led to "grandstanding," with both sides repeating their positions and refusing to negotiate seriously.

PHOSPHATE-RICH

The Security Council has long been divided on the issue of Sahara, which is rich in phosphates, offshore fisheries and potentially oil. France and the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush backed Morocco's position, while several developing nations favored Polisario.

The previous U.N. mediator, Dutch diplomat Peter van Walsum, angered Polisario with a statement appearing to rule out independence. Ross took over the mediating job in January.

Speaking on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice made clear she shared long-standing U.S. concerns the dispute was hampering the fight against terrorism in North Africa, where al Qaeda is active.

"This conflict has gone on for too long," Rice told the council. "These ongoing strains, as well as poor relations between Morocco and Algeria, have prevented regional cooperation on urgent and emerging issues facing North Africa."

She also called on both sides to "come to the table without preconditions" and did not specifically endorse Morocco's autonomy plan, leaving France the only country on the council to do so.

Polisario, which accuses Morocco of human rights violations in Western Sahara, has been pushing for rights monitoring to be included in the mandate of the U.N. mission, known as MINURSO. Morocco says that is unnecessary.

Thursday's resolution made no changes to MINURSO's mandate, but Polisario scored a small victory when the resolution referred to "the importance of making progress on the human dimension of the conflict."

Diplomats said France initially resisted the word "human," preferring "humanitarian."

But Polisario's U.N. representative, Ahmed Boukhari, expressed disappointment with the resolution. "We were waiting for more engagement of the Security Council on the question of human rights," he told Reuters.

Fuente:washigntonpost