Global Policy Forum

By Peter Heinlein

The U.N. Security Council on Friday renewed a peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara for six months despite skepticism by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton over how long it should be maintained without progress on the political front. The mission, including about 230 U.N. observers, troops and international police, is trying to break a three-decade impasse over whether the desert territory should remain a part of Morocco or be granted a referendum on independence.

A U.S.-drafted resolution, adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council, made no change in the mission's size or mandate. The desert territory, which is rich in phosphates and fisheries and also may have offshore oil deposits, was seized by Morocco right after it gained independence from Spain in 1975. U.N. peacekeepers have tried for 14 years -- so far without success -- to stage a referendum there on independence. Rabat has ruled out any such vote while the Polisario Front independence movement demands one.

Friday's resolution, like many before it, reminded the parties of the council's commitment to helping them find a political solution "which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara." But council members said there was no political will to impose a solution.

Bolton is under pressure from U.S. lawmakers to keep down peacekeeping costs, which will hit about $3.6 billion this fiscal year, because the United States picks up about a quarter of the tab and is running huge budget deficits of its own. "One thing that the Security Council has to focus on is to give greater attention to the political disputes that give rise to peacekeeping operations," he told Reuters earlier this month. "Peacekeeping operations should not have infinite duration," he said, singling out stalemated missions in Western Sahara as well as Ethiopia and Eritrea, where tensions are high three years after a peace deal ending a two-year border war.

But Washington would set no artificial deadlines, he said, and other council members said they feared ending a mission such as the one in Western Sahara could stoke tensions or rekindle the low-intensity fighting that led to the peacekeeping mission in the first place.

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