UN chief concerned by tension spike over Western Sahara
Posted: 24 November 2009 0918 hrs

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UNITED NATIONS: Renewed tension between Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement over Western Sahara has the UN chief worried, the United Nations said on Monday in a statement.

"Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is concerned by the growing tension between the parties to the Western Sahara negotiations, which has increased following the recent detention of several groups of Saharawi activists and the situation of Aminatou Haidar," the UN statement said.

In October, Morocco arrested seven Saharawis who visited a Polisario-controlled refugee camp near Tindouf, in south-west Algeria.

Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar began a hunger strike on Sunday at a Spanish airport where she had to return after her Moroccan passport was confiscated on November 13 when she arrived at Western Sahara capital of Laayoune.

A winner of several human rights awards for her human rights campaigning in the disputed Western Sahara territory, Haidar has turned down Spain's offer to grant her refugee status.

Morocco annexed phosphate-rich Western Sahara after Spain left in 1975 and has pledged to grant it widespread autonomy, but has ruled out independence as an option demanded by the Polisario Front.

While fighting halted in 1991, UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future held in the New York suburb of Manhasset have so far made no headway.

Ban, the UN statement said, "has urged both parties to continue to cooperate with his Personal Envoy, Mr. Christopher Ross, in seeking to schedule another set of talks and to work together to achieve progress toward a mutually agreed political solution."

- AFP/sc