Summary: October 18, 2004: Statement by H.E. Mr. Dirk Jan van den Berg, Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations, on behalf of the European Union, to the Fourth Committee - 59th session of the General Assembly. Item 20: Implementation of the Declaration on The Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples: Western Sahara (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Country Turkey aligns itself with the statement.
Mr. Chairman,
The Member States of the European Union have abstained from the vote on the resolution on the question of Western-Sahara. The European Union regrets the fact that it was not possible to get consensus on this resolution.
The European Union closely follows the question of Western Sahara. We support the just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara as was most recently envisaged in the resolutions 1495 and 1541, adopted unanimously by the Security Council.
In these resolutions, the Security Council reaffirmed its commitment to assist the parties to achieve a mutually acceptable solution. The Council also supported the Peace Plan of the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy for Self-Determination of the people of Western Sahara, as an optimum political solution on the basis of agreement between the two parties. The European Union continues to encourage the Parties to work in that sense.
In this regard, the European Union would like to thank the former Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, Mr. James Baker for his tireless efforts. We would also like to reiterate our support for the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Alvaro De Soto. We note the letter of the Secretary-General to the Security Council of 11 June 2004, in which he stated his decision that the Special Representative will continue to work with the parties in pursuit of a mutually
acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western-Sahara in the context of arrangements consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union remains deeply concerned about the humanitarian aspects of the Western Sahara conflict. Certain pressing humanitarian needs - such as the detention of prisoners of war - must be dealt with immediately. Though Polisario has released many Moroccan prisoners of war in the past years, we repeat our call on Polisario to release without further delay all the remaining prisoners of war in compliance with the international humanitarian law. The European Union also calls on both
parties to continue to cooperate with the efforts of the ICRC to solve the problem of the fate of all those unaccounted for since the beginning of the conflict.
In this respect the European Union would like to encourage the parties to collaborate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the implementation of confidence-building measures. We welcome for example the UNHCR initiative to reunite families who have been living separately in different refugee camps, sometimes for more than 20 years.
We hope these kinds of measures will indeed build mutual confidence and trust, and will contribute to finding a solution for this conflict, that has gone on for too long, that has resulted in too many victims, that has weighed down on the UN system, and that has distracted the chances and opportunities for lasting peace in the region.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me thank you very much for your efforts in trying to get a consensus resolution.
Thank you.
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