My background is both academic and military and in both cases I have concentrated on international relations, a discipline that is seemingly rare amongst Americans. The principle concern, as you all well know by now, is the American preoccupation with the subject of reform in the enormous bureaucracy of the United Nations. The Western Sahara provides a clear example, among others, of why the American government has taken such a dismal view of the quality and pace of reform as promised. We are now entering the sixth year of what has been defined as a six-month process, at a continuing cost to the UN of millions of dollars a month. While the political solution to the stalemate lies languishing, Morocco enjoys the possession of the enormous phosphate deposits and the rich fishing grounds of the Atlantic coast.
Time is on their side.
Any delay, for however long, works to their advantage and to the severe disadvantage of the Saharawi refugees and the image of the United Nations. Of course, the Western Sahara does not command the attention that is drawn to Bosnia or Chechnya, but the purpose of the mission there and the concern here should be with justice. And there are observers in the US Congress and the administration who share that concern. A fair and impartial process is derailed by the fact that access to and exit from UN offices is tightly controlled on the Moroccan side. Only those Saharawi that the Moroccans allow can register, and since there are claims that the voting receipts are then surrendered to the Moroccan authorities, there is no assurance that those who do register will be the ones allowed to vote.