SECRETARY-GENERAL EXPRESSES DETERMINATION TO ENSURE THAT NEW PAGE CAN BE TURNED IN HISTORY OF WESTERN SAHARA
Press Release
SG/SM/6789
SECRETARY-GENERAL EXPRESSES DETERMINATION TO ENSURE THAT NEW PAGE CAN BE TURNED IN HISTORY OF WESTERN SAHARA
19981110 Addressing Saharan Chiefs in Laayoune, Kofi Annan Says 'My Message Is a Message of Hope and Resolution'Following is the statement, translated from French, by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Saharan Chiefs, in Laayoune, on 9 November:
Allow me, first of all, to thank you for your warm welcome and tell you how happy I am to be with you today. Your words have had a profound effect on me, and I have understood that you are firmly resolved to advance the peace process. As you know, the purpose of my visit is to help advance the implementation of the United Nations Settlement Plan, so that a definitive end can be put to a conflict that has lasted too long. Just recently, you had an opportunity of noting the determination of the United Nations, with the proposals which I submitted to you and which have just been approved by the Security Council. It is now important for the parties to sign as soon as possible the protocols on identification and on the recourse procedure so that the process can be initiated, as envisaged on 1 December. It is also important for the Moroccan Government to strengthen the foundations of its cooperation with the United Nations by finalizing the documents relating to the presence of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
I thank the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco for the considerable material support it has already provided to MINURSO and will, I am sure, continue to provide in the future. If the parties continue to demonstrate good will, we shall, together, be able to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves in the Settlement Plan. As leaders of the Saharan community, you yourselves bear a particular responsibility and have an extremely important role to play. I wish, in this respect, to commend the spirit of cooperation you have shown to date. Allow me, in conclusion, to tell you that my message is a message of hope and resolution. We shall do everything to ensure that a new page can be turned in the history of the region and that the Saharan families who have so long been separated can at last be reunited.
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