Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This evening I want to make a short contribution on a region that's too often neglected in the parliament and in Australian public debate—that is, North Africa. The ceasefire between Morocco and the Western Sahara independence movement, Frente Polisario, has been an uneasy but longstanding source of stability in the region. It's been a hard-won peace built on decades of careful negotiation and statecraft overseen by the United Nations and backed by an international peacekeeping force. In fact, more than 200 Australian military personnel have taken part in the United Nations mission for the referendum in Western Sahara. Indeed, in 1993 Army doctor Major Susan Felsche was killed, becoming the first Australian servicewoman to die on an overseas military operation since World War II.

The news that the ceasefire has broken down is a source of deep concern across the entire international community. The presence of military forces in the Guerguerat area and the buffer strip is a clear violation of a military agreement signed by both parties in 1997 and in 1998, as is the firing of weapons over the region. A breakdown of the ceasefire in Western Sahara is a threat to both regional and global stability. Already there are concerns about a spillover affecting Mali, where the political situation is widely understood to be one of the United Nations' most challenging and complex peacekeeping missions. I urge both parties to respect human rights in the territory of Western Sahara, adhere to the humanitarian law of armed conflict as outlined in the Geneva convention and positively engage in negotiations towards a settlement of this situation.

I urge the United Nations Security Council to take immediate steps to restore the ceasefire and to organise a resumption of negotiations and a plan to deliver a lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara. Any resolution must include the right of the people of Western Sahara to choose their own future. Decades of diplomacy have failed to give what was promised to the people of Western Sahara in 1991: a referendum between independence or integration with Morocco. The vote has been delayed several times.

As a country that believes and has a deep, abiding interest in a rules based international order and the multilateral institutions that allow nations to resolve disputes peacefully, and as a country that has sent its service men and women to oversee the peace in the region, Australia has a close interest in the peaceful resolution of this conflict and will be watching the situation in Western Sahara closely. I think we all hope for a peaceful outcome that respects the will of the Sahrawi people, their right to self-determination and their right to peaceful coexistence in their region.