Short Takes Selected Events

Western Sahara Agreement
The government of Morocco and the Polisario Front signed a series of agreements in recent months to end the stalemate in their struggle for control of a section of the Western Sahara, says Chester A. Crocker, Institute board chairman and specialist on African affairs. Crocker assisted former secretary of state James A. Baker III on a diplomatic mission spnsored by UN secretary general Kofi Annan to help the parties break the impasse through a series of consultations and direct talks, with high-level representatives of Algeria and Mauritania being briefed on developments and participating on matters directly affecting their countries. The Algerian-backed Polisario rebels have sought independence for the largely Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.

Baker, along with Crocker and other experts, held a series of five talks under the auspices of the UN in London, Lisbon, and Houston to assess the implementability of the UN settlement plan for the conflict, which was adopted in 1991 but has not yet been implemented. The plan stipulates that the residents of the disputed territory should vote in a referendum to determine either independence or integration into Morocco. The recent talks produced a series of agreements that will enable the voter identification process leading to a referendum campaign to go forward, Crocker says.

The parties agreed on issues related to the identification of prospective voters, preparations for the return of refugees, the release of prisoners of war and Saharan political detainees, and other matters relating to the code of conduct the parties will observe during the transitional period. "These agreements underscore the authority of the United Nations and reflect the parties' commitment to a free, fair, and transparent electoral process," Crocker says.

Political Reform in North Korea
Chan Bong Park, a guest scholar at the Institute in March-May, discussed "Prospects for Political Reform and Transitional Justice in North Korea" at a work-in-progress talk August 6. Park, who is on leave from the Republic of Korea's Ministry of National Unification, is researching issues of transitional justice in post-reunification Korea, specifically the question of how to properly deal with the actions of former North Korean officials in the context of reunification. He is currently a guest scholar at Georgetown University.

North Korea Working Group
Former U.S. senator Sam Nunn briefed the Institute's North Korea Working Group on his July trip to Pyongyang and Seoul with James Laney, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea. The pair--deputized to visit Korea in support of administration policy--discussed North Korea's food crisis and other developments on the peninsula with high-level officials in both North and South.