UNITED NATIONS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Russia and the United States vetoed each other's Western Sahara resolutions at the Security Council on Friday in a dispute over Morocco's autonomy plan that leaves the UN peacekeeping mission there without a renewal a day before its mandate expires.
The two vetoes mean the Security Council has not renewed a mission it has extended routinely each year. They also block a US push to go further than last year's council endorsement of Morocco's autonomy plan. Oxfam warned
that losing the mission could put civilians at risk.
The US-drafted resolution would have cemented Morocco's autonomy plan as the only basis for talks to settle the half-century-old conflict and scaled back the military component of the peacekeeping mission there.
The votes followed an unusual showdown among major powers over the mission's annual renewal, long considered procedurally routine at the Security Council.
Polisario, an armed group based in neighbouring Algeria, has sought an independent state in Morocco-controlled Western Sahara since former colonial power Spain withdrew from the territory in 1976.
Morocco says it has historical rights to the territory, which it calls its "southern provinces", and where it has invested heavily in infrastructure and public services.
Last year, the Security Council dealt a blow to Polisario's ambitions when it backed Morocco's autonomy proposal as a basis for resolving the conflict and asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit a review of the peacekeeping mission.
The failed US resolution, which would have extended the mission's mandate for another year, would have removed a reference to a referendum from the mission's name, renaming it the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara, or MINUSO.
Following the vote on the US draft, US Ambassador Michael Waltz said a referendum had never taken place because of longstanding disagreements over voter eligibility.
"UN officials have been telling us this reality for 30 years," he said.
"Unfortunately, some members of this Council have used their veto to preserve the letter 'R' for referendum in the mission's name, even though the United Nations has not been preparing to hold such a vote for decades," he added.
France, the UK, the two other permanent Security Council members, backed the US resolution and Morocco's autonomy plan.
MISSION AT RISK
"We stress the fact that the Security Council cannot automatically pre-determine matters relating to sovereignty,” Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said.
“The security council must not give a blessing to such a one sided approach therefore we were compelled to block the adoption of the draft," he said.
The United States then vetoed a Russian-drafted resolution that would have extended the mission's mandate for another year without changes. Eleven members voted against it.
“The political murder of the mission,” Nebenzia said.
With 155 military personnel, the mission, tasked with organizing a referendum as part of a UN-brokered ceasefire, is set to cost $62 million in the fiscal year that started in June this year, according to a UN Secretary General report.
"The loss of MINURSO’s monitoring and de-escalation functions risks undermining security and stability, with serious consequences to civilians and prospects of a peaceful resolution," Oxfam said in reaction to the vote.
While most Sahrawis live in Morocco-ruled Western Sahara, tens of thousands are estimated to be living in Polisario-run refugee camps in Algeria.
The vetoed US-resolution would have urged the UN refugee agency to conduct a census of the refugees in the camps.
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
