Falls Church —

June 20, 2001. 
The Honorable George W. Bush
President 
The White House
Washington, D.C., 20504.

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to seek your involvement in resolving the conflict over the Western Sahara, the only colony in Africa that has not yet been liberated. As the leader of the Free World, your intervention is vital to a peaceful, democratic resolution to this conflict.

After over $530 million expenditures and nine years of broken promises, the United Nations has failed to deliver on the referendum over Western Sahara. Now, they seem to be advocating a third solution that is totally against everything the UN purported to be advocating at the outset of the UN peacekeeping mission, MINURSO.

All it would take is a phone call from you to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Our executive director, Carlos Wilson, recently met with high-ranking MINURSO officials. They confirmed to him that the referendum could be held this afternoon, if the U.N. would stop caving in to Morocco's obstruction of the process.

We are deeply troubled that if the referendum is not held, war will break out once again between the Sahrawis and Morocco, because there would be no other option left. The Sahrawi people have fought for 26 years for one simple objective: the right to vote on self-determination. War would be devastating to this region.

The latest U.N. report (due out this week) is predicted to advocate a third way which France and Morocco have been pushing for years, but which has been totally rejected by the Sahrawis because it is counter to democratic principles of self-determination and international legalities. Furthermore, the Western Sahara has *ever been under Moroccan sovereignty as affirmed by the International Court of Justice in 1975 which upheld the Sahrawis right to self- determination.

President Bush page 2)

Mr. President, we have known the Sahrawi people and worked with them for many years. They are a democratic people who love America and all the principles for which we stand. They have modelled their constitution after our own constitution and they have long believed that only America could guarantee their freedom.

The holding of a referendum on Western Sahara would mean the establishment of a pro- West, Muslim democracy that would be a beacon of hope to that region of the World. Furthermore, it would bring about justice for the Sahrawi people who have been living in refugee camps since their country was invaded by Morocco in 1975.

Mr. President, please use your influence as the leader of the Free World to bring about the promised referendum, so the Sahrawis may return home and live free, thereby ensuring stability in North Africa.

Respectfully, Suzanne Scholte, Executive Director; Carlos Wilson, Chairman. cc: The Honorable Colin Powell, The Honorable Condoleezza Rice.

For more information, contact Suzanne Scholte (703)534-4313 or Carlos Wilson (858)458-9191, email: csahrawi@aol.com, U.S.-Western Sahara Foundation, a project of the Defense Forum Foundation, 3014 Castle Road, Falls Church, VA 22044. Phone: 703-534-4313; fax: 703-538-6149 or email: skswm@aol.com.