Morocco astonished and disappointed about identification in sahara
Morocco, Politics, 1/18/2000

Morocco expressed on Tuesday "astonishment and disappointment" following the results of the identification of "contested" tribes.

In a press briefing, spokesman of the government, Khalid Alioua, read out an official statement which expresses Morocco's disappointment over the results showing that out of 51,220 applicants, the identification commission only accepted 2,130 persons (4%) as eligible to vote in the UN-projected referendum in the Sahara.

After he renewed Morocco's adherence to the UN settlement plan in the Sahara, Alioua hoped that the world body will ensure in the appeals procedure required conditions of impartiality and fairness in order to restore to the settlement process all its credibility.

Morocco also says the weak percentage of persons admitted from the tribes to whom the Polisario is denying the right to vote in the referendum only confirms the worries and fears it has repeatedly expressed to the UN secretary general and security council, particularly regarding the misuse of oral testimonies.

Indeed, the statement went on, when it accepted the settlement plan in 1990, Morocco had insisted on the decisive importance of the identification operation and the need to secure it neutrality, objectivity and fairness, lest the plan would be compromised. Morocco has also drawn attention to the other party's maneuvers to obstruct the identification commission work.UN secretary general's spokesman Fred Eckhard said Monday the second the second part of the list of potential voters, includes more than 2,000 eligible voters from the more than 50,000 applicants from tribes that the secessionist Polisario considers ineligible.

The newly admitted voters belong to what the UN calls "contested tribes" that Morocco considers as sahrawis, and therefore eligible to vote, and to whom the Algeria-backed Polisario denies this right.

Morocco insists that all Sahrawis without any exception should be entitled to say whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords, should remain Moroccan territory or set up on its own.

Previous Stories:
  Referendum in Sahara depends on participation of all Moroccans of Sahrawi origin   (1/17/2000)
  Koutla parties braced for further democratic action   (1/17/2000)
  Congress staffers leave Rabat on two-day tour in Laayoun   (1/15/2000)

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