Moroccan papers criticize UN policy in sahara as pro-secessionists
Morocco, Politics, 2/22/2000

Moroccan papers commented this Tuesday the reports released end of last week by UN Secretary general Kofi Annan on the Sahara issue and charged the MINURSO, UN mission supervising the referendum in the Sahara, of being responsible for deadlock in the settlement process.

The editorials were unanimous in stressing that the mission is being mislead by the Polisario secessionists and their attempts to block the identification of Sahrawis eligible to vote in the UN-projected referendum.

For "Al Alam" daily, the registration of voters should be based on the sacred principle that all Sahrawis have the right to take part while this principle faces an unfounded opposition by the "Polisario" which wants to exclude entire tribes from the identification operation.

For the daily, the UN secretariat general is largely responsible for the failure to organize the voting as it failed to ensure that UN-brokered conditions agreed upon previously are met before proceeding, illegally, to the exclusion of some tribes, and yield to the Polisario maneuvers.

Al Alam goes on that after the new setback, it will be impossible for the UN secretary general's special envoy, James Baker, to reach a result unless the MINURSO changes its attitude or is replaced by a more equitable body.

On its part, Al Ittihad Al Ichtiraki calls the UNO to adopt a new objective logic to remedy the situation in conformity with the UN settlement plan provisions and see to the lifting of the blockade enforced on populations sequestered by the Polisario.

For the daily, the Polisario is seeking to void the whole plan of its essence in order to keep sequestering the sahrawi population in its camps. The paper further argues that the Polisario fears that if given the right of free movement, the sequestered population will chose to flee the hell and go back to their motherland, Morocco.

In the same vein, Al Haraka, of an opposition party, deplores the separatists attempts to torpedo the identification process and their permanent endeavors to abort all initiatives that will end up with a referendum.

Last Friday, the UN secretary general, in a new report to the security council, recommended the extension for an additional three months the MINURSO term and asked his special envoy, James Baker, to resume mediation to end the conflict.

Annan said he can't set with certainty a date for the referendum that has been put off several times since 1991. In a previous report last December, the UN chief had already hinted that there seemed "little possibility of holding the referendum before 2002 or even beyond."

He pinpointed to the electorate identification as the particularly-hard problem that could make it impossible to hold a referendum, provided for by the UN settlement plan.

The Algeria-backed polisario secessionist movement is trying to shrink the electorate by insisting that only persons who were included in a population census conducted by the Spanish colonial authorities should be entitled to vote, while Morocco says all persons of Sahrawi origin, an essentially nomadic population, should be allowed to vote.

The Sahara is a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accord. After a cease-fire observed in the region since 1991, the MINURSO, French acronym for the UN mission in the Sahara, had been supervising arrangements for the referendum.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan MPs urge European Parliament to address issue of sequestered Sahrawis   (2/21/2000)
  Spain promoted separatists' so-called national feeling for colonial purposes   (2/21/2000)
  UN chief recommends extension of UN Sahara mission term, calls special envoy to resume mediation   (2/21/2000)

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