Baker cuts short North African tour
Morocco-UN, Politics, 4/11/2000

James Baker, Personal Envoy of the U.N Secretary-General for the Sahara, has cut short a North Africa tour due to bronchitis.

Baker, who was talking to the press before leaving Rabat on Tuesday, voiced regret that he could not travel to Mauritania that was on his North Africa trip schedule to pull a U.N. settlement plan from difficulties in which it was bogged down.

Touching on the situation in the region Baker said "I suspect we're pretty much in the same position as in 1998, when developments had bogged down and no progress was being made."

He said he will go back to consult with the U.N. Secretary-General. "I think it's probably appropriate to give some consideration to whether or not we should have at least another meeting or a series of face-to-face meetings of the parties, the way we've done in Lisbon, London and Houston."

"I will be giving consideration to that in consulting with the Secretary-General," he said.

Baker ruled out the participation of any other country in such possible face-to-face meetings. But he conceded that "there are a lot of countries around the world that would like to see this problem resolved so as to promote peace and stability in this region and perhaps promote unity in the Maghreb."

Baker visited Algeria, the Tindouf camps (south-western Algeria) and Morocco. In Morocco, the UN envoy held a work session with King Mohammed VI.

Baker has been asked by secretary general, Kofi Annan, to resume mediation to pull out the plan from the deadlock in which it is plunged by the Polisario's refusal to register thousands of genuine Sahrawis in the rolls of the projected self-determination referendum in the Sahara.

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 in 1974 should be entitled to vote, while Morocco says all persons of Sahrawi origin, an essentially nomadic population, should be allowed to vote, MAP reported.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco renews backing to U.N. efforts to settle Sahara issue   (4/10/2000)
  Baker in Morocco to unlock Sahara Logjam   (4/10/2000)
  Morocco expects baker assignment to speed up referendum   (4/8/2000)

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