Morocco contributes 10% to Sahara mission budget
Morocco, Politics, 4/15/2000

Morocco contributes 10 % to the budget of the United Nations mission for the referendum in the Sahara (MINURSO), said a U.N. Secretary-General report.

A draft MINURSO budget made public on Friday shows that Morocco contributes $ 4,523,300.

The budget, which will cover the period between July 2000 and June 2001, amounts to $ 46,611,600.

According to a UN secretary-general report, the mission spent $ 45 million between July 98 and June 99. Unused sums amounted to more than $ 15 million.

The MINURSO which supervises a cease-fire in the Sahara --in force since September 1991-- currently comprises 203 military observers, 10 staff officers, 248 troopers and 80 civilian police observers.

The unused sums were so high because of the interruption of the identification of would be voters in the self-determination referendum the U.N. plans to hold in the Sahara.

Identification stopped because of the Polisario's refusal to help register thousands of genuine Sahrawis on the voting rolls.

The vote seeks to determine whether the Sahara --a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975-- sets up on its own, as claimed by the Polisario, or remains part of Morocco.

Previous Stories:
  Baker meets Chirac in Paris   (4/13/2000)
  U.N. Sahara mission spent $45 million in 98-99   (4/12/2000)
  Baker meets President Chirac after visits to Algeria and Morocco   (4/12/2000)

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