U.N. chief proposes postponing Sahara referendum until December 1999
Morocco-West Sahara, Politics, 10/28/1998

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed postponement of the self-determination referendum in the Sahara until December 1999 in view of problems still hindering voter identification.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Annan said, "The current deadlock is due primarily to the inability of the Moroccan Government and the Frente Polisario to reach a compromise on the much debated issue of tribal groupings H41, H61 and J51/52."

That is why, Annan said, "I have decided to present my own arbitration in order to move ahead on this issue."

He added that in his letters of March 28, 1998 to the two parties, his special representative stated that the "United Nations was adhering to the principle that any registered applicant from any tribal grouping who meets any of the identification criteria is entitled to have his or her name included in the list of voters."

In a previous report to the Security Council, Annan had said that with the identification of 147,000 applicants wishing to take part in the referendum, the identification was completed, except for the contested tribes H41, H61 and J51/52 (groups that fled the Spanish occupation and who are denied eligibility by the Polisario).

In order to avoid taking an arbitrary decision which might lead to the exclusion of persons who are eligible to vote, the U.N. chief said he sees "no other alternative than to ask the Identification Commission to proceed now to consider requests from any applicants from the tribal groupings in question who wish to present themselves individually, in order to verify whether they have the right to vote, having regard to the five eligibility criteria accepted by the parties."

Furthermore, in order to avoid any subsequent dispute, members of the Identification Commission will have to continue examining applications with the utmost rigor and impartiality, Annan said.

Annan also recommended to "launch the phase of the appeals process simultaneously so as not to postpone the referendum too long."

The holding of the referendum will also depend on the measures taken in anticipation of the return of refugees who have been declared eligible to vote, together with their immediate family members, and the conditions in which that repatriation takes place, he said.

To this end, he called for granting the UNHCR "all necessary facilities and guarantees to enable them to prepare for the refugees' return in an optimum manner."

In that respect, the presence and establishment of UNHCR in the territory must be formalized in the very near future, he said.

In order to allow for the completion of the identification process, Annan recommended the Security Council to extend the mandate of MINURSO to 30 April 1999, the closing date of the new identification phase.

He added that he intends to submit recommendations to the Security Council in December 1998 regarding the full deployment of MINURSO, including the deployment of additional military and police personnel.

Previous Stories:
  UN chief calls for identifying all would-be voters meeting identification criteria   (10/27/1998)
  UN peacekeeping official expected in Morocco   (10/22/1998)
  Morocco warns against Polisario's impediments to Sahara referendum   (10/15/1998)

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