Annan recommends four-week extension of UN Sahara mission
Morocco, Politics, 1/30/1999

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan recommended that the Security Council extend by four weeks, until February 28, the mandate of the MINURSO (French acronym for the U.N. mission in charge of supervising the referendum process in the Sahara).

In a report to the Security Council on the evolution of the situation in the Sahara, Annan voiced hope that ongoing discussions will lead to an accord on identification, appeals, repatriation as well as the implementation of the time-table of the referendum process in the Sahara.

The much delayed vote seeks to determine whether the Sahara -- a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under tripartite accords concluded with Spain and Mauritania -- sets up on its own as claimed by the Polisario front or incorporates into Morocco.

Kofi Annan voiced hope that ongoing consultations would result in the resumption of the identification of would-be voters in the referendum and the beginning of the appeals process.

He also welcomed Morocco's decision to make official the statute of the U.N. high commissioner for refugees in the territory. He further underlined the need to start rapidly the preparations for the return of the refugees allowed to vote in the referendum and their families.

Annan also hailed Morocco's decision to sign the accord on the statute of the MINURSO forces.

Moroccan Interior Minister Driss Basri had announced that Morocco and the UN concluded on Wednesday an agreement on the resumption of the identification of would-be voters in the self-determination referendum.

The accord deals with the resumption of the identification of tribal groups who had not been admitted to identification, the beginning of appeal procedures, the statute of the MINURSO in Morocco, Basri Said.

Basri added that Morocco accepted with some modifications the complementary plan that Annan had presented to King Hassan II during his recent North Africa tour.

The plan includes the official installation in Laayoune (major city in the Moroccan southern provinces) of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the readaptation of the settlement plan time-table in view of the delay in the identification operations.

The U.N. 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).

On Thursday, the Security Council extended the mandate of the MINURSO until next February 11. The mandate was initially scheduled to expire on January 31.

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

Previous Stories:
  Morocco and U.N. sign agreement on Sahara settlement plan   (1/29/1999)
  Party calls for foiling plots against Morocco's territorial integrity   (1/27/1999)
  Moroccan party denounces pressures on Morocco by UN mission   (1/26/1999)
  Morocco refutes statements on Sahara ascribed to Austrian official   (1/22/1999)

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