Morocco, U.N. continue negotiations on MINURSO and refugee issue, says UN spokesman
Morocco, Politics, 2/3/1999

Morocco and the United Nations continued on Tuesday negotiations on draft protocols related to the accords on the status of the forces of the MINURSO (U.N. mission for the referendum in the Sahara) and the repatriation of refugees, the U.N. secretary-general's spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

The special representative of the secretary-general, Charles Dunbar, and the president of the identification commission, Robert Kinloch, will return to Rabat this Wednesday to resume talks with the Moroccan authorities, Eckhard said.

Eckhard said that assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Hedi Annabi, on Tuesday informed the Security Council on the progress of negotiations.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week recommended in a report to the Security Council that the MINURSO mandate, which expired on January 31, be extended by four weeks, until next February 28.

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

In his report on the evolution of the situation in the Sahara, Annan voiced hope that ongoing discussions will lead to an accord on the resumption of the identification of would-be voters in the referendum, the launching of the appeals process, the repatriation of Sahrawi refugees as well as the implementation of the time-table of the referendum process in the Sahara.

The much delayed referendum 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 separatist Polisario front or be incorporated into Morocco.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan parliamentary delegation meets Japanese officials   (2/2/1999)
  Morocco: No figure can be forwarded before completion of voter identification   (1/30/1999)
  Annan recommends four-week extension of UN Sahara mission   (1/30/1999)

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