UN Security Council hails acceptance of proposed package on Sahara
Morocco-UN, Politics, 5/13/1999

The U.N. Security Council Wednesday welcomed the acceptance by Morocco and the Polisario front of revised arrangements for completing the identification of voters and an appeals process which paves the way for a referendum on the future of the Sahara.

In a statement read to the press here, the president of the Security Council, Denis Dangue Rewaka of Gabon, said, "The members of the Security Council welcomed the formal acceptance by the two parties of the package of measures on the identification and appeals protocols."

"The members of the Security Council called on the parties to cooperate fully" with the MINURSO (a French acronym for U.N. mission supervising preparations for a referendum in the Sahara), in implementing all these modalities, the statement said.

"The members of the Council reiterated their support to the Secretary General for his tireless efforts and encouraged him to continue on that course," the statement said.

The UN Secretary-General's proposed package sets July 2000 as a new date for the referendum and a revised timetable for all operations related to the referendum.

Annan proposed to resume the identification of potential voters in the referendum on June 1, 1999. The appeals procedure would start one month later.

The referendum which had been repeatedly postponed would give persons of Sahrawi descent an opportunity to say whether they want the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords, to stand on its own as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario movement or remain integrated within Morocco.

The issue of identification and appeals (of persons who were denied inclusion in the voter lists) has been a major obstacle to the holding of the voting due to the Polisario's attempts to shrink the electorate.

165,000 potential voters belonging to non-contested tribes have so far been identified. The new identification operation would cover "contested tribes" to whom the Polisario is denying the right to vote.

Previous Stories:
  U.N. Security Council extends MINURSO mandate by two weeks   (5/3/1999)
  Security Council extends by one month term of UN mission in Sahara   (3/31/1999)
  UN Secretary General recommends one-month extension of MINURSO mandate   (3/24/1999)

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