Morocco denounces removal of 4,000 Sahrawi applicants from provisional lists
Morocco, Politics, 7/15/1999

Morocco on Thursday denounced the arbitrary removal of 4,000 Sahrawi applicants from the provisional lists of persons identified as eligible voters in the projected referendum in the Sahara after they had been initially and officially admitted by the identification commission as eligible voters.

Morocco decried the decrease in the number of applicants admitted on the Moroccan side and the rise in the number of those admitted on the Polisario side in the provisional lists made public by the U.N Identification Commission regarding the two first stages of the identification operation.

A release -- read out at the beginning of a meeting in Rabat Thursday between Moroccan Interior Minister Driss Basri and representatives of the national and foreign press accredited in Rabat -- underlined that "Morocco will use all legitimate and legal means to reinstate in their rights the 4,000 Sahrawis initially and officially admitted by the Identification Commission only to be arbitrarily removed from the provisional lists of applicants found out to be entitled to vote."

According to the provisional lists which were released by the MINURSO's identification commission and which cover the two first identification stages carried out from August 28, 1994 to December 22, 1995 and from December 3, 1997 to September 3, 1998, some 84,251 persons were identified and found to be entitled to vote in the self-determination referendum due to take place in the Sahara under the aegis of the U.N.

The vote is to decide whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony, retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords, sets up on its own or remains part of Morocco. The vote is set to be held in July, 2000.

The provisional lists show that 46,255 of the eligible voters live in Morocco, 33,786 in the Tindouf camps (southwestern Algeria) and 4,210 in Mauritania.

The Moroccan press release deplored that instead of having 50,093 voters -- the number which was officially notified by the Identification Commission Chairman to the Moroccan authorities on September 1, 1998 -- Morocco was greately surprised to be left with 46,255, as notified in December 1998. In the opposite, the number of persons in Tindouf moved from 29,567 (April 15, 1998) up to 33,786 (December 1, 1998) and in Mauritania from 2,111 to 4,210.

In this connection, Morocco, while reaffirming its rights and renewing its steadfast will to help hold a free, fair and transparent referendum, exempt from all constraints, draws the U.N. Secretary-General's attention to the need to comply with the schedule of operations as drawn out in the "Package" of last May 31, mainly the provision related to the concomittance of the end of the identification and appeals operations and the beginning of the refugees repatriation.

It also underlined that Morocco will use all legitimate and legal means to reinstate in their rights the 4,000 Sahrawis initially and officially admitted by the Identification Commission only to be arbitrarily removed from the provisional lists of applicants found out to be entitled to vote.

At this crucial stage of the referendum process, "Morocco has just won a clear success," the press release said, underlining that despite the manoevers that punctuated the two stages of the identification operation and that were meant to cut down by all means the number of Sahrawis living in Morocco, the Identification Commission has realized and acknowledged that the majority of Sahrawis called to vote are well and truly living in Morocco.

"The argument according to which the Sahrawis are 'refugees' in the Lahmada camps has fallen apart, despite the systematic denials by the Polisario shioukhs of all applicants who presented themselves in the Moroccan territory, despite the established complicity of some members of the Identification Commission, despite the successive amputations -- carried out systematically and deliberately by the Identification Commission Chairman -- and despite the pure and simple substitution of the legal and sociological concept of tribal ties with the Spanish Census," the release said, recalling that this census has been unanimously discredited, including by those who conducted it in 1974.

The release underlined that Morocco, which takes note with satisfaction of the acknowledgment of the massive presence of its Sahrawi citizens within its territory, vigorously condemns, to all U.N competent bodies, any action aimed at driving the identification process off its course.

Morocco also renewed resolve to protect its national rights and the right of each and every Sahrawi to take part in the referendum in accordance with the U.N settlement plan.

Morocco also voiced regret over the serious delay in preparations for the refugees' return. It likewise renewed its firm will to continue supporting the UNHCR, the Minurso and the Identification Commission so that the third identification stage unfolds in conditions likely to help the members of the tribes to be covered by this stage use all means to assert their rights.

The third identification stage will consist of holding hearing sessions for people from the tribes of Ait Usa, Ait Baamrane, Ait En-Nos, Azoafit, Cheraga, Ait Yarra, Beni Buyahi, Beni Zerual, Chenagla, Entifa, Rif, R'hamna, Seraghna, Ulad Settout, Ghomara, Zanti and Lamiar, known as H41, H61 and H51/52 groupings.

Morocco, which is keen to see all Sahrawis and no one else but Sahrawis exercise their right to self-determination, urged them to approach the Appeals Commissions to use their right in line with the relevant provisions of the settlement plan.

The press release stated that as one of the myths depicting the "Sahara people (as) bivouacking in their majority in the Lahmada of Tindouf" is drawing to extinction, all kinds of prognostication, insinuation and betting too innocently suggested, prompted and asserted here and there as to the way Sahrawis will vote are coming to an end.

Morocco, which remains conscious and serene, awaits the holding of the referendum fully confident as to the commitment of all Sahrawis -- wherever they might be -- to their Moroccan citizenship, sure of their loyalty to the Alwaite Throne and convinced to their faithfulness to King Hassan II, the press release concluded.

Previous Stories:
  Bouteflika announces summit with King Hassan II   (7/12/1999)
  Perspectives of referendum in the Sahara clearer, Sabonese FM says   (7/10/1999)
  Morocco boycotts the meeting of Africa summit in Algeria   (7/10/1999)

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