Morocco holds polisario responsible for referendum delay
Morocco, Politics, 11/6/1999

Morocco's delegate to the United Nations Organization, Ahmed Snoussi, held the Polisario responsible for the all the delays in holding a referendum in the Sahara.

In a statement to MAP correspondent in the UNO headquarters, the diplomat said "with the obstacles erected by the other side, the referendum would have been completed and the refugees would have returned home in their homeland.

Snoussi added that appeals by persons who were denied the right to be included in the voters' lists cannot be fairly handled if the UN identification commission continues to require two converging testimonies.

He explained that the UN settlement plan stipulated that a rejected candidate to registration is entitled to provide an oral testimony by one person, not two.

Regarding the repatriation of refugees, the Moroccan diplomat said the Polisario mercenaries are trying by all means to prevent the refugees from going back to their home country so as to maintain them under their dominion and influence their vote.

Commenting last week's UN secretary general's report, Snoussi noted as positive Annan's decision to ask his special representative to conduct talks on the identification methods and procedures and to give enough time to rejected candidates to appeal, which imply that the timetable will be changed.

He added that Morocco's opinion that the appeals of candidates should be sacrificed for financial or administrative contingencies has won Annan's support.

The Moroccan representative also noted the statements ascribed to refugees and which, actually, reflect the propaganda of their jailers while it is common knowledge that the refugees are gagged and that the HCR was never allowed to talk to them directly. Snoussi went on that those who could flee the sequestration camps where they were forcefully taken in 1975 denounce the harsh living conditions there. He also cited as additional evidence the delay by the Polisario to enforce confidence-building measures called for by the UN to ensure the transparency of the refugees repatriation operation.

The diplomat denounced this attitude as a new attempt by the separatists to maintain the sequestered populations under their dominion. He added that it also contradicts the UN settlement plan, the Houston agreements that stipulate that the voting should take place inside the territory where refugees should find viable facilities, like the ones Morocco is preparing for them.

In his report to the security council, Annan said the number of appeals, more than 79,000, corresponds almost exactly to the number of persons who were not registered in the first part of the provisional voters list made public last July 15. Annan concluded that the appeals process is most likely to be a long one and that almost all applicants who were not admitted initially would take part in addition to those whose inclusion in the voters list was turned down.

The UN chief also sees that arrangements regarding the implementation of the appeals procedure, the needed human and financial resources and other needs would be determined according to the analysis conducted by MINURSO (French acronym for the UN mission supervising the referendum in the Sahara), on the admissibility of applicants' appeals.

The report had announced that the MINURSO and the Moroccan authorities signed last October 26 an agreement on the status of forces regarding the arms to be held by the MINURSO forces.

Previous Stories:
  Report: Clan wars and unavoidable scission in Tindouf, defectors   (11/5/1999)
  Polisario stalling tactics could cause referendum delay, minister   (11/5/1999)
  Belgian general heads U.N force in Sahara   (11/4/1999)

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