Swedish delegation winds up visit to Morocco

A Swedish delegation of MPs and NGOs representatives on Sunday wound up an information visit to Morocco during which it conferred with premier, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Mohamed Benaissa, and other officials.

The delegation, led by vice-speaker of the parliament Ms. Eva Zetteberg, also made a trip to the Moroccan southern city of Laayoune, where it heard explanations on Morocco's fair cause at meetings with Mohamed Loulichki, ambassador coordinator with the MINURSO (U.N. mission for the referendum in the Sahara), elected representatives and chiefs of Sahrawi tribes as well as with Sahrawis who defected the Polisario gang and returned to their motherland, Morocco.

The delegation members pledged, in a statement to reporters at the end of their trip to Laayoune, to inform the Swedish parliament and public opinion of their findings on the Sahara issue they gleaned during their visit and the head of the delegation said they took note of "the difficulties that still hamper the holding of a fair and free referendum" in the Sahara.

The United Nations is trying to hold a referendum in the Sahara --a Moroccan southern territory that was formerly under Spanish rule and that was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords.

The vote, which will give the people of the Sahara a choice between independence or integration with Morocco, has been repeatedly delayed because of the maneuvers of the separatist Polisario which seeks to shrink the voters list.

Mrs Eva Zetteberg stressed the need to reach a quick settlement to the (Sahara) issue that lasted for too long.

Member of the "Forum Syd" NGO, Rodrigo Arce, said Swedish NGOs are backing the referendum process and will ask Sweden and the Swedish parliament to maintain their backing to the process.

Regarding the misuse by the Polisario gang of the humanitarian assistance destined to the populations sequestered in the Tindouf camps in southwestern Algeria, he said the information gleaned by the delegation will be conveyed to NGOs as well as to human rights organizations in Sweden. He added that NGOs shoulder a heavy responsibility regarding the monitoring of humanitarian assistance as this assistance is funded by taxpayers' money.