Asharq Al Awsat: Memorandum denouncing James Baker's peace plan handed to French authorities

A group of local officials representing southern Moroccan provinces was received on Tuesday in Paris by French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Read Mueller, to whom it handed, a memorandum denouncing the peace plan of former US secretary of state and personal envoy of UN Secretary General for the Sahara, James Baker, reports the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al Awsat.

In the document, the delegation reiterates the attachment of the southern provinces' population to their home country, Morocco, and their adamant refusal of the plan, the newspaper said. Cheikh Mohamed Salem Bahya of the Laaroussiyine tribe who returned to Morocco recently after fleeing the camps of the separatist movement "polisario" in Tindouf (southeastern Algeria) strongly criticized the Baker peace initiative saying "it sows the seeds of a civil war" in the southern provinces.

His country fellowman, Cheikh Mohamed Salem, portrayed as "unjust" this plan for, he said, "it makes the majority yield to the diktat of the minority." Hmaiim Moulay Brahim of the Rguibat Ahl Qassem tribe accused Baker of "defending the interests of the enemies of Morocco."

The seven-page memorandum will be handed over later to the members of the UN Security Council. The document, a copy of which was obtained by the newspaper, rejects this plan as it limits the number of people entitled to participate in a referendum on the future of the Sahara to those included in the provisional list of the MINURSO (United Nations Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara), which prevents thousands of Saharan people to vote in this referendum. The document rejects "any solution to the Sahara issue that does not take into account Morocco's full sovereignty over the whole of its territory" and blames Algeria for "the whole responsibility in the creation and the prolongation of this conflict." It also denounces "the opposition of Algiers to any lasting political settlement." the delegation is led by Brahim Hakim, former foreign minister of the Polisario, member of the Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs, roaming ambassador and member of the Consultative Council for Human Rights (CCDH).