Spain fears more delay in Sahara referendum

Spain voiced fears that the self-determination referendum the United Nations plan to hold in the Sahara would be further delayed.

The Spanish news agency "Efe" quoted Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes as expressing the concern before the Spanish Senate that the referendum would be further delayed due to the almost "irreconcilable" positions of Morocco and the Polisario regarding voter lists.

The identification process is "stagnant," which makes it practically impossible to maintain December 7 as a date for the holding the referendum, Matutes said. That is why, he said, the referendum "will witness much delay and let's be hopeful that it will be held."

The vote will determine whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975, sets up on its own or definitely incorporates into Morocco.

The United Nations announced this week that the identification operation is complete, with the registration of 147,000 applicants, except for members of the contested tribes H41, H61 and J51/52. Those are tribes that fled the Spanish occupation and that are denied eligibility by the Polisario (an Algerian-Backed secessionist movement claiming sovereignty over the southern Moroccan provinces).

Matutes added that he will seize the opportunity of the United Nations General Assembly to ask U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, "to exert more efforts to overcome the apparently unsurmountable chill."