Sahara issue will be settled through referendum, Algeria says

The Sahara issue will be settled through the referendum, if the two parties (Morocco and the Polisario) keep up their commitments, the Algerian foreign minister said.

"If the two parties respect their commitments, the Western Sahara issue will be definitively settled through the self-determination referendum," Ahmed Attaf told Al Watan daily.

The referendum the United Nations plan to hold in the Sahara is to decide whether the former Spanish colony, retrieved by Morocco in 1975, should be incorporated into Morocco or become independent, as sought by the Polisario.

The Algerian foreign minister added that "the mission of James Baker (U.N. Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for the Sahara) clarified things regarding the settlement of this conflict."

He added that the U.N. settlement plan, which has existed since 1988, could not be implemented because of certain ambiguities or some divergences related to interpretation."

Attaf noted that the Houston accords "had the merit of lifting the ambiguities and making the settlement plan operational."

The Houston accords, concluded last September between Morocco and the Polisario under Baker's aegis, paved the way for the resumption of the identification of would-be voters in the referendum after almost two years of suspension.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a recent report that with the identification of 147,350 applicants, the identification of would-be voters in the referendum had now largely been completed except for members of three contested tribal groupings, H41, H61 and J51/52.

According to the Algerian Foreign Minister, James Baker will hold a meeting between the two parties (Morocco and the Polisario) to find a solution to the problem of contested tribes.

Annan's latest report to the security council announced that James Baker is planning to hold contacts with the parties to settle the issue of contested tribes.

Following the mission, Baker "will assess the implementability of the Plan in its present form and examine whether there are any adjustments to the Plan, acceptable to both parties, which would significantly improve the chances of implementing it."