Security Council extends MINURSO mandate until next december

The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted on Friday a resolution, extending the mandate of the U.N. mission for the referendum in the Sahara (MINURSO) until next December 17.

The resolution 1204 (1998) requested the U.N. Secretary-General to submit by December 11 a report on the progress made in the implementation of the U.N. settlement plan. The U.N. chief was also asked to keep the Council regularly informed on any significant development, and if need be, on the viability of the Minurso mandate.

The resolution also welcomed "the agreement of the Moroccan authorities to formalize the presence of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Sahara, and the agreement of the Polisario Front to resume pre-registration activities in the refugee camps."

The Council requested the parties to take concrete measures to assist the UNHCR in conducting the necessary preparatory work for the repatriation of the Sahrawi refugees who are entitled to vote the referendum and their immediate family members in accordance with the settlement plan.

The Security Council adopted the resolution following a report submitted earlier this week by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, wherein he recommended, among other things, the extension of the MINURSO mandate until April 1999 to allow for the completion of the identification of would-be voters in the referendum.

The much-delayed vote, proposed by Morocco, is designed to determine whether the Sahara sets up on its own, as claimed by the Polisario, or be incorporated into Morocco.

The Security Council also backed the Minurso's intention to start publishing the temporary lists of voters as of December 1, as proposed by the Secretary-General.

Following the adoption of resolution 1204, the Moroccan mission to the U.N. circulated a release wherein it stresses that the publication of the voters' lists is only a proposal that is still under scrutiny like any other proposal forwarded to the parties to settle pending issues.

In his latest report, Kofi Annan attributed the current deadlock "primarily to the inability of the Moroccan government and the Frente Polisario to reach a compromise on the much debated issue of tribal groupings H41, H61 and J51/52."

In order to advance the process, Annan proposed his own arbitration. He will also tour the North Africa region early next November.

The U.N. had previously said that with the identification of 147,000 applicants wishing to take part in the referendum, the identification was completed, except for the contested tribes H41, H61 and J51/52 (groups that fled the Spanish occupation and who are denied eligibility by the Polisario).