Kofi Annan in Morocco over Sahara Issue

U.N secretary general, Kofi Annan, Sunday visited the Moroccan southern city of Laayoun, on a second leg of a tour in the region that led him to Mauritania.

In Laayoun, the UN secretary general was given a warm welcome by more than 100,000 citizens who were chanting "the Sahara is Moroccan" and claiming the right of all populations of Sahrawi descent to be entitled to vote in the UN-projected referendum.

On Monday morning, Annan reviewed with officials of the MINURSO ( U.N mission in charge of supervising the referendum in the Sahara) at the MINURSO headquarters the mission's work conditions. Annan is also expected to meet heads of local tribes and local elected representatives and officials.

On the tarmac of the Hassan I airport in Laayoun, Kofi Annan was welcomed by interior minister, Driss Basri and heads of tribes, including the contested tribes (H41, H61 and J51/52) to whom the Polisario is denying the right to vote. The heads of the contested tribes asked the U.N chief to interfere to allow all the populations of Sahara descent to take part in the voting.

Outside the airport and all along the streets of Laayoun, over 100,000 people welcomed Annan, renewing their pride to be Moroccans and chanting slogans that the Sahara is Moroccan territory and that the referendum will only confirm this reality.

Annan's tour in the region is destined to get firsthand information on progress achieved in preparations for a referendum in which local populations will vote whether they want to be part of Morocco or set up an independent state as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario guerrilla movement.

Morocco retrieved this former Spanish colony in 1975 under the Madrid accords, but as the territory sovereignty was claimed by the Polisario, Morocco proposed the holding of a referendum to settle the dossier once and for all and the matter was referred to the United Nations which adopted a settlement plan on the Sahara.

Before Morocco, Annan was in Mauritania where he said he came to the region with no "particular project" regarding the Sahara issue, adding that his talks with governments of the countries in the region will focus on the report he submitted recently to the Security Council. He said he would discuss with his interlocutors means to move forward in the UN settlement plan for the Sahara.

Annan met on Saturday with Mauritanian president Mouaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya.

After Morocco, the UN chief will visit Algeria and Tunisia.

The vote is expected in December 1999.

Annan had said in his latest report that the identification process, which covered 147,000 people, is completed. However, Morocco maintains that the process should also cover tribes which have fled the Spanish repression northward and to which the Polisario is denying the right to be registered on the UN lists.

The UN chief's visit comes as Morocco celebrated on Friday the 23rd anniversary of the Green March, in which 350,000 unarmed volunteers crossed the imaginary borders separating the Sahara from the rest of Morocco.

In Rabat, the media called Sunday on the United Nations to shoulder its responsibility and settle the Sahara issue once and for all.