Moroccan lower house debates Sahara issue

The foreign affairs and national defense committee at the Moroccan house of representatives (lower house) will debate on Thursday the latest developments in the Sahara issue.

The debates, to be attended by foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Abdellatif Filali, will most likely focus on the issue in light of the recent tour the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, made in North Africa.

Reacting to the proposals made by Annan during the tour, spokesman of the Moroccan government, Khalid Alioua, said they did not help advance the referendum process in the Sahara.

Annan's Proposals "did not contribute to advancing" the process to hold the referendum, Khalid Alioua told the London-based "Middle-East Broadcasting Center" (MBC).

Annan toured North Africa in a bid to put on track again a much-delayed referendum, proposed in the 1980's by Rabat to determine whether the former Spanish colony sets up on its own as claimed by the Polisario, or be incorporated into Morocco.

Annan proposed his own arbitration to settle the issue of 65,000 Sahrawis, belonging to contested tribes, that the Polisario refuses to identify as would-be voters in the referendum.

Khalid Alioua underlined that Annan's new plan "only put obstacles" that will harm the right of citizens from the southern provinces to participate in the referendum.

The U.N. has so far identified 147,000 applicants wishing to take part in the referendum and announced that the identification was completed, except for the contested tribes H41, H61 and J51/52 (groups that fled the Spanish occupation and settled northward in Morocco).

The Moroccan public opinion, political class and media are all against the exclusion of any Sahrawi from the voters lists of the referendum, projected to be held in December 1999, under the aegis of the United Nations.