Morocco and U.N. sign agreement on Sahara settlement plan

Morocco and the United Nations concluded on Wednesday an agreement on the resumption of the identification of would-be voters in the self-determination referendum that the U.N. plans to hold in the Sahara.

The accord was announced by Moroccan Interior Minister, Driss Basri, during a press conference with visiting Greek peer, Alexandros Papadopoulous.

The accord deals with the resumption of the identification of tribal groups who had not been admitted to identification, the beginning of appeal procedures, the statute of the MINURSO (French acronym for the U.N. mission in charge of supervising the referendum process in the Sahara) in Morocco, Basri Said.

Basri added that Morocco accepted with some modifications the complementary plan that U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, had presented to King Hassan II during his recent North Africa tour.

The plan includes the official installation in Laayoune (major city in the Moroccan southern provinces) of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the readaptation of the settlement plan time-table in view of the delay in the identification operations.

The U.N. had 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).

Meanwhile, the Security Council extended on Thursday the mandate of the MINURSO until next February 11. The mandate was initially scheduled to expire on January 31.

The new extension would allow the Council to study the report that U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, was to submit to the 15-member council on Thursday.

The MINURSO which supervises a cease-fire in force since September 1991 comprises 203 military observers, 10 staff officers, 248 troopers and 80 civilian police observers.