Morocco is attached to referendum process and international legality, minister
Morocco's communication minister said Wednesday in Rabat that Morocco remains attached to the holding of the referendum in the Sahara and to the respect of international legality.
At a meeting with a delegation of African newsmen, Larbi Messari said Morocco, which is convinced of the legitimacy of its cause, has been calling for the holding of the referendum in the Saharan provinces since 1966 while they were still under Spanish control.
He also stated that Morocco has never been behind the standstill of the UN settlement process because it is convinced that the results of the referendum will confirm the Moroccan identity of the Saharan provinces.
The referendum, originally scheduled for January 1992 is now slated for March 2000. It will determine whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony, which Morocco retrieved in 1975 under the Madrid accord, would remain part of the Kingdom or become independent, as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario front.
On Morocco's relations with African countries, Larbi Messari said, "Though we left in 1984 the Organization of African Unity when it illegally admitted the membership of a puppet self-proclaimed entity (Sahrawi Republic), Morocco maintained good friendship ties with many African countries and defended strongly African economic interests on the international scene."
Morocco, he said further, will return to the African organization when it will repair its mistake.
The status of the so-called Sahrawi republic and the question of whether to expel it or not from the African organization was discussed recently during the 69th session of the OAU ministerial council held last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
During the debate, several delegates insisted that the OAU is contradicting itself by granting membership to the so-called Sahrawi republic while adhering to the U.N settlement plan providing for the holding of a referendum in the Sahara and that the "SADR" admission violates Article IV of the organization's charter which limits membership to independent and sovereign African states.
