Identification operation resumes on June 1, minister announces

The identification operation of would-be voters in the referendum that the U.N is projecting to hold in the Sahara will resume next June 1.

The announcement was made by Moroccan Minister of the Interior Driss Basri at a meeting he held on Wednesday in Assa-Zag with elected representatives and local officials of this Moroccan southern province.

The identification of persons entitled to participate in the referendum, and especially the Ait Oussa tribes, will resume next June 1, Basri said.

Basri renewed on the occasion Morocco's attachment to the U.N settlement plan in the Sahara and said Morocco will go through with the plan so the referendum can take place in March 2000.

The referendum will determine whether the Moroccan Southern provinces, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords, will remain Moroccan territory or set up on their own as claimed by the Algerian-backed Polisario movement.

The referendum, initially scheduled for 1991 has been repeatedly postponed because of disputes over the composition of the electorate.

To push the process forward, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan toured the region end of last year and made a package of proposals to end the deadlock.

In his latest report to the U.N Security Council, Annan announced that Morocco has accepted in principle the protocols related to the identification and appeal procedures of persons of Sahrawi descent.

The identification of all applicants from all tribal groups, except the contested tribes H41, H61 and J51/52, has been completed last August and the U.N identification commission announced that 147,000 applicants wishing to take part in the referendum have been identified.