Morocco announces imminent accord with UN on identification of 65,000 Sahrawis

Morocco has announced that an accord might be signed this Monday or in the few coming days with the United Nations on the identification of 65,000 Sahrawis belonging to contested tribes.

The accord will include the operational guidelines that the U.N. Secretary-General will address to the MINURSO (the U.N. mission supervising the process to hold a self-determination referendum in the Sahara) for the resumption of the identification operation on June 1, Moroccan permanent representative of the U.N., Ahmed Snoussi, told the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

The much-delayed vote is to be held in the Sahara, probably early next year, to decide whether the former Spanish colony, retrieved by Morocco in 1975, sets up on its own or is definitively incorporated into Morocco.

The process is stumbling over disagreements over who should be identified as potential voters in the referendum.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had said in a report that with the registration of 147,000 applicants, the identification process was completed except for the members of three contested tribal groupings, H41, H61 and J51/52.

In his interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, the Moroccan permanent representative to the U.N. voiced hope that solutions will be shortly found to other pending issues.

"We will continue negotiations with the (U.N.) Secretariat-General on certain details related to the way the MINURSO will conduct the resumption of the identification operation and the appeal procedures with the perspective to hold the referendum in March 2000," Snoussi said.

The diplomat touched on the return of refugees, noting that Morocco already started negotiations with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the matter. He denounced, in this connection, the obstacles erected by the Polisario to prevent the population sequestered in Tindouf (in southwestern Algeria, stronghold of the Polisario) from returning to their homeland, Morocco.

Snoussi added that Morocco called on the U.N. Secretary-General to intervene for lifting the siege imposed on the Sahrawis sequestered in Tindouf. "The whole process depends on the return of these refugees," he said, adding, "It is inconceivable that one third of the population of the region be sequestered."

Relatedly, Moroccan Interior Minister Driss Basri said at a recent meeting in Laayoune (southern Morocco) with women's organizations, that the Sahrawis who had their identification refused, will be able to present their appeals to the identification commission and be registered.

He asserted that Morocco remains attached to the right of each and every Sahrawi to participate in the identification operation and in the referendum.