Sahara referendum is in last stages, James Baker says

The self-determination referendum process in the Sahara is in its last phases, said James Baker, personal envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Sahara.

"We are in the last stages of the implementation of the referendum part of the settlement plan proposed in 1991," Baker told the Arabic magazine "Al-Watan Al-Arabi."

The much-delayed referendum is slated for July 2000 to determine whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975, sets up on its own, as claimed by the Polisario, or remains part of Morocco.

"We are dealing with the last points hampering the implementation of the plan, namely the identification of three Sahrawi tribes, the conclusion of an accord between the parties (Morocco and Polisario) on the right to appeals of the persons whose identification was rejected and the beginning of the repatriation of refugees," Baker said.

The identification of would-be voters will resume on June 15. The U.N. had identified in previous stages 147,000 Sahrawis for the vote.