Morocco renews full backing to U.N. efforts to close Sahara dossier

Morocco on Tuesday renewed full backing to the efforts made by the United Nations to settle the Sahara issue through the holding of a referendum.

"Morocco renews its total backing and support to the efforts exerted by the United Nations, especially Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to complete the referendum process in conditions guaranteeing transparency, equity and success," Moroccan Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister, Mohamed Benaissa said in a speech before the 54th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

The referendum, scheduled for July 2000, seeks to determine whether the Sahara --a former Spanish colony, retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords-- sets up on its own or remains part of Morocco.

"To attain these objectives, Morocco has always seen to it to communicate to the United Nations all deviations that harm the legitimate rights of the candidates to participation in the referendum," Benaissa said.

He recalled that Morocco "expressed in the morrow of the publishing of the first preliminary lists of identified Sahrawis, its concern regarding certain practices that marked this operation and which led to the exclusion of thousands of persons of Sahrawi descent who meet the criteria and conditions agreed upon."

Benaissa voiced hope that the U.N. would bring about "fair solutions that meet our concerns and those of thousands of Sahrawi candidates, who should have been automatically accepted by the (UN) Identification Commission, if they had not been compelled to leave the territory due to their struggle against colonialism."

On the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly, Benaissa attended a dinner banquet hosted by Kofi Annan in honor of heads of delegations. During the dinner, Benaissa held talks with US President Bill Clinton, US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, Mexican President, Ernesto Zedillo and French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin.

Benaissa already conferred in New York with Presidents Carlos Menem of Argentina, Sam Njuma of Namibia and Frederik Chiluba of Zambia as well as with Kofi Annan and U.N. General Assembly Chairman, Theo Ben Gurirab.

He also met with foreign affairs ministers of several countries, attending the assembly's works.