Loulichki takes over as ambassador-coordinator with MINURSO

Mohamed Loulichki took over as ambassador-coordinator with the MINURSO (French acronym for the U.N mission for the holding of a referendum in the Sahara) at a ceremony in Laayoune on Wednesday.

During the ceremony, a ministerial delegation which is visiting the southern Moroccan city of Laayoune at the instruction of King Mohammed VI, introduced Loulichki, who is replacing Mohamed Azmi.

The MINURSO has been deployed in the Sahara since the early nineties, part of a U.N settlement plan on the Sahara, to supervise a ceasefire in the territory. The UN mission is also preparing for a referendum that is to determine whether the Sahara --a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords-- sets up on its own, as claimed by the Polisario separatists, or remains part of Morocco.

After several delays, the referendum is now planned for July 2000.

During the ceremony that was attended by the special representative of the U.N secretary general for the Sahara, William Eagleton, the delegation members called for mobilization to guarantee to all sahrawis the right to participate in the projected referendum.

"We must all uphold this legitimate right so that each and every citizen from the southern provinces be able to have his say on the referendum day," said Minister of the Interior Driss Basri.

He renewed Morocco's attachment to the referendum process "in form and spirit."

Basri expressed on the occasion thanks to Eagleton and his aides for their efforts in the framework of the U.N settlement plan and recalled Morocco's crystal clear stand on the plan and its attachment to the referendum as a final choice.

Echoing him, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Mohamed Benaissa underlined the attachment of Morocco, its king, government and people, to the U.N settlement plan.

"We insist, in utter objectivity and clarity, on the organization of a free and fair referendum with the participation of all the sons of the Sahara. This choice cannot be subject to any concession," Benaissa said.

He recalled that Morocco has informed the United Nations and the U.N secretary general of this determination and called the world body to see that all the natives of the southern provinces be identified as would-be voters in the referendum.

Besides the ministers of the interior, and of foreign affairs and cooperation, the ministerial delegation includes the ministers of social development and employment, of transport, of higher education as well as the minister in charge of the government's general affairs.