Polisario stalling tactics could cause referendum delay, minister

In view of the difficulties sown by the Polisario, the referendum in the Sahara can be delayed by two or three more years, the Moroccan interior minister Driss Basri said.

Driss Basri, who was part of a ministerial delegation that visited the southern provinces, renewed Morocco's attachment to the holding of a referendum with the participation of all people of Sahrawi decent.

The United Nations, which supervises the referendum process, had said that the consultation will be held in July, 2000 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.

At a meeting with the southern provinces' local elected representatives, shioukhs and civil society activists, Basri talked about what he termed the fallacies circulated by the enemies of Morocco's territorial integrity. He underlined that Morocco will remain vigilant to the plots woven by the foes.

The ministerial delegation highlighted the solicitude king Mohammed VI grants to the southern provinces. They also stressed the centuries-old bonds of allegiance binding the Saharan tribes to the Moroccan kings. "The Moroccan identity of the Sahara draws its essence from the allegiance that is stronger than any referendum," the endowments and Islamic affairs minister, Abdelkebir Alaoui M'daghri, said at the meeting.

"Nobody can doubt our union, cohesion and our mobilization behind H.M King Mohammed VI," he said, adding that, "With or without the referendum, the Sahara is and will always be Moroccan territory."