Little possibility of holding referendum in Sahara before 2002, UN secretary general

There is little possibility of holding the referendum in the Sahara before 2002 or even later, said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

In a report to the Security Council released on Tuesday, Kofi Annan said problems posed by the current number of appeals and the opposing positions taken by the parties on the issue of admissibility, means that there is little possibility of holding the referendum before 2002 or even later.

In his report, Annan recommended extending the mandate of the MINURSO (French acronym for U.N mission for the organization of a referendum in the Sahara) for two months and a half, i.e from December 14 to February 29, 2000. The extension, he said, would allow time for completing the identification of eligible voters, issuing the second provisional voter list and initiating appeals from the "contested tribes" of voters.

Although he expects the voter identification process to be completed by the end of this month, the Secretary-General said the MINURSO might be faced with a lengthy process if it were to consider the appeals of tens of thousands of applicants.

The referendum, which will give the people of the Sahara-- a Moroccan southern territory that was formerly under Spanish rule and that was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords-- a choice between independence or integration with Morocco, has been repeatedly delayed.

The secretary general said he had instructed his special representative, William Eagleton, to continue his consultations with both sides to reconcile their "widely divergent" views on the appeals process, the repatriation of refugees and other crucial aspects of the UN settlement plan in the Sahara.