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Morocco will ask people on W Sahara autonomy plan
EL AYOUN, Western Sahara - Morocco will consult the people of Western Sahara on the plan to give the territory greater autonomy which it is to submit to the United Nations soon, Communications Minister Nabil Benabdellah said on Wednesday.Rabat, which annexed the largely desert but phosphate-rich territory after colonial rulers Spain pulled out in 1975, is proposing wider autonomy but rejects UN demands for self-determination by a referendum. On the other side is the Polisario Front, which fought a guerrilla war for the territory until a 1991 ceasefire and expects that a referendum will back its declaration of an independent state 30 years ago. The process of consultation begun on March 11 with Moroccos political parties will be widened to the Sahrawi people, notably through the Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs, Benabdellah, the government spokesman, told AFP. He was speaking during a visit by Moroccos King Mohammed VI to El Ayoun, the territorys main city. Benabdellah said Moroccos offer was final and Rabat could not improve on it. The great powers support the idea of a political solution, he said, calling on dialogue to end the conflict for good. But he said that Rabats submission of its autonomy plan to the United Nations, originally scheduled for next month, could be delayed for several weeks. The political parties must hand their responses to the king by March 31, then we must draw up an analysis, he said. The main thing is that Morocco is committed to make proposals on autonomy, and will do it as soon as possible after the end of the consultations. The UN-sponsored ceasefire in 1991 was supposed to have been followed by a referendum on self-determination, but Rabat failed to comply, initially raising objections over who was entitled to vote. It has since dismissed UN proposals that the referendum followed a five-year period of autonomy for the 266,000 square kilometres (90,000 square miles) of desert flatlands on Africas northwestern coast. Posted by: Steve White 2006-03-23 |
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