Security Council extends MINURSOs mandate

By a 14-vote majority, with one abstention, the Security Council extended on Tuesday the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 29 February 2000. This will enable the completion of voter identification, the issuance of a second provisional voters' list, and time to begin appeal hearings from three ethnic groupings, the UN said. The appeals and the opposing positions taken by Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberacion de Saguia el-Hamra y de Rio de Ore (Frente Polisario) would likely delay the referendum beyond 2002, the UN said. A commission established to identify eligible voters has recognised 42,774 applicants. The UN says "a relatively small percentage" of these qualify. "If all those who may be found ineligible were to file an appeal, the total number of appeals to be processed could almost double," the UN said. The status of the three ethnic groups - identified by the UN as H41, H61 and J51/52 - has been contested because Morocco considers them to be Sahrawi while Polisario considers them Moroccan. In the referendum, first scheduled in 1992, voters will be asked to choose between independence for the former Spanish territory, a position supported by Polisario, or its political integration with Morocco. The logic of Polisario's position is that the ethnic groups, if registered as Sahrawi, would be eligible for the referendum and would vote for the territory's incorporation into Morocco. The 1998 Settlement Plan for the territory proposed by the UN and the Organisation of African Unity provides for a transitional period during which the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, helped by MINURSO, would be responsible for identifying and registering eligible voters.