MOROCCO has accepted a United Nations plan offering its territory Western Sahara wide autonomy as a basis for future negotiations, the country’s UN representative announced on state television on Saturday. “Our country, which does not adhere to all the propositions, has accepted the plan as a framework and basis for future negotiations in a constructive spirit for peace and economic prosperity,” Mohamed Bennouna said by telephone from New York. Bennouna said “the plan constitutes a compromise that satisfies the two parties. It guarantees Morocco’s sovereignty over the Saharan provinces and gives the inhabitants of these provinces a series of prerogatives in the economic and social domain,” he said. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in 1975. A UN-sponsored referendum on self-determination, originally planned for January 1992, has been repeatedly delayed because the two sides cannot agree on who should be eligible to vote. – AFP
Friday June 22, 2001