ALGIERS (AFP) — The UN envoy for the disputed Western Sahara arrived Saturday in Algeria, where he is set to hold talks with members of the Polisario Front, a leader of that independence movement said.
Christopher Ross was scheduled to meet with a Sahrawi delegation responsible for negotiating with Morocco over Western Sahara, Habibouallah Mohamed told AFP.
The envoy arrived in Tindouf in the southwestern Algerian desert where, according to the Polisario Front, some 165,000 Sahrawi refugees have been displaced for more than 30 years.
Ross held talks Friday in Rabat with Moroccan King Mohammed VI in a bid to sound out the possibility of new talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which has Algerian support.
The independence movement has disputed Morocco's claim to the territory since Rabat annexed it after former colonial power Spain withdrew in the mid-1970s.
"We are going to tell Mr Ross that it is time to organise a referendum on self-determination to give the Sahrawi people a voice in deciding whether to choose independence or integration with Morocco," said Mohamed Khedad, another representative of the Polisario Front.
Following his Tindouf visit, Ross was scheduled to travel to Algiers, Madrid and Paris, UN officials had said.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
