September 28, 2000
Talks between representatives of Morocco and the Polisario Front in Berlin have failed to end the deadlock over the disputed Western Sahara.
The talks, chaired by the United Nations special envoy, James Baker, were the latest effort to resolve issues preventing a referendum on whether the territory should be independent or remain part of Morocco.
Sources said that Morocco has, for the first time, indicated that it might be willing to discuss an alternative to the referendum if this did not involve abandoning sovereignty.
Polisario, however, is opposed to any solution other than the referendum.
Outside the talks forum there has been broad discussion of an option in which the Sahrawi people would get limited autonomy while Morocco retained sovereignty. The parties are expected to meet again before the end of October.
Morocco annexed the territory in 1976 after Spain withdrew, prompting the Polisario Front to launch a fifteen-year guerrilla war for independence.
