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| Africa North | |
| Western Sahara: Game Of Diplomacy Between Algeria, Morocco | |
| 2010-12-17 | |
It seems to go through long periods of oblivion, after which the issue suddenly resurfaces, perhaps after an incident, a declaration or an analysis. In the past weeks, for example, several Spanish newspapers wrote that at this moment Algeria and Morocco are involved in a no-holds-barred conflict. This hypothesis was immediately confirmed indirectly by the arrest of a former member of the Polisario Front: as soon as he wanted to distance himself from what he sees as intransigence of the movement, he was arrested and charged of spying (or rather of having contacts with the enemy, Morocco in this case). The person in question is Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, a former high security official for Polisario and member of a family of Saharawi nobility. A few months ago he chose a different path than the movement, looking for a platform to open a dialogue with Morocco. He was immediately banished by the Polisario leadership, which had Mouloud arrested when he returned in Algeria (where the camps of the Sahrawi people are located in Tindouf). Mouloud has repeated several times over the past weeks that he fears for his life and the life of his relatives due to the threats that have been made, according to Mouloud, by Polisario leaders. But he has stated his intentions to return to Tindouf, to ''free my people from the slavery of the Polisario Front''. These words have probably paved the way for his arrest. Mouloud wanted to explain to the Sahrawi people that the autonomy plan that Morocco proposed to the UN in 2007 could be the solution for the Western Sahara issue, or at least a solid basis on which to make a start with the stabilisation of the region, which seems unlikely today. The Western Sahara - as large as Italy and currently inhabited by around 400 thousand people - is governed by Morocco since the end of the Spanish colonisation. Morocco in fact considers the area as part of its territory. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was instituted in 1976, which for 15 years has fought an armed battle against the Moroccan presence. Several thousands of Sahrawi have been forced into Algerian territory, in the camps of Tindouf, by victories of the Moroccan armed forces. The Moroccan plan, which includes far-reaching autonomy of the Sahrawi people, but no real independence, has not even been taken into consideration by the Polisario Front, which insists on self-determination with a referendum that should have been held around twenty years ago, but never was. A war of statements and announcements is in progress between Morocco on one side, and Algeria and Polisario on the other. There is no space for optimism, also because there seems to be insufficient international consensus on yet another UN attempt to reach a solution through negotiations. These problems are confirmed by the exhausting negotiations that have been held in the city of Manhasset (close to New York), between representatives of Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania in the search for an agreement, which turned out to be impossible to reach. Shifting its focus from the Green March (which was an initiative in November 1975 of King Hassan in which 350 thousand Moroccans entered the Western Sahara, which would soon after be abandoned by Spain), Morocco has chosen the path of diplomacy and political pressure. But Rabat's determination to deny self-determination to the Western Sahara and the Polisario's choice to refuse any compromises to real independence have created a potentially devastating explosive mixture, and not only from a political point of view. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 I've been following this situation on-and-off for years, and I've come to this conclusion: this UN sucks even more than we can ever imagine. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2010-12-17 14:43 |