POLITICS:
Western Sahara Awaits End to 30 Years of Limbo
Ellen Massey
WASHINGTON, May 3 (IPS) - For the first time in seven years, Morocco and
the Western Sahara will engage in direct talks over a 30-year-old
territorial dispute, but the two sides come to the negotiating table with
very different plans for the region's future.
On Monday, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that calls on
Morocco and Western Sahara to initiate peace talks. While the government
in Rabat and the Polisario Front, the Western Sahara independence movement
based in Algeria, have expressed their willingness to talk, the room for
concessions on either side remains uncertain.
Last month, both Morocco and the Polisario submitted proposals to the U.N.
regarding the future of Western Sahara, but analysts say the plans offer
little that is new. Rabat recommends a degree of autonomy for the
Sahrawis, but subject to Morocco's sovereignty, and the Polisario's
proposal calls for a referendum that would allow the people of Western
Sahara to vote on their own future - the same demand they have been
making since a ceasefire ended the war between the two sides in 1991.
Morocco has turned down previous chances to end the stalemate with the
former Spanish colony, such as in 2003 when former U.S. Secretary of State
James Baker proposed a resolution to the crisis after working with both
parties for six years. The Baker plan involved a trial autonomy period
followed by a referendum in which the Sahrawis would be able to vote on
their final status.
The Polisario accepted the plan but Morocco rejected it. The Sawharis are
showing little flexibility in their conditions as well. Following the
Security Council's vote on Monday, Ahmed Boukhari, the Polisario
representative to the U.N., said the talks were doomed if the Moroccan
government doesn't consider a referendum on independence.
But there is pressure within the Security Council and without to find a
solution to this impasse. Reaching its 16th year and with costs stretching
to 600 million dollars, the U.N. mission to Western Sahara is reaching the
end of its legitimacy. The mission has been extended innumerable times,
always failing to achieve a referendum. This time it was extended by
another 60 days.
The dispute between Western Sahara and Morocco has festered for the past
30 years but now, as the U.S. competes for allies in its "war on terror",
the focus has returned to this small Arab country seeking democratic
self-determination.
United Nations and U.S. government officials have called the proposed
peace talks a window of opportunity. Washington's policy has been to
discreetly support autonomy since 1997 when Baker was assigned to work on
the conflict, but recently this support has become more vocal. On Apr. 10,
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns released a memo praising the
"Western Sahara Initiative", Morocco's plan, as "a serious and credible
proposal and that would lead to real autonomy for the Western Sahara."
The U.S. government's sudden attention to Western Sahara, a dry stretch of
desert located between Morocco, a strategic U.S. ally, and Algeria, an
important potential ally, hasn't gone unnoticed. "I think this is
diplomacy on the cheap. The government has put very little into this and I
think it's suspect that the U.S. is meddling in it now," Clayton Swisher,
programmes director at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told
IPS.
The U.S. House of Representatives has waded into the issue as well. Last
week, 180 members sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to
support Morocco's plan and stating that "we are concerned that the failure
to resolve this conflict of more than 30 years poses a danger to U.S. and
regional security." Forty-five members signed a letter supporting the
Polisario's call for a referendum.
There has been broad - and at least, symbolic - support around the world
for Western Sahara's right to a referendum. Following Spain's withdrawal
from the former colony in 1975, the International Court of Justice upheld
the Sahrawis right to self-determination. Dozens of governments and
international bodies recognise the Polisario as an independent government,
including the African Union.
A peaceful resolution to this conflict could bring stability and
substantial economic benefits to the region, but the dispute over Western
Sahara stands in the way of security coordination between Algeria and
Morocco, without which these two players cannot realise the economic
benefits of a North African trade.
But the fate of Western Sahara is dependent on the international
community. Morocco has some 300,000 settlers in the territory and has
poured money into developing the land and natural resources despite the
uncertain status of the desert region's sovereignty. Morocco administers
and occupies much of the territory, including the capital city, Laayoune.
Meanwhile, more than 160,000 Sahrawis are living in desert refugee camps
in southern parts of the country and Algeria with few resources and a
bleak future.
Despite facing increasing political and economic marginalisation, the
Sahrawis' sense of nationalism has remained strong. Morocco is the last
colonial power on the African continent and, as Swisher pointed out,
historical examples of indigenous movements giving up their right to
choose their own future are rare. In the next 60 days, the United Nations
has the chance to broker a legitimate peace, or to continue the stalemate.
(END/2007)
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