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Further Reading

Western Sahara
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Frente Popular para la Liberación de
Saguía el-Hamra y de Río de Oro (Frente Polisario)

Western Sahara, a Territory on the north-west coast of Africa bordered by Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, was administered by Spain until 1976. The Western Sahara dispute broke out in 1975 when Morocco annexed the territory after Spain relinquished its colonial grip on the arid, but phosphate-rich parcel of land. The next 16 years were marked by a low-intensity war.

Since 1973 the Algeria-backed Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el-Hamra y de Río de Oro (Frente POLISARIO) has challenged the claims of Spain, Mauritania, and Morocco to the territory. Polisario is a Sahrawi liberation group seeking national self-determination in the Western Sahara. Polisario guerrillas constitute the military wing of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), a government-in-exile for what in 1987 was known as the Western Sahara. The main base for the SADR and Polisario was Tindouf, Algeria. Unresolved, the crisis leaves approximately 90,000 Sahrawi people languishing in refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria and the territory a potentially attractive safehaven for terrorist planning or activity. Sahrawis (as the persons native to the territory are called) lived in the area controlled by Morocco, as refugees in Algeria near the border with Morocco, and to a lesser extent, in Mauritania.

After Spain withdrew from the Spanish Sahara in 1975, Morocco and Mauritania mobilized forces, with Morocco occupying two-thirds of the territory. The Moroccans staged a "Green March," in which 300,000 of its citizens and troops marched with Qurans to reclaim Moroccan territory. This issue has become the single most defining aspect in Moroccan nationalism today. Morocco annexed the entire territory and in 1985 built a 2,500-kilometer sand berm around three-quarters of it. This Moroccan-constructed berm or sand wall encloses most of the territory. Morocco currently occupies 80 percent of Western Sahara.

While the peace has held in Western Sahara for more than a decade, there has been no real rapprochement between Morocco and Polisario. Successive Moroccan governments have used maintained that Western Sahara is an integral part of Moroccan national territory. Polisario has continued to lobby for self-determination for the Saharawi people.

The decision of the International Court of Justice, issued on October 16, 1975 regarding the conflict over Western Sahara, states the following, "The Court's conclusion is that the materials and information presented to it do not establish any tie of territorial sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity. Thus the Court has not found legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonization of Western Sahara, and in particular, of the principle of the self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the territory."

The Moroccan government sent troops and settlers into the northern two provinces of the territory after Spain withdrew in 1975 and extended its administration over the third after Mauritania renounced its claim in 1979. Moroccan and Polisario forces fought intermittently from 1975 until the 1991 ceasefire and deployment to the area of a UN peacekeeping contingent, the UN Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). Sahrawis, literally "people of the desert" in Arabic, live in the south of internationally recognized Morocco, in the area of the territory controlled by Morocco and, to a lesser extent in Mauritania. Some also live as refugees in Algeria near the border with Morocco. An approximately 2,000 kilometer stone and sand defensive wall constructed by Morocco in the late 1980s, known as the "berm," is the effective limit of Moroccan administrative control.

The United Nations has been seeking a settlement in Western Sahara since the withdrawal of Spain in 1976 and the ensuing fighting between Morocco, which had "reintegrated" the Territory, and the Frente POLISARIO, supported by Algeria. Mauritania renounced all claims to Western Sahara in 1979. In 1979, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) also became active in seeking a peaceful solution of the conflict.

In 1985, the United Nations Secretary-General, in cooperation with the OAU, initiated a mission of good offices leading to "the settlement proposals", which were accepted on 30 August 1988 by Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General was to have sole and exclusive responsibility over matters relating to the referendum and was to be assisted in his tasks by an integrated group of civilian, military and civilian police personnel, to be known as the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Morocco and the Polisario agreed to settle the dispute by referendum. However, disagreements over voter eligibility and which options for self-determination (integration, independence or something in between) should be on the ballot were not resolved, and a referendum never took place. Over the years, there have been several attempts to broker a solution.

In 1990, the Security Council approved the Secretary-General's report S/21360 containing the full text of the settlement proposals and the outline of the Secretary-General's Plan for implementing them. On 29 April 1991, the Security Council, in its resolution 690 (1991) , decided to establish the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in accordance with the Secretary-General's report S/22464 which further detailed the implementation plan.

The Plan provided for a transitional period during which the Special Representative of the Secretary-General would have sole and exclusive responsibility over all matters relating to a referendum in which the people of Western Sahara would choose between independence and integration with Morocco. The Special Representative would be assisted in his tasks by an integrated group of United Nations civilian, military and UN police personnel, to be known as MINURSO. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would carry out a repatriation programme for eligible Western Saharan voters living outside the Territory. The transitional period was to begin with the coming into effect of the ceasefire and end with the proclamation of the results of the referendum.

Since the deployment of MINURSO in September 1991, the ceasefire has generally held. The transitional period, however, has not begun, given the parties' divergent views on some key elements of the Plan, in particular with regard to the criteria for eligibility to vote. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the parties have repeatedly stated their commitment to implementing the Plan, and MINURSO has carried out its functions in so far as conditions have allowed. For his part, the Secretary-General and his Special Representatives have continued efforts to find compromise solutions acceptable to both parties. This process has required a number of revisions to the Plan and the timetable.

Over the years, the UN has proposed several draft peace plans, trying to find an acceptable model for a referendum, which have never gained the full support of the two sides. Meanwhile, the costs of the UN-backed peace have continued to pile up while resources run thin. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) provides a basic diet for 155,000 refugees living in desert camps near Tindouf in the south-western corner of Algeria. The 66.6 metric tons supplied costs US$ 14 million per year. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has helped with the repatriation of 1249 POWs since 1984. Some 514 Moroccan prisoners are still held by Polisario. After more than 20 years in detention, they are the world's longest serving prisoners of war.

Pressure was on for the two sides to accept a peace plan put forward by the UN special envoy to the Western Sahara, former US Secretary of State James Baker in 2003. That plan provided for a referendum to take place in four to five years time. The final vote would offer the inhabitants of the territory a choice between independence, autonomy within Morocco or complete integration with Morocco. The plan also proposed that, in the run-up to the referendum, an autonomous Western Sahara Authority be made responsible for running key parts of the administration, taking control of local government, taxation, economic development, internal security and other dossiers. But Morocco would retain control over foreign relations, national security, external defence and all matters relating to the production, sale, ownership and use of weapons during the interim period.

Polisario accepted the UN's Peace Plan for Self-Determination of the People of Western Sahara in July 2003. However, in April 2004 it was rejected by Morocco. United Nations Security Council Resolution No. 1541 adopted April 29, 2004, reaffirmed support for the Peace Plan for Self-Determination of the People of Western Sahara devised by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy, James Baker. Mr. Baker resigned as envoy in June 2004. As late as 2006 the Moroccan Government was saying that the Baker plan was dead and buried, but obviously Algeria and the Polisario were saying otherwise.

Confidence building measures taken by the Polisario Front included the release of a further 643 Moroccan POWs since July 2003; the number of POWs the Polisario had liberated since 1991 now totals 1,760. The Government of King Mohammed VI had not reciprocated in a commensurate way. In 2005 a US presidential mission to Algeria, Morocco, and then to Libya oversaw the release of the last 404 Moroccan prisoners of war held by the Polisario Front. This was the culmination of a great deal of creative United States diplomacy.

In 2007 the first face to face negotiations between representatives of the Moroccan government and the Polisario began under UN auspices, after Morocco offered a political solution based on autonomy for the territory within the Kingdom of Morocco, while the Polisario continued to insist on a potential referendum in which full independence would be an option. By year's end four rounds of talks had taken place in Manhasset, New York. On April 30, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1813, extending MINURSO until April 2009. The resolution also called on member states to consider voluntary contributions to the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) carried out under the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that allow increased contact between family members separated by the dispute. There were no further talks by year's end.

Since 1977 the inhabitants of the Western Saharan provinces of Laayoune, Smara, Awsard, and Boujdour (and Oued Ed-Dahab since 1983) have participated in Moroccan national and regional elections. In 2007 parliamentary elections, Sahrawis with pro-Morocco political views filled all the parliamentary seats allotted to the territory. No Sahrawis opposed to Moroccan sovereignty were candidates in the elections. According to government statistics, 37 percent of registered voters turned out for the election nationally, but 62 percent of registered voters in the territory voted. While the international mission that observed the September elections did not monitor voting in Western Sahara, domestic observers leveled accusations of corruption, principally vote buying, in some races. By January 2008 Morocco and the Frente Polisario were still far apart on how to provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, despite the two parties' commitment to a process of negotiations. The talks - attended also by Algeria and Mauritania as neighbouring countries - were limited largely to preliminary discussions on thematic subjects such as administration, competencies and organs, while the parties discussed but did not agree on any confidence-building measures.

The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) observed and recorded 11 new violations by the Royal Moroccan Army between April 2008 and April 2009, a slight decrease compared to the 14 recorded between April 2007 and April 2008, and 7 new violations by the Frente Polisario, a significant decrease compared to the 22 recorded during the same period in 2007-2008. Violations by the Royal Moroccan Army included the construction of living accommodations as well as other administrative buildings in the Mahbas and Oum Dreyga subsectors without authorization by MINURSO, and the continuation of building works after expiry of the authorized time period without request for an extension. The movement of a Royal Moroccan Army logistics convoy on 14 November 2008 and of troops and equipment on four separate occasions in January 2009 without prior notification of MINURSO also constituted violations of military agreement No. 1.

The Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguía el-Hamra y de Río de Oro (Frente Polisario) marked its thirty-fifth anniversary on 20 May 2008 and the thirty-third anniversary of the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 27 February 2009, holding public events on both occasions. On 22 January 2009, the Frente Polisario declared an exclusive economic zone for Western Sahara, which would extend 200 nautical miles from the coast of the Territory. Upon signing the declaration, the Secretary-General of the Frente Polisario, Mohamed Abdelaziz, said in a public statement that the declaration was based on the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination and to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, and he called on the European Union to suspend its 2005 fisheries agreement with Morocco.

According to the Polisario, in 2008 Morocco continued to withhold information on approximately 150 missing Polisario combatants and supporters whom the Polisario listed by name. Morocco formally denied that any Sahrawi former combatants remained in detention. During the year the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) continued to investigate such Polisario claims, as well as Moroccan claims that the Polisario had not fully divulged information on the whereabouts of 213 Moroccan citizens. The total number of unresolved cases of missing Algerian and Polisario soldiers in which Morocco was implicated decreased from 249 in 1994 to 58 at year's end. The world has seen some of the most dedicated negotiators abandon their efforts to find a solutionin frustration over lack of progress. Six hundred million dollars has been spent bythe UN Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO, in an attempt to hold the long promised referendum. Thousands of Saharawis have raised their children in desert camps outside of Tindouf in the western region of Algeria, far from their homes in Western Sahara. Thousands of Saharawis still have no information about their fathers, brothers, and spouses who fought in the liberation war against Morocco, and soldiers on both sides have terrible stories of the tragedy of war and its bitter aftermath.