Washington Report On Middle East Affairs – October 2018

tor” in international negotiations involving

Western Sahara. On the other hand, Polis-

ario’s delegate to the EU, Mohammed Si-

dati, accused the European Commission of

“encouraging Moroccan occupation” of the

non-self-governing territory. “It is clear these

accords were made without the consent of

the Sahrawi people,” Polisario’s represen-

tative declared, urging the European Parlia-

ment not to endorse the fishing and agricul-

tural agreements, “clearly biased in Mo-

rocco’s favor.”

Then the African Union, which recog-

nized Polisario’s government–in-exile early

on, devoted a special session to the West-

ern Sahara problem last July, at its annual

summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania. While

both parties were present on an equal

footing, no progress was made on the re-

sumption of negotiations. The meeting

concluded with the Africans throwing their

support behind the United Nations’ efforts

to organize a referendum for “a mutually

accepted solution based on self-determi-

nation for the Saharan people.’’

Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser

Bourita, who headed his country’s delega-

tion to the Nouakchott talks, expressed sat-

isfaction that the Africans were not prepared

to launch a new initiative over the Western

Sahara and that the dossier remained with

the United Nations. In a rare moment of

agreement, Polisario sources welcomed the

conclusion that the African Union was united

behind the U.N. peace process.

Meanwhile, the U.N.’s new special

envoy to Western Sahara, former German

President Horst Kohler, made a tour of the

area to see the reality on the ground and

discuss with the parties concerned “how to

move the political process forward.” Be-

sides meeting with Moroccan and Polis-

ario representatives, Kohler talked to pro-

Moroccan Saharan tribal leaders and par-

liamentarians at Laayoune, and Saharan

refugees in the Tindouf camps. The diplo-

mat also visited leaders of neighboring

Mauritania and Algeria, and on Aug. 8

submitted his plan to relaunch the Sahara

peace talks to the U.N. Security Council.

In fact, there are today three very differ-

ent Western Saharas. What I call Western

Sahara proper faces the Atlantic and com-

prises the bulk of the former Spanish

colonies of Sakiat el Hamra in the north and

Rio de Oro running south to Mauritania,

bound on the east by Morocco’s Defensive

Wall built in 1980. The second Sahara is a

sliver of land extending from the wall to the

Algerian border, which the U.N. describes

as a buffer zone and Polisario calls the Lib-

erated Zone. Finally, there are the Saharan

refugee camps near Tindouf in southwest-

ern Algeria, each of the five named for a

town in Western Sahara proper.

CHANGES WROUGHT BY TIME

The desert territory has seen other

changes over time. The former colonial

outposts of Laayoune and Dakhla in West-

ern Sahara proper are barely recogniz-

able. Morocco has made substantial in-

vestments in Saharan mining and ports

and in the development of the urban

areas. In his last Throne Speech on July

29, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI an-

nounced a new urbanization scheme for

Laayoune, including the construction of

roads, a slaughterhouse, fish market and

auditorium. At the same time, the Moroc-

can press reported plans by an American

firm for major investment in a Wind Park

project at Dakhla next year.

For its part, Polisario has plans to relo-

cate its administration to the so-called Lib-

erated Zone, which has stirred strong

protests from Rabat. During U.N. envoy

Kohler’s visit to the area, Polisario orga-

nized military maneuvers at Tifariti in the

buffer zone “to celebrate 45 years of

armed struggle.” Morocco denounced this

incident as “an act of provocation.” The

U.N. Security Council also issued a sharp

rebuke that any civil or military activities in

the buffer zone would be considered a vi-

olation of the cease-fire agreement. How-

ever, a senior Polisario official recently told

the Washington Reportthat the president

of the Sahrawi Arab Republic still planned

to move to Bir Lahlou, along with some

30,000 Saharan refugees.

As for the Saharan camps, basic needs

in food and health care are provided mainly

by the EU, the U.N. and many Saharan sol-

idarity associations worldwide. The refugee

families themselves have wrought visible

changes to their living conditions. Algerian

journalists, who regularly cover the Tindouf

region, say the vast tent cities have been

reduced as the inhabitants have built mod-

est mud brick, even cement, structures, and

acquired electricity and water through pipes

and plastic containers.

The main change on the ground, how-

ever, is the population explosion. When

Spain pulled out of its Saharan colonies in

1975, the number of inhabitants was offi-

cially said to be about 75,000. Today the

population of Moroccan-controlled Western

Sahara stands at 568,675, according to the

World Population Review. Polisario, citing

U.N. sources, says another 173,000 Saha-

rans live in the camps around Tindouf.

What no one can say for sure is what pro-

portion of the soaring Saharan population is

made of Moroccan immigrants, Algerians or

nomads. Nor is there any certitude as to

how present-day Saharans would vote in a

self-determination referendum. While for-

eign journalists reported at the outset that

the large majority of Saharans favored inde-

pendence, positions on both sides have

hardened. Morocco, which once accepted

the principle of self-determination, has re-

verted to its original stance that no solution

can jeopardize Moroccan sovereignty over

the area. And the Polisario Front, which has

firmly supported the U.N. proposal for a self-

determination referendum, now considers

occupying the buffer zone.

“Rabat claims the majority of Sahrawis

favor autonomy under Moroccan sover-

eignty and yet they cannot accept the U.N.

referendum for self-determination,” Abdelka-

der Taleb Omar, Polisario’s ambassador to

Algeria, told the Washington Report in a re-

cent interview. “Whereas we accept the

U.N.’s proposal for direct negotiations, with-

out pre-conditions, which respect the rights

of the Saharans to self-determination.”

Ambassador Taleb Omar, former Polis-

ario prime minister, acknowledged that

four decades of stalemate have taken their

toll. Asked about recent reports regarding

high-level defections from Polisario’s

ranks, like that of the former security chief

from the Tindouf area, the ambassador

conceded there have been a dozen promi-

50 WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2018

Continued on p. 53

howe_49-50.qxp_Special Report 8/30/18 5:46 PM Page 50