Western Sahara conflict

[Al-khiyal]

A high-ranking Moroccan government delegation arrived in New York on Friday (June 15th), to attend the first round of negotiations on Western Sahara with the Polisario Front and representatives of neighbouring Algeria and Mauritania, the Moroccan government said in a press release. The negations are due to be held June 18th and 19th in Manhasset on the outskirts of New York. The delegation is reported to include Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, Deputy Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri, chairman of the Royal Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) Khalihenna Ould Errachid, chief of Morocco's intelligence agency (DGED) Mohamed Yassine Mansouri, and Morocco's Ambassador to the UN, Mostafa Sahel. The talks will be held "at the invitation of the UN Secretary-General and in accordance with resolution 1754 of the Security Council," the press release said.

Sahrawi foreign minister Mohamed Salem Ould Salek said that the Polisario is going to the talks "in good faith and without any preconditions", but that the Front had appealed to the UN to ensure that Morocco "respects the objectives" of the negotiations.

Moroccan and Sahrawi delegations prepare for talks in New York

[Al-khiyal]

June 17, 2007 -- Resolving the long-running dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front over Western Sahara will undoubtedly require a fresh approach but only the most incurable optimist could believe that a lasting peace will come out of talks mediated by the United Nations (UN) set to begin tomorrow in Manhasset, New York.

As the proposals submitted by each side to the UN Security Council in April suggest, both parties remain far apart on the essential question of self-determination for the Moroccan-held territory’s Sahrawi people. Morocco, a country where even the central government serves as little more than a rubber stamp for the king’s edicts, is willing to grant regional autonomy while retaining its claims to sovereignty and the Polisario demands a referendum on independence. It is difficult to see how positions that have shifted little over the past three decades will suddenly merge into a consensus through talks.

After the fighting of the 1970s and 1980s, the UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991 and set up a mission to organize a vote on self-determination within six months. Sixteen years and 35 mandate renewals later, there is still no sign of a referendum Morocco now dismisses as an obsolete notion. Like his predecessor, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon sees direct negotiations with no preconditions as the best hope for a mutually acceptable solution but such efforts have proven fruitless in the past. Barring a miracle in Manhasset, it is time to start thinking outside the same tired framework.

But imposing a solution would risk replacing the undesirable status quo — a garrisoned sand wall of more than 2,000 kilometres divides the Moroccan-controlled area from Polisario-held land, tens of thousands of refugees continue to dwell in camps in the Algerian desert, minefields on both sides of the wall impede the Sahrawis’ traditionally nomadic way of life and the parties accuse each other of human rights abuses — with something even more dangerous. Rather, as the former colonial power in Western Sahara for almost a century, Spain must finally make some sacrifices to end a conflict it helped create.

Earlier this year, Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos recognized in an El País opinion piece that his country bore some responsibility for the Western Saharan dispute. Indeed, it set the stage for the current conflict by ceding what had been Spanish Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania mere days after the International Court of Justice had ruled against both countries’ claims of sovereignty over the territory. Still, he wrote, Spain does not hold the key to resolving the dispute.

But that is not necessarily true. While the UN struggles to find a win-win solution to what it considers a question of decolonization, the fact of the matter is Morocco has much to lose and little to gain from a referendum that threatens its hold over a Colorado-sized territory rich in phosphates, fishing and possibly oil. Spain, however, has something Morocco wants.

Proponents of Sahrawi independence call Western Sahara "Africa’s last colony", apparently oblivious to the two Spanish enclaves — Ceuta and Melilla — which interrupt Morocco’s Mediterranean coastline. Spain argues the two towns are an integral part of the country, echoing Morocco’s position on Western Sahara or, until 1962, France’s on Algeria. It is the colonizer’s mantra but the time of European possessions in Africa is over and the fact that Spanish occupation of the two ports has lasted five centuries is not reason enough to justify its continuation.

By offering to relinquish its last toeholds on the continent in exchange for Morocco’s willingness to allow a referendum under conditions acceptable to the Polisario, Spain could help clean up the mess it left behind in 1976.

Such a step would provide Morocco with a face-saving way out of the impasse and offer the prospect of reducing military expenditures it can ill afford. Having resolved one of the key issues poisoning relations with neighbouring Algeria, it might then be able to reorient the tens of thousands of troops currently mobilized at double pay in Western Sahara towards more constructive purposes in a country where widespread poverty fuels rising fears of terrorism.

The Polisario would get the referendum it has always wanted and if the vote went its way, the movement has said an independent Sahrawi state would cooperate with Morocco to foster security and rein in illegal trafficking in the region.

Spain would be unloading territories which were at the centre of the illegal migrants crisis in 2005 and are a potential security threat if one gives weight to Internet calls for jihad and the Spanish military’s recent refusal to renew the postings of a handful of Muslim soldiers in the enclaves.

Most importantly, the international community would benefit from sending a clear message that peaceful negotiations can deliver results. It is difficult to imagine how the imposition of a solution — whether it be a referendum without benefits for the Moroccans or a false autonomy for the Sahrawis — can lead to anything but increased instability in a volatile region. And that is something the world can ill afford.

Thinking outside the box in Western Sahara

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, June 18 (Reuters) - A bid to relaunch Western Saharan peace efforts this week will fail if Morocco insists its "colonial" plan offering only autonomy be the starting point for talks, the Polisario Front independence movement said on Monday.

Mohammed Khadad, a Polisario negotiator, called instead for a referendum on self-determination among Sahrawis themselves, with independence as an option.

"We do not ask the impossible. We ask only that the people are consulted on their future," he told Algerian state radio.

Moroccan and Polisario officials begin two days of talks later on Monday at a private estate near New York to try to end a 32-year-old dispute over the phosphate-rich territory on the northwest coast of Africa.

Claiming centuries-old rights, Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony after Madrid pulled out in 1975, a move which Polisario was formed to fight until 1991 when the United Nations brokered an end to a low-level guerrilla war.

The ceasefire accord promised a referendum on the territory's fate, but it never happened and Rabat now rules it out, saying autonomy is the most it will offer.

Morocco published a plan in April for the territory of 260,000 people, but it provided only for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, with key levers of power held by Rabat.

"They condemn these negotiations to failure in advance if they insist on this project as the starting point," said Khadad.

"The Moroccan plan can be summed up as legalising the accomplished fact of a colonial Moroccan occupation that we reject. There's nothing in that to negotiate."

The Western Sahara dispute is also the main cause of friction between Morocco and Algeria, whose land borders, closed in 1994 amid security tensions, remain shut.

Algeria, which supports Polisario's call for a resolution on the basis of self-determination, has been in competition with Morocco for influence in the Maghreb and beyond for years.

The talks are being held as a result of a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls upon Morocco and Polisario to negotiate a solution providing for self-determination.

Khadad said self-determination could only happen under international law though the mechanism of a referendum.

"Self-determination belongs to the people. No one can make a concession on this question because it belongs to the people to decide," he said, adding the plan imposed Rabat's sovereignty.

"The passage of three decades has shown that a unilateral, imposed solution cannot succeed," he said.

Moroccan "repression" in the territory called into question its good faith in the run-up to the talks, Khadad said.

Rights campaigners in Morocco have said that Moroccan police have beaten and imprisoned dozens of independence activists demonstrating on university campuses in recent weeks.

The government has denied that police used excessive force to break up the demonstrations, saying they had intervened each time to separate rival gangs of students.

Polisario attacks Moroccan Western Sahara plan before talks

[Al-khiyal]

Morocco and the Polisario independence movement have begun UN-sponsored direct talks in an attempt to settle their 32-year-old dispute over Western Sahara.

Officials from the two sides, neighbouring Algeria, where the Polisario Front is based, and Mauritania will hold two days of discussions at a private estate near New York.

"We are going there with great optimism and with a strong willingness to definitively turn the page," Nabil Benabdellah, Moroccan government spokesman, said ahead of the talks.

The Polisario last year rejected a Morrocan proposal which offered a referendum on autonomy under its sovereignty.

"The fate of Western Sahara belongs to the Sahrawi people," Mohamed Abdelaziz, the Polisario chief said on Friday in an interview with Al Jazeera.

"We are not opposed to having the Moroccan proposal presented to the Sahrawi people within the framework of a UN-supervised free and democratic referendum."

But he made it clear that the Moroccan plan must be presented alongside "other options, including full independence or incorporation in the Moroccan kingdom."

The UN has also invited representatives of the so-called Group of Friends of Western Sahara - France, Britain, Spain, the United States and Russia, but they will not take part in the direct talks.

Despite being portrayed as the best chance so far to reach a political solution, most diplomats and analysts said they could still see no way around the fundamental problem of whether or not Sahara is to become fully independent.

"Optimism may eventually be vindicated, but is likely to prove premature, since the underlying dynamics of the conflict have not changed," the International Crisis Group think tank said in a report.

An Arab diplomat said that just getting the two sides to sit down together was an achievement.

"It's very hard for them to talk to each other after many years without any contact," he said. "You need to build a lot of things before you get into substance. If you just have lunch, that's an achievement."

Morocco annexed the phosphate-rich northwest African territory after the withdrawal of the region's former colonial power Spain and neighbouring Mauritania in the 1970s, settling it with around 300,000 Moroccans in 1975.

The guerrilla war that followed was only ended after a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.

Talks open on Western Sahara

[Al-khiyal]

June 19, 2007 -- Morocco and Western Sahara's Polisario have reportedly wrapped up direct talks on their 32-year-old dispute with no sign of a breakthrough.

The UN-sponsored talks were hosted by UN chief Ban Ki-moon's envoy for Western Sahara Peter Van Walsum.

Representatives from the Polisario and Morocco first met with counterparts from neighboring Algeria and Mauritania before holding face-to-face negotiations in the afternoon, diplomats said.

"Each side made its presentation based on proposals earlier presented to the UN Security Council and the UN secretary general," Polisario's UN representative Ahmed Bujari told AFP.

"There were no tangible results," he added, accusing the Moroccan side of sticking to their "intransigent position" on autonomy.

"The only proposal they are willing to entertain is a referendum on autonomy, which in their view means that the territory is Moroccan," Bujari said.

The Polisario said it was prepared to have the Moroccan autonomy proposal tested in a "UN-supervised free and democratic referendum" alongside other options such as independence or incorporation with the Moroccan kingdom.

Rabat is proposing an autonomy referendum that envisages giving Sahrawis "control over their affairs through legislative, executive and judicial institutions" under Moroccan sovereignty, and calls for "negotiations for a political solution acceptable to all parties."

It also wants Algeria, the main backer of the Polisario, included in any settlement deal.

However, Polisario rejects the Moroccan referendum proposal and instead demands respect of "the right of the (local) people for self-determination."

No progress in Morocco-Polisario talks

[Al-khiyal]

UNITED NATIONS, June 19, 2007 (AFP) - Morocco and the Polisario independence movement on Tuesday ended two days of inconclusive talks near New York on their 32-year-old dispute over the Western Sahara but agreed to meet again in August.

The direct talks, the first in at least seven years, were hosted by Peter Van Walsum, UN chief Ban Ki-moon's envoy for Western Sahara, at the secluded Greentree estate in Manhasset, New York.

"The parties have agreed that the process of negotiations will continue in Manhasset in the second week of August 2007," said a terse communique issued by Van Walsum.

But there was no breakthrough and Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, who led Rabat's delegation, later voiced regret at a press conference that the Polisario had yet to make concessions to respond to Rabat's autonomy proposal.

Another member of the Moroccan delegation, Khelli Hanna Ould Errachid, president of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs, noted that the Security Council has asked the two parties "to make an effort to break the impasse" since the failure of previous UN attempts to organize an independence referendum in the territory.

"We all of us realize today that there is a need for compromise and for renunciation of extremist positions and demands," he said. "Morocco has given up total integration (of Western Sahara) and we expect the other party to give up full independence."

"What we need is concessions, patience, dialogue and renunciation of dogmatism," Errachid added. "Morocco has demonstrated good faith and we hope the other party will as well."

In a statement, Mahfoud Ali Beiba, the Polisario's number-two, who headed the front's delegation, said the talks "have confirmed that to achieve a mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara ... there is a need for perseverance, patience and creativity."

He voiced hope that "the international community and the United Nations continue to assume fully their responsibilities regarding the completion of the decolonization process of Western Sahara."

And he called on "our Moroccan brothers to face up to history together with us by seizing on this historic window of opportunity that has opened for us."

"We are talking about very difficult negotiations," UN spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters earlier. "It's the beginning of a long process."

Ban is to submit a report to the UN Security Council on the outcome of the talks by June 30.

The Manhasset gathering was arranged after the Security Council on April 30 urged Morocco and the Polisario to launch direct, UN-sponsored talks without preconditions for self-determination in Western Sahara.

Rabat annexed the northwest African territory on the Atlantic coast after the withdrawal of former colonial ruler Spain and neighbor Mauritania in the 1970s, settling it with around 300,000 Moroccans in 1975.

After 16 years of war, a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario was declared in 1991. But Rabat repeatedly pushed back a promised self-determination referendum and since 2002 has insisted such a plebiscite is not necessary.

Last April, Morocco proposed an autonomy referendum that envisages giving Sahrawis "control over their affairs through legislative, executive and judicial institutions" under Moroccan sovereignty and calls for "negotiations for a political solution acceptable to all parties."

And Rabat insists that Algeria, the main backer of the Polisario, be involved in any settlement.

Polisario meanwhile rejects the latest Moroccan referendum proposal and instead demanded respect of "the right of the (local) people for self-determination."

Representatives of neighboring Algeria and Mauritania attended the opening and closing sessions in Manhasset and consulted separately, Van Walsum said in his statement.

"There were no tangible results," Polisario's UN representative Ahmed Bujari told AFP earlier Tuesday, accusing the Moroccan side of sticking to their "intransigent position" on autonomy.

"The only proposal they are willing to entertain is a referendum on autonomy, which in their view means that the territory is Moroccan," Bujari said.

"We believe that the territory has never been Moroccan, is not Moroccan and will never be Moroccan," he added.

The Polisario said it was prepared to have the Moroccan autonomy proposal tested in a "UN-supervised free and democratic referendum" alongside other options such as independence or incorporation with the Moroccan kingdom.

[Al-khiyal]

Sahara talks stay alive, more planned in August