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Politics

Statu quo insostenible en el Sahara Occidental

Mar 10, 2021 Ana Palacio

MADRID – El 27 de febrero, el Frente Polisario (FP) conmemoró el 45.º aniversario de la República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (RASD), proclamada en 1976 como legítimo Gobierno del territorio del Sahara Occidental. Durante la celebración (que tuvo lugar en el campo de refugiados de Tinduf, en el desierto argelino, donde se encuentra la sede del gobierno de la RASD) el Polisario denunció la prolongación del punto muerto político respecto del territorio, cuya soberanía también reclama Marruecos. Es necesario salir de esta parálisis, y la Unión Europea debe ayudar a lograrlo.

Son múltiples los lazos entre la UE y el Sahara Occidental. Además de la proximidad geográfica, la región fue colonia española y tiene vínculos muy profundos (a menudo de índole personal) con España. Para los miles de españoles que verano tras verano han compartido sus hogares con jóvenes saharauis, la cuestión del Sahara Occidental es un asunto de familia con alto impacto emocional.

Tras la toma de control del territorio por parte de Marruecos, se produjo un desplazamiento masivo de saharauis, muchos de los cuales ahora languidecen en campamentos instalados en el desierto, obligados a depender de la ayuda humanitaria. Y su vulnerabilidad podría agravarse. El Sahara Occidental lleva décadas en el limbo, pero una sucesión de acontecimientos recientes ha conjurado el fantasma de una nueva ola de violencia, en la que los más perjudicados pueden ser los saharauis.

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Moha Ennaji Apr 6, 2021

The article is partially biased against the US-Morocco agreement, underlyingly stating that it is the conflict is an issue that can be resolved by the EU.
The Trump administration considers the Moroccan compromise of extended autonomy for the Sahara serious and credible and that it can constitute a solid basis for negotiations and permanent peace.
What is certain is that the accord will mark a major turning point for the region both politically and economically to the extent that the Biden administration will find it hard to change.
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j. von Hettlingen Mar 13, 2021

Ana Palacio demands the EU to take a “leading role” in resolving the decades-old dispute over Western Sahara, citing Europe’s “deep ties” to the region. Apart from “geographical proximity, Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony with deeply rooted and often personal ties to Spain.” The disputed territory in West Africa made headlines before Trump left office. As part of the Israel-Morocco deal, his administration agreed to recognise Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
The conflict began after Spain’s colonial withdrawal from the region in 1975, leaving Mauritania, Morocco and the Polisario Front in an entrenched conflict over its sovereignty. Western Sahara was forcibly occupied by Morocco, whose claims to the territory are largely unrecognised internationally, pitting Morocco against the Algerian-backed Polisario Front – the political arm of the Western Saharan independence movement, that seeks statehood in the region.
Western Sahara has been on the UN list of non-self-governing territories, a stance also taken by the African Union, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as the European Union. In 1975 the ICJ, while recognising Morocco and Mauritania’s historical ties to the area, filed an advisory opinion which stated those ties, which are central to Morocco’s sovereignty claim, did not amount to ownership over the territory. The Polisario Front, which represents the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from exile in Tindouf, Algeria, made peace with Mauritania in 1979.
Pockets of fighting with Morocco continued until 1991 when the two parties reached an agreement which called for a referendum to be held, while preserving the status quo, and the implementation of a UN-backed buffer zone. After the 1991 agreement, Morocco controlled the majority of Western Sahara, a vast swath of desert the size of Great Britain on the Atlantic coast. Among areas under Rabat’s control are the region’s phosphate deposits and its fishing waters.
To date, a referendum has not been held, due to some sticking points, especially since there have been attempts on both sides to shift the demographics in the area in a bid to influence such an outcome. The region is home to some 500,000 people, most of whom live in the capital, Laayoune. After 1975, Morocco resettled hundreds of thousands of its citizens in Western Sahara, making up at least two-thirds of its inhabitants.
Following several failed rounds of negotiations over the years, the Polisario Front has been trying to garner renewed international support to reopen talks for a referendum. But the UN has not yet appointed a special envoy for the region.
The US-Moroccan agreement last November sparked outrage. The Polisario Front called it a blatant violation of the UN Charter and the resolutions of international legitimacy, saying the move “obstructs efforts by the international community to find a solution to the conflict,” and will not change the reality of the conflict and the right of the Sahrawis to self-determination. The independence movement declared a resumption of hostilities with Morocco, ending a 29-year ceasefire.
Trump had always his eyes on Israeli interests . Peace is always a welcome prospect, but not at any price. His horse-trading on Israel’s behalf has been cynical, ingnoring UN resolutions and failing to consult Sahrawis, neighbouring Algeria, Mauritania, the African Union (AU), or the EU. Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, said Trump’s decision was “shocking and deeply disappointing.” Yet he defended him, saying “the president has been poorly advised by his team….He could have made this deal without trading the rights of a voiceless people.”
The author says, the US “is not alone in backing Morocco in the Western Sahara dispute: at the end of 2020, 18 Sub-Saharan and Gulf countries had opened, or expressed their intent to open, consulates in Western Sahara, implying a tacit recognition of Moroccan sovereignty.”
Yet the Polisario Front “also has plenty of supporters, including Germany, which criticized Trump’s action.” Berlin did not invite Morocco to a conference “aimed at addressing the conflict in Libya,” after Rabat suspended contact with the German embassy and German cultural organisations there.
The long-running dispute has been “muddied by conflicting public perceptions,” the author says. “While the Polisario have worked hard to shape international public opinion in their favor, Morocco has remained largely silent. This is not because Morocco is less committed to the cause. Rather, the country’s leaders have nothing to discuss: Western Sahara is part of their sovereign territory. End of story.“
Yet this silence has also allowed the Polisario to “pursue a wily policy of judicialization, using courts and legal mechanisms to shape answers to thorny moral and public-policy questions.”
While Biden, since taking office, has “publicly committed his administration to the relaunch of negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario. (He does not seem likely to reverse Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, as Europe had hoped.)”
The Polisario Front complains about the UN having not done “enough to deliver the referendum.” The question is how much the EU can do to help resolve the conflict. There seems not enough appetite at the UN Security Council to get its act together, because the region is of little geostrategic interest to the P5 veto powers.
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Statu quo insostenible en el Sahara Occidental

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