Western Sahara is never front-page news, but it deserves more attention. Its political status is the subject of one of Africa’s longest territorial disputes, a puzzle of realpolitik and rule of law that has lasted 34 years. Morocco contends that it should have sovereignty over Western Sahara while granting the region some measure of political and cultural autonomy. The Polisario Front, the government-in-exile of Western Saharan ethnic groups, holds that the territory’s final status should be decided in a referendum, with the option of independence. The protracted lack of a solution has fostered terrorism, and resulted in human rights abuses and lost economic opportunities.
The U.N. quietly continues to take steps to break the political deadlock. At the end of June, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross, completed a visit to North Africa, with meetings in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and Spain. Last week, Moroccan and Polisario officials met in Austria to restart a fifth round of formal peace negotiations.
BACKGROUND
Western Sahara is arid and sparsely populated, lying between Morocco and Mauritania, with its northeast corner touching Algeria. The groups that live there, known collectively as the Sahrawis, number around half a million. Spain seized control of the area in the late Nineteenth Century. It ceased to be a Spanish protectorate in 1975, partly as a result of pressure from the then-newly created Polisario Front. Morocco and Mauritania claimed to have had pre-colonial sovereign rights to the territory, and Algeria supported the Polisario’s insistence on full independence. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined in its 1975 Advisory Opinion that neither country had sovereign rights and that the principle of self-determination, “the need to pay regard to the freely expressed will of the peoples,” applied to those living in the area.
Soon after, Morocco annexed about 75% of Western Sahara and raised a 2,500-kilometer berm, or sand wall, down the territory’s length. Guerilla conflict with the Polisario Front continued until 1991, when the U.N. brokered a ceasefire meant to allow for a referendum on independence. Disagreements over voter lists prevented the vote from taking place, and the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has monitored the ceasefire ever since. In 2003, the U.N. supported the “Baker Plan,” submitted by former U.N. Envoy James Baker, which recommended a period of autonomy followed by a referendum to include Moroccan settlers, but Morocco rejected the proposal.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), declared by the Polisario in 1976 and headquartered in a refugee camp in Algeria, has been recognized by several states, mostly African, which view the issue as the continent’s last conflict of decolonization. No country currently recognizes Morocco’s rule, though some have supported Moroccan sovereignty over the territory. Along with France, the previous Bush administration supported autonomy, asserting that “[a]n independent Sahrawi state is not a realistic option.” However, President Obama’s ambassador-designate to Morocco recently stated that he “will fully support the efforts of the U.N. Secretary General’s Personal Envoy to work with Morocco and other parties in the region toward a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution.”
In 2007 and 2008, the U.N. held several rounds of talks with Morocco and the Polisario Front in Manhasset, New York. With no substantial agreements reached, the parties agreed to continue negotiations. In April 2009, the Security Council called on the parties to reenter into negotiations “without preconditions in good faith.” In June, U.N. mediator Christopher Ross, an American career diplomat, held informal meetings in the region, and last week, officials from Morocco, the Polisario Front, Mauritania, and Algeria met in Austria for two days of talks hosted by the U.N. Ambassador Ross stated that “[t]he discussions took place in an atmosphere of serious engagement, frankness, and mutual respect,” and that he would soon arrange another round of talks.
The dispute has damaged relations between Morocco and Algeria, obstructing their cooperation in countering Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Hiding out in the Sahara desert, the group has historically focused on establishing a Muslim theocracy in Algeria, but counterterrorism experts warn of increasing collaboration with Al Qaeda on attacks worldwide. AQIM members have killed or kidnapped and ransomed European and North American tourists and diplomats in Tunisia, Niger, and Mauritania. Persons suspected of ties to AQIM have been arrested in several European countries, and one expert estimates that 9-25% of foreign fighters in Iraq come from North Africa. According to a report by the Council of Foreign Relations, “[t]he porous, unpoliced borders of the Sahara region make smuggling vehicles, cigarettes, drugs, and arms particularly easy.”
Complicating the issue are U.S. interests in maintaining Morocco’s support in U.S. efforts against international terrorism and in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While analysts find that the Polisario is not sympathetic to AQIM, one concern is that the territory’s borders would be less secure if the 100,000 Moroccan troops stationed there departed. Yet to discount Algeria’s loyalty to the Polisario would also hamper counterterrorism efforts, as would the appearance of sacrificing Sahrawi claims to self-determination for geopolitical expediency.
Western Sahara has reserves of phosphates, used in manufacturing fertilizer, and is thought to have significant amounts of offshore oil and gas. In 2001, Moroccan energy companies signed contracts to explore for oil off the Western Saharan coast. The Polisario reportedly also issued exploration licenses in 2006, which would come into force once the territorial dispute is resolved. In the same year, Morocco and the EU agreed to allow European ships to fish in disputed waters.
Tensions have also imposed human costs. The number of Sahrawi refugees residing in desolate camps in Tindouf Province, southern Algeria, ranges from 100,000 or over 150,000 people, effectively stateless. Some families have been separated for decades, though limited family visits have been arranged through the UN refugee agency. A generation has grown up in the camps, its frustrated members never having seen their homeland. Human Rights Watch has recounted that in the 1970s and 1980s, the Polisario subjected Moroccan prisoners of war to harsh treatment.
In the territory administered by Morocco, it is illegal to publicly call for independence or a referendum that would include that option. Human rights abuses, such as arbitrary arrest, detention, and torture, have arisen where individuals attempt to express such views. Complaints of police abuses are “routinely dismissed,” and landmines along the berm have also resulted in injury and death.
ANALYSIS
Western Sahara exemplifies how the longer a problem remains unresolved, the more it succumbs to inertia. Monitoring the conflict is “like watching paint dry,” according to one observer. Long periods of irresolution, in which other powers default to tolerating the status quo, feed perceptions of geopolitical insignificance. But in Western Sahara, festering tensions have provided opportunities for terrorists, blocked economic cooperation, and caused prolonged, large-scale suffering.
The question now is whether current peace efforts are a mirage, perfunctorily going through the motions of a U.N. mandate, or whether they reflect a meaningful opportunity to reach a solution. One expert asked, “given the irreconcilable nature of the positions that each side has brought to the table, what are the chances for these talks to bring about any results?”
Yet there is reason to wonder whether the prospect of continued deadlock has also grown stale, and whether the current round of discreet meetings might build enough confidence for compromise and common ground to emerge. Alternatively, there are concerns that weary frustration may trigger violence.
Ultimately, Western Sahara raises a structural question about how international disputes should be resolved. If a political solution is impossible and military options are untenable, then it is hard to see how a legal solution, drawing guidance either from the ICJ Advisory Opinion or binding arbitration, can credibly be rejected. The trouble with international laws (and political solutions) is that states and international institutions must be willing to enforce them. The Secretary General, Security Council, and national governments involved in this issue must be unified and aggressive in persuading Morocco and the Polisario to define self-determination for Western Sahara, and the procedures for attaining it, in a manner consistent with basic norms espoused by the international community.
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Katherine Southwick is the Africa Regional Editor for Foreign Policy Digest.
Africa's last colonySince 1975, three quarters of the Western Sahara territory has been illegally occupied by Morocco. The original population lives divided between those suffering human rights abuses under the Moroccan occupation and those living in exile in Algerian refugee camps. For more than 40 years, the Saharawi await the fulfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
Since 1975, three quarters of the Western Sahara territory has been illegally occupied by Morocco. The original population lives divided between those suffering human rights abuses under the Moroccan occupation and those living in exile in Algerian refugee camps. For more than 40 years, the Saharawi await the fulfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
