Western Sahara
Western Sahara
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This
article is about the geographical area. For the partially recognized state that
controls the Free Zone and claims sovereignty over Western Sahara, see Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic.
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Western Sahara الصحراء
الغربية (Arabic) |
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Disputed territory |
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Map of Western Sahara |
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Coordinates: 25°N 13°W |
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Morocco (as its "Southern Provinces") ·
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (in the "Free Zone") |
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Largest city |
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Area |
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• Total |
266,000 km2 (103,000 sq mi) |
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Population |
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• Total |
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• Density |
2.03/km2 (5.3/sq mi) |
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(2018) |
Interactive
map of Western Sahara
Western Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الغربية aṣ-Ṣaḥrā' al-Gharbiyyah; Berber
languages: Taneẓroft Tutrimt; Spanish: Sáhara
Occidental) is a disputed territory on
the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region
of North and West
Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the
self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic, while the remaining 80% of the
territory is occupied and
administered by neighboring Morocco.
Its surface area amounts to 266,000 square kilometres
(103,000 sq mi). It is one of the most
sparsely populated territories in the world,
mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over
500,000,[3] of
which nearly 40% live in Laayoune,
the largest city in Western Sahara.
Occupied by Spain until
the late 20th century, Western Sahara has been on the United
Nations list of non-self-governing territories since
1963 after a Moroccan demand.[4] It
is the most populous territory on that list, and by far the largest in area. In
1965, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted its first
resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonize the
territory.[5] One
year later, a new resolution was passed by the General Assembly requesting that
a referendum be held by Spain on self-determination.[6] In
1975, Spain relinquished the administrative control of the territory to a joint
administration by Morocco (which had formally claimed the territory since 1957)[7] and Mauritania.[6] A war erupted between
those countries and a Sahrawi nationalist
movement, the Polisario
Front, which proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic (SADR) with a government in exile in Tindouf, Algeria.
Mauritania withdrew its claims in 1979, and Morocco eventually secured de
facto control of most of the territory, including all the major cities
and natural resources. The United Nations considers the Polisario Front to be
the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, and maintains that the
Sahrawis have a right to self-determination.[8][9]
Since a United
Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement in 1991, two-thirds of the territory
(including most of the Atlantic coastline – the only part of the coast outside
the Moroccan Western
Sahara Wall is the extreme south, including the Ras
Nouadhibou peninsula) has been administered by the Moroccan
government, with tacit support from France and the United States, and the
remainder by the SADR, backed by Algeria.[10] Internationally,
countries such as Russia have taken a
generally ambiguous and neutral position on each side's claims, and have
pressed both parties to agree on a peaceful resolution. Both Morocco and
Polisario have sought to boost their claims by accumulating formal recognition,
especially from African, Asian, and Latin American states in the developing
world. The Polisario Front has won formal recognition for SADR from 46 states,
and was extended membership in the African
Union. Morocco has won support for its position from
several African governments and from most of the Muslim
world and Arab
League.[11] In
both instances, recognitions have, over the past two decades, been extended and
withdrawn according to changing international trends.[citation needed]
As of 2017, no
other member state of the
United Nations has ever officially
recognized Moroccan sovereignty over
parts of Western Sahara.[12][13][14] However,
a number of countries
have expressed their support for a future
recognition of the Moroccan annexation of the territory as an autonomous
part of the Kingdom.
However the African
Union's predecessor, the Organisation of
African Unity, recognized in 1984 the Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic as one of its full members,
with the same status as Morocco, and Morocco protested by suspending its
membership to the OAU. Morocco was readmitted in the African Union on 30
January 2017 by ensuring that the conflicting claims between Morocco and the
SADR would be solved peacefully and stopping the extension of its exclusive
military control by building additional walls. The African Union however has
not issued any formal statement about the border separating the sovereign
territories of Morocco and the SADR in Western Sahara, until their conflict is
resolved. Instead, the African Union participates with the United Nations
mission, in order to maintain a ceasefire and reach a peace agreement between
its two members. The African Union provides peacekeepers to the UN peacekeeping
mission, in order to control a buffer zone near the de facto border
of walls built by Morocco, and this area still remains a no-man's-land only
without permanent residents except temporary controls by UN military
peacekeepers and some incursions of the Moroccan army.
Contents
·
2History
o
2.4Stalling of the referendum and
Settlement Plan
o
4.1Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
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4.2Moroccan regions and provinces
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5Dispute
·
6Economy
o
6.1Exploitation of natural resources
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7.1Spanish census and MINURSO
·
8Culture
o
8.3Art and cultural expression
Geography
Main
article: Geography of
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is
located on the northwest coast in West
Africa and on the cusp of North
Africa, bordering the North Atlantic
Ocean to the northwest, Morocco
proper to the north-northeast, Algeria to the east-northeast,
and Mauritania to the east and south.[15]
Among the most arid
and inhospitable on the planet, the land along the coast is low flat desert and
rises, especially in the north, to small mountains reaching up to 600 metres
(2,000 ft) on the eastern side.
While the area can
experience flash flooding in the spring, there are no permanent streams. At
times, a cool off-shore current can produce fog and heavy dew.
The interior
experiences extreme summer heat, with average highs reaching 43–45 °C
(109–113 °F) in July and in August; during winter, days are still hot to
very hot, with average highs from 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F); however,
in the northern part of the territory, the thermometer may drop below 0 °C
(32 °F) at night and it can be freezing in December and in January,
although this is rare.
History
Main
article: History of Western
Sahara
Early history
Further
information: Timeline of Serer
history and Serer
history
The earliest known
inhabitants of Western Sahara were the Gaetuli.
Depending on the century, Roman-era sources describe the area as inhabited by
Gaetulian Autololes or the Gaetulian Daradae tribes. Berber heritage is still
evident from regional and place-name toponymy,
as well as from tribal names.
Other early
inhabitants of Western Sahara may be the Bafour[16] and
later the Serer. The Bafour were
later replaced or absorbed by Berber-speaking populations,
which eventually merged in turn with the migrating Beni Ḥassān Arab tribes.
The arrival of
Islam in the 8th century played a major role in the development of the Maghreb region.
Trade developed further, and the territory may have been one of the routes
for caravans, especially
between Marrakesh and Tombouctou in
Mali.
In the 11th
century, the Maqil Arabs (fewer
than 200 individuals) settled in Morocco (mainly
in the Draa River valley,
between the Moulouya River, Tafilalt and Taourirt).[17] Towards
the end of the Almohad
Caliphate, the Beni Hassan, a sub-tribe of the Maqil, were
called by the local ruler of the Sous to
quell a rebellion; they settled in the Sous Ksours and
controlled such cities as Taroudant.[17] During Marinid
dynasty rule, the Beni Hassan rebelled but were defeated
by the Sultan and escaped beyond the Saguia el-Hamra dry river.[17][18] The
Beni Hassan then were at constant war with the Lamtuna nomadic
Berbers of the Sahara. Over roughly five
centuries, through a complex process of acculturation and mixing seen elsewhere
in the Maghreb and North Africa, some of the indigenous Berber tribes mixed
with the Maqil Arab tribes and formed a culture unique to Morocco and
Mauritania.[citation needed]
Spanish province
Main
article: Spanish Sahara
While initial
Spanish interest in the Sahara was focused on using it as a port for the slave
trade, by the 1700s Spain had transitioned economic activity on the Saharan
coast towards commercial fishing.[19] After
an agreement among the European colonial powers at the Berlin
Conference in 1884 on the division of spheres of influence in Africa,
Spain seized control of Western Sahara and established it as a Spanish colony.[20] After
1939 and the outbreak of World War II, this area was administered by Spanish
Morocco. As a consequence, Ahmed Belbachir
Haskouri, the Chief of Cabinet, General Secretary of the
Government of Spanish Morocco, cooperated with the Spanish to select governors
in that area. The Saharan lords who were already in prominent positions, such
as the members of Maa El Ainain family, provided a recommended list of
candidates for new governors. Together with the Spanish High Commissioner,
Belbachir selected from this list.[citation needed] During
the annual celebration of Muhammad's
birthday, these lords paid their respects to the caliph to show loyalty to the
Moroccan monarchy.[citation needed]
As time went by,
Spanish colonial rule began to unravel with the general wave of decolonization
after World War II; former North African and sub-Saharan African possessions
and protectorates gained independence from European powers. Spanish
decolonization proceeded more slowly, but internal political and social
pressures for it in mainland Spain built up towards the end of Francisco
Franco's rule. There was a global trend towards
complete decolonization.
Spain began rapidly to divest itself of most of its remaining colonial
possessions. By 1974–75 the government issued promises of a referendum on
independence in Western Sahara.
At the same time,
Morocco and Mauritania, which had historical and competing claims of
sovereignty over the territory, argued that it had been artificially separated
from their territories by the European colonial powers. Algeria, which also
bordered the territory, viewed their demands with suspicion, as Morocco also
claimed the Algerian provinces of Tindouf and Béchar. After arguing for
a process of decolonization to be guided by the United Nations, the Algerian
government under Houari Boumédiènne in
1975 committed to assisting the Polisario Front, which opposed both Moroccan
and Mauritanian claims and demanded full independence of Western Sahara.
The UN attempted to
settle these disputes through a visiting mission in
late 1975, as well as a verdict from
the International Court
of Justice (ICJ). It acknowledged that Western Sahara had
historical links with Morocco and Mauritania, but not sufficient to prove the
sovereignty of either State over the territory at the time of the Spanish
colonization. The population of the territory thus possessed the right of self-determination.
On 6 November 1975 Morocco initiated the Green
March into Western Sahara; 350,000 unarmed Moroccans
converged on the city of Tarfaya in
southern Morocco and waited for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to
cross the border in a peaceful march. A few days before, on 31 October,
Moroccan troops invaded Western Sahara from the north.[21]
Demands for independence
System
of the Moroccan Walls in
Western Sahara set up in the 1980s
Commemoration
of the 30th independence day from Spain in
the Liberated
Territories (2005)
In the waning days
of General Franco's
rule, and after the Green
March, the Spanish government signed a tripartite
agreement with Morocco and Mauritania as it moved to
transfer the territory on 14 November 1975. The accords were based on a
bipartite administration, and Morocco and Mauritania each moved to annex the
territories, with Morocco taking control of the northern two-thirds of Western
Sahara as its Southern Provinces,
and Mauritania taking control of the southern third as Tiris al-Gharbiyya.
Spain terminated its presence in Spanish Sahara within three months,
repatriating Spanish remains from its cemeteries.[22]
The Moroccan and
Mauritanian annexations were resisted by the Polisario
Front, which had gained backing from Algeria.[23] It
initiated guerrilla warfare and, in 1979, Mauritania withdrew due to pressure
from Polisario, including a bombardment of its capital and other economic
targets. Morocco extended its control to the rest of the territory. It
gradually contained the guerrillas by setting up the extensive
sand-berm in the desert (known as the
Border Wall or Moroccan Wall) to exclude guerrilla fighters.[24][25] Hostilities
ceased in a 1991 cease-fire, overseen by the peacekeeping mission MINURSO,
under the terms of a UN Settlement
Plan.
Stalling of the referendum and Settlement Plan
Four
ways to show Western Sahara in maps
The referendum,
originally scheduled for 1992, foresaw giving the local population the option
between independence or affirming integration with Morocco, but it quickly
stalled. In 1997, the Houston
Agreement attempted to revive the proposal for a
referendum but likewise has hitherto not had success. As of 2010, negotiations
over terms have not resulted in any substantive action. At the heart of the
dispute lies the question of who qualifies to be registered to participate in
the referendum, and, since about the year 2000, Morocco considers that since
there is no agreement on persons entitled to vote, a referendum is not
possible. Meanwhile, Polisario still insisted on a referendum with independence
as a clear option, without offering a solution to the problem of who is
qualified to be registered to participate in it.
Both sides blame
each other for the stalling of the referendum. The Polisario has insisted on
only allowing those found on the 1974 Spanish Census lists (see below) to vote,
while Morocco has insisted that the census was flawed by evasion and sought the
inclusion of members of Sahrawi tribes which escaped from Spanish invasion to
the north of Morocco by the 19th century.
Efforts by the UN
special envoys to find a common ground for both parties did not succeed. By
1999 the UN had identified about 85,000 voters, with nearly half of them in the
Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara or Southern Morocco, and the others
scattered between the Tindouf
refugee camps, Mauritania and other places of exile. Polisario
accepted this voter list, as it had done with the previous list presented by
the UN (both of them originally based on the Spanish census of 1974), but
Morocco refused and, as rejected voter candidates began a mass-appeals
procedure, insisted that each application be scrutinized individually. This
again brought the process to a halt.
According to a NATO
delegation, MINURSO election observers stated in 1999, as the deadlock
continued, that "if the number of voters does not rise significantly the odds
were slightly on the SADR side".[26] By
2001, the process had effectively stalemated and the UN Secretary-General asked
the parties for the first time to explore other, third-way solutions. Indeed,
shortly after the Houston Agreement (1997), Morocco officially declared that it
was "no longer necessary" to include an option of independence on the
ballot, offering instead autonomy. Erik Jensen, who played an administrative
role in MINURSO, wrote that neither side would agree to a voter registration in
which they were destined to lose (see Western
Sahara: Anatomy of a Stalemate).
Baker Plan
Main
article: Baker Plan
As personal envoy
of the Secretary-General, James
Baker visited all sides and produced the document
known as the "Baker Plan".[27] This
was discussed by the United Nations
Security Council in 2000, and envisioned an
autonomous Western Sahara
Authority (WSA), which would be followed after five years
by the referendum. Every person present in the territory would be allowed to
vote, regardless of birthplace and with no regard to the Spanish census. It was
rejected by both sides, although it was initially derived from a Moroccan
proposal. According to Baker's draft, tens of thousands of post-annexation
immigrants from Morocco proper (viewed by Polisario as settlers but by Morocco
as legitimate inhabitants of the area) would be granted the vote in the Sahrawi
independence referendum, and the ballot would be split three ways by the
inclusion of an unspecified "autonomy",
further undermining the independence camp. Morocco was also allowed to keep its
army in the area and retain control over all security issues during both the
autonomy years and the election. In 2002, the Moroccan king stated that the
referendum idea was "out of date" since it "cannot be
implemented";[28] Polisario
retorted that that was only because of the King's refusal to allow it to take
place.
In 2003, a new
version of the plan was made official, with some additions spelling out the
powers of the WSA, making it less reliant on Moroccan devolution.
It also provided further detail on the referendum process in order to make it
harder to stall or subvert. This second draft, commonly known as Baker II, was
accepted by the Polisario as a "basis of negotiations" to the
surprise of many.[29] This
appeared to abandon Polisario's previous position of only negotiating based on
the standards of voter identification from 1991 (i.e. the Spanish census).
After that, the draft quickly garnered widespread international support,
culminating in the UN Security Council's unanimous endorsement of the plan in
the summer of 2003.
End of the 2000s
|
Parts of
this article (those related to the Manhasset negotiations (not in article)) need to
be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent
events or newly available information. (September 2013) |
Baker resigned his
post at the United Nations in 2004; his term did not see the crisis resolved.[30] His
resignation followed several months of failed attempts to get Morocco to enter
into formal negotiations on the plan, but he met with rejection. The new
king, Mohammed VI of
Morocco, opposes any referendum on independence, and has said
Morocco will never agree to one: "We shall not give up one inch of our
beloved Sahara, not a grain of its sand."[31]
Instead, he
proposes, through an appointed advisory body Royal
Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), a
self-governing Western Sahara as an autonomous community within Morocco. His
father, Hassan II of Morocco,
initially supported the referendum idea in principle in 1982, and signed
contracts with Polisario and the UN in 1991 and 1997. No major powers have
expressed interest in forcing the issue, however, and Morocco has shown little
interest in a real referendum.
The UN has put
forth no replacement strategy after the breakdown of Baker II, and renewed
fighting has been raised as a possibility. In 2005, former United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported
increased military activity on both sides of the front and breaches of several
cease-fire provisions against strengthening military fortifications.
Morocco has
repeatedly tried to get Algeria into bilateral negotiations, based on its view
of Polisario as the cat's paw of
the Algerian military. It has received vocal support from France and
occasionally (and currently) from the United States. These negotiations would
define the exact limits of a Western Sahara autonomy under Moroccan rule but
only after Morocco's "inalienable right" to the territory was recognized
as a precondition to the talks. The Algerian government has consistently
refused, claiming it has neither the will nor the right to negotiate on the
behalf of the Polisario Front.
Demonstrations and
riots by supporters of independence or a referendum broke out in the
Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara in May 2005 and in parts of
southern Morocco (notably the town of Assa).
They were met by police. Several international human rights organizations
expressed concern at what they termed abuse by Moroccan security forces, and a
number of Sahrawi activists have been jailed. Pro-independence Sahrawi sources,
including the Polisario, have given these demonstrations the name "Independence
Intifada", while most sources have tended to see the
events as being of limited importance. International press and other media
coverage have been sparse, and reporting is complicated by the Moroccan
government's policy of strictly controlling independent media coverage within
the territory.
A
demonstration in Madrid for the independence of Western Sahara.
Demonstrations and
protests still occur, even after Morocco declared in February 2006 that it was
contemplating a plan for devolving a limited variant of autonomy to the
territory but still explicitly refused any referendum on independence. As of
January 2007, the plan had not been made public, though the Moroccan government
claimed that it was more or less complete.[32]
Polisario has
intermittently threatened to resume fighting, referring to the Moroccan refusal
of a referendum as a breach of the cease-fire
terms, but most observers seem to consider armed conflict
unlikely without the green light from Algeria,
which houses the Sahrawis' refugee camps and has been the main military sponsor
of the movement.
In April 2007, the
government of Morocco suggested that a self-governing entity, through the Royal
Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS),
should govern the territory with some degree of autonomy for Western Sahara.
The project was presented to the UN Security Council in mid-April 2007. The
stalemating of the Moroccan proposal options has led the UN in the recent
"Report of the UN Secretary-General" to ask the parties to enter into
direct and unconditional negotiations to reach a mutually accepted political
solution.[33]
The 2010s
A
MINURSO car (left), and a post of the Polisario Front (right) in 2017 in
southern Western Sahara
In October 2010
Gadaym Izik camp was set up near Laayoune as
a protest by displaced Sahrawi
people about their living conditions. It was home to
more than 12,000 people. In November 2010 Moroccan security forces entered
Gadaym Izik camp in the early hours of the morning, using helicopters and water
cannon to force people to leave. The Polisario Front said Moroccan security
forces had killed a 26-year-old protester at the camp, a claim denied by
Morocco. Protesters in Laayoune threw stones at police and set fire to tires
and vehicles. Several buildings, including a TV station, were also set on fire.
Moroccan officials said five security personnel had been killed in the unrest.[34]
On 15 November
2010, the Moroccan government accused the Algerian secret services of
orchestrating and financing the Gadaym Izik camp with the intent to destabilize
the region. The Spanish press was accused of mounting a campaign of
disinformation to support the Sahrawi initiative, and all foreign reporters
were either prevented from traveling or else expelled from the area.[35] The
protest coincided with a fresh round of negotiations at the UN.[36]
In 2016, the
European Union (EU) declared that "Western Sahara is not part of Moroccan
territory."[37] In
March 2016, Morocco "expelled more than 70 U.N. civilian staffers with
MINURSO" due to strained relations after Ban
Ki-moon called Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara an
"occupation".[38]
Politics
See
also: Politics of Western
Sahara, Foreign relations
of Morocco, and Foreign
relations of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
A
Moroccan police checkpoint in the suburbs of Laayoune
Sovereignty over
Western Sahara is contested between Morocco and
the Polisario Front and
its legal status remains unresolved. The United Nations considers it to be a
"non-self-governing
territory".
Formally, Morocco
is administered by a bicameral parliament under
a constitutional
monarchy. The last elections to the parliament's
lower house were deemed reasonably free and fair by
international observers.[citation needed] Certain
powers, such as the capacity to appoint the government and to dissolve parliament,
remain in the hands of the monarch.
The Morocco-controlled parts of Western Sahara are divided into several provinces that
are treated as integral parts of the kingdom. The Moroccan government heavily
subsidizes the Saharan provinces under its control with cut-rate fuel and
related subsidies, to appease nationalist dissent and attract immigrants from
Sahrawis and other communities in Morocco proper.[39]
The exiled government of
the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic (SADR) is a form of
single-party parliamentary and presidential system, but according to its
constitution, this will be changed into a multi-party system at the achievement
of independence. It is presently based at the Tindouf
refugee camps in Algeria, which it controls. It also controls
the part of Western Sahara to the east of the Moroccan Wall, known as the liberated territories.
This area has a very small population, estimated to be approximately 30,000
nomads.[40] The
Moroccan government views it as a no-man's land patrolled by UN troops. The
SADR government whose troops also patrol the area have proclaimed a village in
the area, Bir Lehlou and Tifariti,
as SADR's former and actual temporary factual capitals.
On 18 December
2019, the Comoros became the
first nation to open a consulate in Laayoune in
support of Moroccan claims to Western Sahara.[41] In
January 2020, The Gambia[42] and Guinea[43] opened
consulates in Dakhla;
meanwhile, Gabon opened a
consulate general in Laayoune.[44]
Human rights
Main
article: Human rights in
Western Sahara
A sangar (fortification)
from the Western Sahara conflict. The fortification is built of rocks on top of
a mesa overlooking the Grart Chwchia, Al Gada, Western Sahara. The Sangar is
facing north and was probably built by the Sahrawis in the 1980s.
Sahrawi human-rights
defender Ali Salem Tamek in Ait
Meloul Prison, Morocco[45]
The Western Sahara
conflict has resulted in severe human-rights abuses, constantly reported by
external reporters and HR activists,[46] most
notably the displacement of tens of thousands of Sahrawi civilians from the
country, the expulsion of tens of thousands of Moroccan civilians by the
Algerian government from Algeria,[47] and
numerous casualties of war and repression.
During the war
years (1975–1991), both sides accused each other of targeting civilians.
Moroccan claims of Polisario terrorism has generally little to no support
abroad, with the US, EU, AU and
UN all refusing to include the group on their lists of
terrorist organizations. Polisario leaders maintain that they are ideologically
opposed to terrorism, and insist that collective punishment and forced disappearances among
Sahrawi civilians[48] should
be considered state
terrorism on the part of Morocco.[49] Both
Morocco and the Polisario additionally accuse each other of violating the human
rights of the populations under their control, in the Moroccan-controlled parts of
Western Sahara and the Tindouf
refugee camps in Algeria, respectively. Morocco and
organizations such as France
Libertés consider Algeria to be directly responsible for
any crimes committed on its territory, and accuse the country of having been
directly involved in such violations.[50]
Morocco has
been repeatedly criticized for its actions in Western Sahara by international
human rights organizations including:
·
World Organization
Against Torture
·
Reporters Without
Borders[55]
·
International
Committee of the Red Cross
·
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights[56]
·
Defend International[58][59]
·
International
Federation for Human Rights[64][65][66][67][68]
·
Society for
Threatened Peoples[69][70]
·
Norwegian Refugee
Council[71]
See
also: List of human
rights organisations
The POLISARIO has
received criticism from the French organization France Libertes on
its treatment of Moroccan prisoners of war,[72] and
on its general behaviour in the Tindouf refugee camps in reports by the Belgian commercial
counseling society ESISC.[73][74] Social
anthropologist of the Sahara Desert, Konstantina Isidoros, said that in both
2005 and 2008, ESISC issued two near-identical reports proclaiming distorted
truths that Polisario is evolving to new fears terrorism,[clarification
needed] radical
Islamism or international crime. According Isidoros "lies appear to play
some peculiar importance in this report".[75][clarification
needed] Jacob
Mundi[76] considers
this report as a part of the Moroccan propaganda designed to discredit the
Polisario Front.[77]
A number of former Polisario officials who
have defected to Morocco accuse the organisation of abuse of human rights and
sequestration of the population in Tindouf.[78][79]
Administrative divisions
Sahrawi
national police
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
·
Wilayah
·
Daerah (See Districts of
Western Sahara)
Moroccan regions and provinces
Three Moroccan
regions are within or partly within Western Sahara:
·
Laâyoune-Sakia El
Hamra Region
Morocco controls
territory to the west of the berm (border wall) while the Sahrawi Republic
controls territory to the east (see map on right).
Dispute
Main
article: Political status of
Western Sahara
See
also: United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1979
Remains
of the former Spanish barracks in Tifariti after
the Moroccan air strikes in 1991.
Western Sahara was
partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania in April 1976, with Morocco
acquiring the northern two-thirds of the territory.[80] When
Mauritania, under pressure from Polisario guerrillas, abandoned all claims to
its portion in August 1979, Morocco moved to occupy that sector shortly
thereafter and has since asserted administrative control over the whole
territory.[80] The
official Moroccan government name for Western Sahara is the "Southern
Provinces", consisting of the Río
de Oro and Saguia
el-Hamra regions.
The portion not
under the control of the Moroccan government is the area that lies between
the border wall and
the actual border with Algeria (for map see Minurso
map). The Polisario Front claims to run this as the Free
Zone on behalf of the SADR. The area is
patrolled by Polisario forces,[81] and
access is restricted, even among Sahrawis, due to the harsh climate of
the Sahara,
the military conflict and the abundance of land
mines. Landmine Action UK undertook preliminary survey work
by visiting the Polisario-controlled area of Western Sahara in October 2005 and
February–March 2006. A field assessment in the vicinity of Bir Lahlou, Tifariti
and the berms revealed that the densest concentrations of mines are in front of
the berms. Mines were laid in zigzags up to one meter apart, and in some parts
of the berms, there are three rows of mines. There are also berms in the
Moroccan-controlled zone, around Dakhla and stretching from Boujdour,
including Smara on the
Moroccan border. However, mine-laying was not restricted to the vicinity of the
berms; occupied settlements throughout the Polisario-controlled areas, such as
Bir Lahlou and Tifariti, are ringed by mines laid by Moroccan forces.[82]
Despite this, the
area is traveled and inhabited by many Sahrawi nomads from
the Tindouf
refugee camps of Algeria and
the Sahrawi communities in Mauritania.[40] United
Nations MINURSO forces are
also present in the area. The UN forces oversee the cease-fire between
Polisario and Morocco agreed upon in the 1991 Settlement
Plan.[83]
The Polisario
forces (of the Sahrawi People's
Liberation Army (SPLA)) in the area are
divided into seven "military regions", each controlled by a top
commander reporting to the President
of the Polisario proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.[81][84] The
total size of the Polisario's guerrilla army
present in this area is unknown, but it is believed to number a few thousand
men, despite many combatants being demobilized due to the cease-fire.[84] These
forces are dug into permanent positions, such as gun emplacements, defensive
trenches and underground military bases, as well as conducting mobile patrols
of the territory.[81][85][failed verification]
Major Sahrawi
political events, such as Polisario congresses and
sessions of the Sahrawi National
Council (the SADR parliament in exile) are held in the
Free Zone (especially in Tifariti and
Bir Lehlou), since it is politically and symbolically important to conduct
political affairs on Sahrawi territory. In 2005, MINURSO lodged a complaint to
the Security Council of the United Nations for "military maneuvers with
real fire which extends to restricted areas" by Morocco.[86] A
concentration of forces for the commemoration of the Saharawi Republic's 30th
anniversary[87] were
however subject to condemnation by the United Nations,[88] as
it was considered an example of a cease-fire violation to bring such a large
force concentration into the area. In late 2009, Moroccan troops performed
military maneuvers near Umm
Dreiga, in the exclusion zone, violating the cease-fire.
Both parties have been accused of such violations by the UN, but to date there
has been no serious hostile action from either side since 1991.
Annual
demonstrations against the Moroccan Wall are staged in the region by Sahrawis
and international activists from Spain, Italy, and other mainly European
countries. These actions are closely monitored by the UN.[89][failed verification]
UN sponsored peace
talks, the first in six years between Morocco and Polisario, were held in
Geneva on 5 December 2018, with both sides agreeing to meet again in a few
months for further talks.[90][91]
During the joint
Moroccan–Mauritanian control of the area, the Mauritanian-controlled part,
roughly corresponding to Saquia el-Hamra, was known as Tiris al-Gharbiyya.
Economy
Main
article: Economy of Western
Sahara
Natural
products in a pharmacy.
Aside from its rich
fishing waters and phosphate reserves, Western Sahara has few natural resources
and lacks sufficient rainfall and freshwater resources for most agricultural
activities. Western Sahara's much-touted phosphate reserves are relatively
unimportant, representing less than two percent of proven phosphate reserves in
Morocco.[92] There
is speculation that there may be off-shore oil and natural gas fields, but the
debate persists as to whether these resources can be profitably exploited, and
if this would be legally permitted due to the Non-Self-Governing status
of Western Sahara (see below).
Western Sahara's
economy is based almost entirely on fishing, which employs two-thirds of its
workforce, with mining, agriculture and tourism providing modest additional
income.[92] Most
food for the urban population comes from Morocco. All trade and other economic
activities are controlled by the Moroccan government (as its de facto southern
province). The government has encouraged citizens to relocate to the territory
by giving subsidies and price controls on basic goods. These heavy subsidies
have created a state-dominated economy in the Moroccan-controlled parts of
Western Sahara.
In 2011,
leaked United States
diplomatic cables revealed that the territory
is somewhat of an economic burden for Morocco;[92] the
Moroccan US$800 million subsidy program to Western Sahara was said to be one of
the larger per-capita aid programs in history.[92] Supporting
life in a territory with scarce freshwater resources is extremely costly. For
example, all drinking water for the city of Laayoune comes
from desalinization facilities and costs 3 US dollars per cubic meter but is
sold at the national price of 0.0275 US dollars; the difference is paid for by
the government of Morocco.[92] Fuel
is sold at half the price, and basic goods are heavily subsidized;[92] businesses
operating in the territory do not pay taxes.[92] All
of this is done to keep the balance of Western Sahara's finances.[92] The
territory is otherwise thought to be economically unviable and unable to
support its population without the Moroccan subsidies.[93] The
cable concluded that the territory is unlikely ever to be of any economic
benefit for Morocco, even if offshore oil fields were to be discovered and
exploited.[92]
Due to the disputed
nature of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, the application of
international accords to Western Sahara is highly ambiguous. Political
leadership of trade agreement signatories such as the United States (US-Morocco
Free Trade Agreement) and Norway (European Free Trade Association trade accord)
have made statements as to these agreements' non-applicability – although
practical policy application is ambiguous.[94][95][96]
Exploitation of natural resources
Satellite
image of Laayoune
After reasonably
exploitable oil fields were located in Mauritania, speculation intensified on
the possibility of major oil resources being located off the coast of Western
Sahara. Despite the fact that findings remain inconclusive, both Morocco and
the Polisario have signed deals with oil and gas exploration companies. US and
French companies (notably Total and Kerr-McGee)
began prospecting on behalf of the Moroccan Office National de Recherches et
d'Exploitations Petrolières (ONAREP).[97]
In 2002, Hans
Corell, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and
head of its Office of Legal
Affairs, issued a legal opinion on the matter.[97] The
opinion was rendered following an analysis of relevant provisions of the Charter of the
United Nations, the United Nations
General Assembly resolutions, the case law
of the International Court
of Justice and the practice of sovereign states.[97] It
concluded that while the existing exploration contracts for the area were not
illegal, "if further exploration and exploitation activities were to
proceed in disregard of the interests and wishes of the people of Western
Sahara, they would be in violation of the principles of international
law."[97] After
pressures from corporate ethics-groups, Total S.A. pulled out in late 2004.[98]
In May 2006, the
remaining company, Kerr-McGee, also left, following sales of numerous share
holders like the National Norwegian Oil Fund, due to continued pressure from
NGOs and corporate groups.[99]
In December 2014,
it became known that Seabird Exploration operated
controversial seismic surveys offshore Western Sahara, in violation of the 2002
Hans Corell legal opinion.[100]
The European
Union fishing agreements with Morocco include Western
Sahara.
In a previously
confidential legal opinion (published in February 2010, although it was
forwarded in July 2009), the European Parliament's Legal Service opined that
fishing by European vessels under a current EU – Morocco fishing agreement
covering Western Sahara's waters is in violation of international law.[101]
Similarly, the
exploitation of phosphate mines
in Bou
Craa has led to charges of international law
violations and divestment from several European states.[102]
Demographics
Main
article: Demographics of
Western Sahara
Morocco
built several empty towns in Western Sahara, ready for refugees returning from
Tindouf[103]
The indigenous
population of Western Sahara is usually known in Western media as Sahrawis,
but they are also referred to in Morocco as "Southerners" or
"Southern Berbers". They are Hassaniya-speaking
or Berber-speaking tribes
of Berber origin (97% of Y-DNA).
Many of them have mixed Berber-Arab heritage,
effectively continuations of the tribal groupings of Hassaniya-speaking and
Zenaga-Berber speaking Moorish tribes
extending south into Mauritania and north into Morocco as well as east into
Algeria. The Sahrawis are traditionally nomadic Bedouins with a lifestyle very
similar to that of the Tuareg
Berbers from whom Sahrawis most likely have descended,
and they can be found in all surrounding countries. War and conflict has led to
major population displacement.
As of July 2004, an
estimated 267,405 people (excluding about 160,000 Moroccan military personnel)
lived in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara. Many people from
parts of Morocco have come to live in the territory, and these latest arrivals
are today thought to outnumber the indigenous Western Sahara Sahrawis. The
precise size and composition of the population is subject to political
controversy.
The
Polisario-controlled parts of Western Sahara are barren. This area has a very
small population, estimated to be approximately 30,000 in 2008.[40] The
population is primarily made up of nomads who engage in herding camels back and
forth between the Tindouf area and
Mauritania. However, the presence of land mines scattered throughout the
territory by the Moroccan army makes it a dangerous way of life.
Spanish census and MINURSO
A 1974 Spanish
census claimed there were some 74,000 Sahrawis in the area at the time (in
addition to approximately 20,000 Spanish residents), but this number is likely
to be on the low side, due to the difficulty in counting a nomad people, even
if Sahrawis were by the mid-1970s mostly urbanized. Despite these possible
inaccuracies, Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed on using the Spanish
census as the basis for voter registration when striking a cease-fire agreement
in the late 1980s, contingent on the holding of a referendum on independence or
integration into Morocco.
In December 1999,
the United Nations' MINURSO mission
announced that it had identified 86,425 eligible voters for the referendum that
was supposed to be held under the 1991 Settlement
plan and the 1997 Houston
accords. By "eligible voter" the UN referred to any
Sahrawi over 18 years of age that was part of the Spanish census or could prove
their descent from someone who was. These 86,425 Sahrawis were dispersed
between Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and the refugee camps in Algeria,
with smaller numbers in Mauritania and other places of exile. These numbers
cover only Sahrawis 'indigenous' to Western Sahara during the Spanish colonial
period, not the total number of "ethnic" Sahrawis (i.e., members of
Sahrawi tribal groupings), who also extend into Mauritania, Morocco and
Algeria. The number was highly politically significant due to the expected
organization of a referendum on self-determination.
The Polisario has
its home base in the Tindouf
refugee camps in Algeria, and declares the number of Sahrawi
population in the camps to be approximately 155,000. Morocco disputes this
number, saying it is exaggerated for political reasons and for attracting more
foreign aid. The UN uses a number of 90,000 "most vulnerable"
refugees as basis for its food aid program.
Culture
Main
article: Culture of Western
Sahara
See
also: Western Saharan
cuisine
Museum of the
Sahrawi People's Liberation Army.
The major ethnic
group of Western Sahara are the Sahrawis,
a nomadic or Bedouin ethnic group
speaking the Hassānīya dialect
of Arabic, also spoken in
much of Mauritania. They are of mixed Arab-Berber descent, but claim descent
from the Beni Hassan, an Arab tribe
that migrated across the desert in the 11th century.
Physically
indistinguishable from the Hassaniya speaking Moors of
Mauritania, the Sahrawi people differ from their neighbours partly because of
different tribal affiliations (as tribal confederations cut across present
modern boundaries) and partly as a consequence of their exposure to Spanish
colonial domination. Surrounding territories were generally under French
colonial rule.[citation needed]
Like other Saharan
Bedouin and Hassaniya groups, the Sahrawis are mostly Muslims of the Sunni branch
and the Maliki fiqh.
Local religious custom (Urf) is, like other
Saharan groups, heavily influenced by pre-Islamic Berber and African practices,
and differs substantially from urban practices. For example, Sahrawi Islam has
traditionally functioned without mosques, in an adaptation to nomadic life.[citation needed]
The original clan-/tribe-based
society underwent a massive social upheaval in 1975 when the war forced part of
the population to settle in the refugee
camps of Tindouf, Algeria, where they remain.
Families were broken up by the dispute.
The Museum of the
Sahrawi People's Liberation Army is located in
this refugee camp. This museum is dedicated to the struggle for the
independence of Western Saharan people. It presents weapons, vehicles and
uniforms, as well as abundant documentation history.
Cross-cultural influence
The contemporary
history of the territory has experienced long-term international presence and
occupation that has deeply influenced the cultural practices of the people,
such as languages spoken throughout the territory and its institutions.[104] Spanish
colonization lasted roughly from 1884–1976, following the creation of the
Madrid Accords where Spain absolved all responsibility over the territory and
left it to Morocco and Mauritania.[105]
Throughout the nine
decades of Spanish colonial presence, one of the primary spoken languages in
Western Sahara came to be Spanish. The reasons for its widespread usage was due
to the necessity of communicating with Spanish leadership and administrators
throughout the territory, who ultimately established institutions modeled after
those of Spain.[104] The
importance and prevalence of Spanish has persisted to the present day, even
after Spanish withdrawal from Western Sahara in 1976, due to various education
exchanges and host programs for Sahrawi children to Spain and Cuba.[106]
One such exchange
program to Spain is Vacaciones en Paz (Vacations in Peace), which is an annual
holiday program that was created in 1988 and is organized by the Union of
Sahrawi Youth (UJSARIO) in collaboration with 300 other associations throughout
Spain.[107] The
program itself allows 7,000 to 10,000 Sahrawi children between the ages of 8
and 12 the opportunity to live in Spain for the summer outside of the refugee
camps. Sometimes children return to the same Spanish household year after year
while they are still eligible, and forge strong relationships with their host
families.[107] These
types of exchange programs that successfully create cross-border and
cross-cultural relationships reinforce the usage of the Spanish language
throughout subsequent generations of Sahrawi children.
Gender relations
Two
women outside a hospital emergencies at a Sahrawi refugee camps.
Much Spanish
literature and recent refugee studies scholarship has been dedicated to the
exploration of the major role women play in Sahrawi society, and the degree of
freedom they experience within the occupied territory and the refugee camps.
There is a consensus among Sahrawi women that they have always enjoyed a large
degree of freedom and influence within the Sahrawi community.[108]
Traditionally,
women have played pivotal roles in Sahrawi culture, as well as in efforts to
resist colonialism and foreign interference in their territory.[109] Similar
to other nomadic traditions on the African continent, Sahrawi women
traditionally exercised significant power and roles both in the camp and in
their tents.
Sahrawi women could
inherit property, and subsist independently from their fathers, brothers,
husbands, and other male relatives.[109] Women
were key for establishing alliances through marriage, being that the Sahrawi
culture values monogamy, with their tribe and to others.[110] Furthermore,
Sahrawi women were endowed with major responsibility for the camp during long
periods of absence by the men of the camp due to war or trade. Among the
responsibilities women had were setting up, repairing, and moving the tents of
the camp, and participating in major tribal decisions.[111]
In the contemporary
history of Western Sahara, women have occupied central roles and been highly
represented in the political sphere.[112] During
Spanish colonial rule, Sahrawi women actively provided financial and physical
support to the resistance movements during the 1930s, 1950s, and the late
1960s.[109] In
more official ways, women were consistently part of the Polisario Front, which
in 1994 created the National Union of Sahrawi Women (NUSW).[112] The
NUSW was structured at the local, regional, and national levels and
concentrated on four areas: the occupied territories and emigration,
information and culture, political and professional development, and foreign
affairs.[112]
Art and cultural expression
FiSahara
International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place in one
of the southwestern refugee camps in Algeria.[113] At
this event, actors, directors, and film industry insiders from around the world
join the Sahrawi people for a week-long festival of screenings, parallel
activities, and concerts. The festival provides entertainment and educational
opportunities for Sahrawi refugees alongside cultural celebrations for visitors
and spectators. It aims to raise awareness of the humanitarian crises in the
refugee camps, and expose the Sahrawi people to this medium of art and
expression.[114]
Highly renowned
Spanish filmmakers and actors, such as Javier
Bardem, Penélope
Cruz, and Pedro Almodóvar have
supported and attended the festival. In 2013, the festival screened over 15
films from around the world including comedies, short films, animations, and
documentaries. Some of the films were made by the refugees themselves.[114] Art
as embodied in film has been a strong and popular medium that Sahrawi youth
have used to express themselves, and share their stories of conflict and exile.
ARTifariti, the
International Art and Human Rights Meeting in Western Sahara, is an annual art
workshop set up in the Liberated Zone and refugee camps, specifically in
Tifariti, that brings artists from all over the world. This event led to the
introduction of graffiti art to the camps, and popular graffiti artists have
come to the workshop to work with refugees.[115] One
such artist was Spanish street artist MESA, who travelled to the Sahrawi
refugee camps in 2011 and displayed his own graffiti throughout the landscape.[116] His
canvases of choice were destroyed walls, which he brought back to life through
his art.
MESA inspired other
Sahrawis to express themselves and embody their national struggle through art
and graffiti. One such artist is Mohamed Sayad, a Sahrawi artist that has been
transforming the refugee camp landscape by creating works of art amongst the
devastation in camps that have existed for four decades.[116] His
canvases, much like MESA, are walls that have been ruined by massive floods in
the Sahrawi refugee camps in southwestern Algeria. Sayad's work tells a
consistent story, one that draws on his experience of protracted conflict and a
life under Moroccan occupation. Sayad's graffiti depicts aspects of Sahrawi
culture and includes actual Sahrawi people as his subjects.[116]
See also
·
Bibliography of
Western Sahara
·
List of cities in
Western Sahara
·
Outline
of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
·
Telecommunications
in Western Sahara
·
United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1979
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Bibliography
Sources
and further reading
·
Hodges, Tony
(1983). Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War. Lawrence Hill
Books. ISBN 0-88208-152-7.
·
Jensen, Erik
(2005). Western Sahara: Anatomy of a Stalemate. International Peace
Studies. ISBN 1-58826-305-3.
·
Pazzanita, Anthony
G.; Hodges, Tony (1994). Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara.
Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-2661-5.
·
Shelley, Toby
(2004). Endgame in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa's Last
Colony?. Zed Books. ISBN 1-84277-341-0.
·
Irene
Fernández-Molina and Matthew Porges. 2019. "Western
Sahara." in Routledge Handbook of State
Recognition.
Yorumlar