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The
UN's
involvement in the Western Sahara issue started
1963, when
the UN included Western Sahara in the list of
countries to which the principle of
self-determination has to be applied.
Then, in October 1964, the Committee for the
Decolonization of the UN adopted a resolution
asking to Spain the application, for Ifni and
the Western Sahara, of the General Assembly
Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, on the
right to independence of the Countries under
colonial domination.
On December 16,
1965 the General Assembly adopted its first
resolution on what was then called Spanish
Sahara, requesting Spain to "take all necessary
measures" to decolonize the territory, while
entering into negotiations on "problems relating
to sovereignty".
Between 1966 and
1973 the UN General Assembly adopted seven more
resolutions on the territory, all of which
reiterated the need to hold a referendum on
self-determination. Thus, the UN stated in
unambiguous terms from the start that the
Western Sahara conflict could be resolved only
through an act of self-determination, in keeping
with the Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
This position has been maintained by the
organization up to the present day. |
BIPPI
 B's Independent Pro-Peace Initiative
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Dispute for control of Western
Sahara
– 1975/1991
(to present day)
After the agreement among the European colonial powers at
the
Berlin Conference (1884 - 1885) on the division of spheres of
influence in Africa, Spain seized control of the Western Sahara and
declared it to be a Spanish protectorate in a series of wars against
the local tribes.
In the
meanwhile a re-organization of the Saharawi indipendentist forces
began in the cities, in the towns and among the refugees in the near
countries, starting with sporadic demonstrations against the Spanish
domination. Such process brought Mohamed Sidi Brahim Bassiri to
found, in 1967, an indipendentist and clandestine political
organization, known as "Harakat Tahrir Saguia El Hamra wa Uad
Ed-Dahab" or simply "Movement for the Liberation of the Sahara"
(MLS),
whose objective was to re-unite and canalize the popular forces and
aspirations.
A curfew
was decreed in 1969, followed by a series of arrestations and
expulsions, which moved the UN to recall Spain to the application of
resolution 1514 (XV) on the decolonization.
In June
17, 1970, the colonial government called for a Saharawi
manifestation in Laâyoune in order to express the adhesion to the Mother Native
land (Spain). As few hundreds of people gathered in the Plaza of Africa in support of the Spanish organized rally, a larger crowd was also gathering in Zemla, a neighbourhood on the east side of Laâyoune, and asked the governor-general of Spanish Sahara, General Jose Maria Perez de Lema y Tejero, to come to Zemla in order to receive the movement's petition. The General came and the petition was read out. Afterwards, he ordered the demonstrators to disperse. A couple hours later, a strong squad of police came to the gathering and began arresting some of the movement leaders. The crowd reacted by throwing stones at the police force which requested the help of the Spanish Foreign Legion (El Tercio). The intervention of the Spanish Foreign Legion made things worse, their presence infuriated more the demonstrators. The Legion opened fire and by some accounts eleven people were killed, though there has never been a general consensus on the number of casualties. After the so-called Zemla intifada, manifestations took place in Smara and Dakhla (the greater centers of the Western Sahara). Severe repressive measures on MSL followed these demonstrations. Hundreds were arrested, some deported and others fled the country. Bassiri (the movement's leader) would be arrested soon after this massacre. This incident marked the death of MLS and laid the grounds for the birth, three years later, of the most successful and better known Saharawi movement: Frente Polisario.
Until
this moment, except the "heroic" period of resistance to European
colonialisms, the Saharawis were instruments in the hands of the
colonial powers or of brother countries. Morocco, Mauritania and
Algeria demanded loudly the departure of the Spaniards from the area
and called for self-determination to be exercised in Western Sahara
in line with UN resolutions, being their demand about their own
claims more than about the freedom of the natives, and mostly they
prevented any attempt to hold a self-determination referendum.
UN
resolutions passed in 1972 (n. 2983) and 1973 (n.
3162), affirming the right of Saharawis
to self determination and independence, in conformity with
universally recognised principles preserved in the UN Charter and
other instruments. Morocco, like Spain, didn't contest the right of self-determination, but argued that the Saharawis had already exercised their right and opted to be an integral part of the kingdom. During these years King Hassan II created the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), an advisory committee to the Moroccan government on the Western Sahara, then considered as Morocco's southern provinces. The first phosphate exports were dispatched to Japan in 1972. Spain began the exploitation of phosphate deposits with the help of 100 kilometers of conveyor up to the coast after Laâyoune, where in the meantime modern preparation and shipment plants were established. These economic changes led to a rapid urbanisation of Saharawi society, with the majority of the population giving up the harsh nomadic life and settling into the main towns. Many of them took waged employment while others set up shops as traders. Some changed from nomadic pastoralism to sedentary agriculture. By 1974, 55% of the Saharawis recorded in that year’s census were living in the three main towns (Villa Cisneros, Laâyoune and Smara, out of a total of 73.497 Saharawis recorded. However, the 1974 Spanish census, which later became the basis for the promised self-determination referendum, actually “missed out” a large number of Saharawis, who had settled outside the artificial, colonially imposed borders of the Spanish Sahara. At that time there must have been at least 75.000 Saharawis in the former Spanish Southern Morocco, northern Mauritania and south-western Algeria. On May 10, 1973, the Constitutive Congress for the Frente Polisario, was held under the theme of "By the gun we force freedom”. The Frente Polisario (Frente POpular para la LIberacion de SAguia el Hamra y RIO de Oro) was born as a political movement, coming from the meeting of survivors of the MLS with a group of Saharawi students in Morocco. The spiritual father of the Front was El Wali Moustapha Sayed whose father was an ex-combatant of the Liberation Army. The political movement was used to turn people in favour of national independence, to explain the situation of the colony on the international level, and to accelerate the moral and financial support to the cause. They asserted the independence of the Western Sahara, promised by Spain.The political declaration of this first congress analysed the context of the period and the deep reasons that pushed Saharawi People to bare arms and to declare armed struggle against Spanish colonial administration after the failure of peaceful struggle, violently oppressed in June the 17th 1970 by the colonizer. In clear terms the declaration announced the reasons behind this inevitable choice: "regarding the colonizer’s persistent will of dominion over our People, the attempt to destroy it by ignorance, poverty, division and its parting from Arab world and the Maghreb", and considering "the failure of all peaceful attempts... The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia et El-Hamraand Rio de Oro is constituted as the unique popular expression, adopting armed action as a mean to totally liberate arabo-africain People of Western Sahara from Spanish colonialism". Polisario created an armed division known as the Saharawi Popular Liberation Army (Ejercito de Liberacion Popular Sahraoui - ELPS). As soon as it was established it began to fight against the occupants. Essentially, they were carrying out short and quick raids on limited goals, following a guerrilla warfare.
The
armed struggle was announced on the 20th of May, 1973,
simultaneously with the development of the political movement. On February 20, 1973, the provincial council, the Djema'a, asked officially Franco's Spain to allow greater participation in the territory's administration, kind of autonomy. On September 21st Franco sent a letter in response to Djema'a where he assured that Spanish state solemnly repeats and guarantees that Saharawis will be able to govern themselves. During it's session between the 13th and 15th of November 1973, Djema'a examined the Spanish project and development plan worth 20 billion Spanish pesetas in 1974/78 period. By 1974, the Spanish regime was in serious difficulties at home while colonial troops and Polisario forces clashed at Galb Lahmar and Aoukeyra at the beginning of the year. A pre-revolutionary situation was opening up with mass working class action and the threat that the overthrow of the weakened dictatorship would open the way for socialist transformation. The Spanish ruling class was terrified. They feared the effects that a guerrilla war in the Sahara would have on the situation in Spain. The example of the Portuguese revolution that year, triggered partly by the disastrous colonial wars in Angola and Mozambique, accelerated its plans for internal self-government in Western Sahara. In the same time it was not possible to have a quarrel with Morocco or with Morocco's best sponsor, USA, partly motivated by misgivings (completely groundless) that the Polisario had communist leanings.
Spain
knew that, if the conflict with Morocco degenerated into war, the
Moroccan forces would not take the air force and the Spanish army,
definitely stronger in number and equipment. The Spanish armed
forces counted 302.000 troops, that is to say five times more than
the FAR which had only 61.000, and the Air Force of Spain had twice
more fighters. Some 20.000 Spanish soldiers, including the
regiments of elite of the Foreign Legion, were posted in the Western
Sahara, without speaking about the thousands of troops in the Canary
Islands. In April 1974 the Polisario took part in the Pan-African Youth Movement meeting in Benghazi, supported by Mauritania and Libya and opposed by Algeria and Morocco. When the Spanish government formally announced plans for internal autonomy of Sahara, then King Hassan II protested to Franco and launched major diplomatic campaign to lobby for support for Moroccan claim, sending political leaders of the Istiqlal Party, the USFP, to world capitals. Consequently Algeria, regional rival of Morocco, began for first time to give some low-key help to the Polisario as the government of Houari Boumédiènne committed itself to support the full independence of Western Sahara, in opposition to Moroccan and Mauritanian claims.
On August 20, 1974, Spain announced that a
referendum on
self-determination would be held in the first six months of 1975
and took a census of the region in order to assess the voting
population. According to this census, which
left out some of the nomads, there were then 73.497 Saharawis and
21.522 Europeans and nationals of other countries in this area.
But King Hassan II affirmed he could not accept a referendum including the option of independence and warned that Morocco would go to war to annex Western Sahara if diplomatic means fail. In these years the power of the Moroccan monarchy was in serious crisis, and military authorities were suspected of being responsible of two attacks to the life of the king. Hassan II took in hand the flag of the recovery of the 'Moroccan Sahara', gathering together, around the topic of national integrity, all the parties, taking away the attention from the inner problems and neutralizing, also with the violence, every opposition. The claims of Hassan II on the Western Sahara were only a part of the dream of Greater Morocco that aimed at 'the recovery' also of part of Algeria and Mali and the entire Mauritania. In Mauritania, home policies were failing. The economy was stagnating and remained strongly dependent on French aid. Moreover, drought in the Sahel, principally in the period between 1969 and 1974, and decline in export revenues due to fall in international prices of iron, had lowered living standards considerably.
On September 17, 1974, King Hassan II announced his intention to
bring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The proposal was accepted by Mauritania. "I. Was Western Sahara (Saguia El-Hamra y Rio de Oro) at the time of colonization by Spain a territory belonging to no one (terra nullius)?" "II. What were the legal ties between this territory and the Kingdom of Morocco and the Mauritanian entity?" On January 16, 1975, Spain officially announced the suspension of the referendum plan, pending the opinion of the court. 65% of Bou-Craa exploitation was sold to Morocco. King Hassan II of Morocco and the President of Mauritania Ould Daddah made an agreement about their mutual requests to the IJC. Algerian foreign minister, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, contested the Moroccan claim at a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers.
In
May-June an important
mission of enquiry was sent by the UN
secretary-general, Kurt Waldheim to Western Sahara, Spain, Morocco,
Mauritania and Algeria. Its three members were Simeon Aké
(chairman), Marta Jiménez Martinez, and Manouchehr Pishva, diplomats
from Ivory Coast, Cuba, and Iran respectively. Huge popular demonstrations welcomed the mission; a crushing majority proclaimed support to the Frente Polisario and asserted the independence of the country. The demonstrations followed one another and all highlighted a political awakening of the population. The PUNS (Partido de Unificación Nacional Saharaui created by Spanish will the year before), appeared inconsistent. Morocco-baked Morehob and the FLU were presented as movements of liberation of Sahara, but they hardly manage to present their "movements". In Algeria, in the first refugee camps, towards Tindouf, the support for the Frente Polisario and independence appeared incontestable. In Mauritania, in spite of the setting in scene of the authorities, demonstrations of support to the Frente Polisario were highlighted. The mission's conclusions about the wishes of the Saharawi people were given on September 15, 1975, and they were unambiguous: "Owing to the large measure of cooperation which received from the Spanish authorities, the Mission was able, despite the shortness of its stay in the Territory, to visit virtually all the main population centres and to ascertain the views of the overwhelming majority of their inhabitants. At every place visited, the Mission was met by mass political demonstrations and had numerous private meetings with representatives of every section of the Saharan community. From all these, it became evident to the Mission that there was an overwhelming consensus among Saharans within the Territory in favour of independence and opposing integration with any neighbouring country.... The Mission believes, in the light of what it witnessed in the Territory, especially the mass demonstrations of support for one movement, the Frente Polisario..., that its visit served as a catalyst to bring into the open political forces and pressures which had previously been largely submerged. It was all the more significant to the Mission that this came as a surprise to the Spanish authorities who, until then, had only been partly aware of the profound political awakening of the population."
Soon
after the ICJ held its first session on the Western Sahara problem
in The Hague.
Around
1975, after important Spanish investments, the annual production
rose up to 2/3 million tons a year, making of the Western Sahara the
6th world phosphate producer. On October 16, 1975 the IJC emitted its clear advisory opinion: on one side the Western Sahara was not a 'no man's land' before the Spanish occupation, there was evidence of a tie of allegiance between some, though not all, of the tribal chiefs and the Kingdom of Morocco and the Mauritanian entity. "Thus the Court has not found legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonization of Western Sahara and, in particular, of the principle of self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the Territory." "(…) the Court finds that neither the internal nor the international acts relied upon by Morocco indicate the existence at the relevant period of either the existence or the international recognition of legal ties of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and the Moroccan State. Even taking account of the specific structure of that State, they do not show that Morocco displayed any effective and exclusive State activity in Western Sahara. They do, however, provide indications that a legal tie of allegiance existed at the relevant period between the Sultan and some, but only some, of the nomadic peoples of the territory, through Tekna caids of the Noun region, and they show that the Sultan displayed, and was recognized by other States to possess, some authority or influence with respect to those tribes. (…) The information before the Court discloses that, while there existed among them many ties of a racial, linguistic, religious, cultural and economic nature, the emirates and many of the tribes in the (Mauritanian) entity were independent in relation to one another; they had no common institutions or organs. The Mauritanian entity therefore did not have the character of a personality or corporate entity distinct from the several emirates or tribes which comprised it. The Court concludes that at the time of colonization by Spain there did not exist between the territory of Western Sahara and the Mauritanian entity any tie of sovereignty or of allegiance of tribes, or of simple inclusion in the same legal entity. Nevertheless, the General Assembly does not appear to have so framed Question II as to confine the question exclusively to those legal ties which imply territorial sovereignty, which would be to disregard the possible relevance of other legal ties to the decolonization process. The Court considers that, in the relevant period, the nomadic peoples of the Chinguetti country possessed rights, including some rights relating to the lands through which they migrated. These rights constituted legal ties between Western Sahara and the Mauritanian entity. They were ties which knew no frontier between the territories and were vital to the very maintenance of life in the region." The opinion of
the Court was interpreted
differently by the different
parties, and each focused on what it
sees as supporting its claims. The UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim visited Spain, Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, proposing a solution based on the “West Irian precedent.” (In 1961 Indonesia invaded Western New Guinea, now West Irian Jaya, before the Dutch colony could achieve independence. The territory was placed briefly under UN administration in 1962, and passed to Indonesia in 1963. A controversial self-determination referendum formalised Indonesian sovereignty in 1969) (http://mondediplo.com/2006/01/12asahara) In the same days 12,000 Saharawis demonstrated in support of Polisario in Laâyoune (October 26-27) . The Green March, which took place in October/November 1975, was the most important event in the Reign of Hassan II. The Spanish soldiers had already started to withdraw small isolated outposts which the guerillas of the Polisario quickly took the control of. Moroccan troops crossed the frontier in October 31 and clashed with Polisario guerrillas near Farsia, Hausa and Echderia, all places in northeast. The Spanish armed forces did not make any attempt to stop the clashes and the government of Madrid did even not protest at Rabat against the violation of the border of the Western Sahara by the Moroccan troops. The Spanish authorities launched Operation Golondrina, a compulsory evacuation program for Spanish civilians.
On
November 5, 1975, King Hassan ordered 350.000 unarmed Moroccans, Koran in hand,
protected by the army, to march into the north of Western Sahara to
reassert the sovereignty of the Territory. On November 6, the
UN Security Council "deplored" this action and ordered Hassan to
withdraw the marchers. The Algerian assistance to Polisario coincided with Moroccan military invasion. At that time the Algerian army was spread along the Algerian-Morrocan border. On his side, Lybian leader Kadhafi announced that any aggression against the Algerian Revolution would be regarded as an aggression against the Libyan Revolution. The Algerian material support to the Saharawis was accompanied even in these beginnings of the conflict by an engagement of certain elements by the Algerian army at the sides by Polisario. On November 14, 1975, Spain, Morocco and Mauritania signed the tripartite Madrid Agreement which marked the passage of power in February to the temporary Morocco-Mauritanian administration. "I. Spain confirms its resolve, repeatedly stated in the United Nations, to decolonize the Territory of Western Sahara by terminating the responsibilities and powers which it possesses over that Territory as administering Power." "II. In conformity with the afore-mentioned determination and in accordance with the negotiations advocated by the United Nations with the affected parties, Spain will proceed forthwith to institute a temporary administration in the Territory, in which Morocco and Mauritania will participate in collaboration with the Djemaa and to which will be transferred all the responsibilities and powers referred to in the preceding paragraph." By the Madrid Agreements Morocco acquired the northern two-thirds of the territory, while Mauritania acquired the southern third. The agreement also included the proviso that Spain would retain shares in the Bou-Craa mining enterprise. Mauritania acquiesced to the agreements under the assumption, probably correct, that Morocco, with its superior military power, would otherwise have absorbed the entire territory. On November 24, 1975, four days after the death of Franco, Spain withdrew. Soon after 67 of the 102 members of the Djema'a signed the Proclamation of Guelta Zemmur, declaring the assembly's dissolution and the creation of a pro-Polisario Provisional Saharawi National Council made by 40 members. But a transitional tripartite administration, headed by the Spanish governor-general, was set-up, following the arrival in Laâyoune of a Moroccan deputy governor, Ahmed Bensouda, and a Mauritanian deputy governor, Abdellahi Ould Cheikh.
Smara in
the north was occupied by Moroccan troops, therefore like other
centres. The resistance tried to oppose but tens of thousands
Saharawis began to leave the cities and the occupied zones. Algeria sent its troops deep into the territory of Western Sahara, which led to the first and last direct military confrontation between units of the Moroccan armed forces and the Algerian national army, in February 1976. A battle took place in Amgala, nearly 300 km from the Algerian border. Both sides took casualties and prisoners. Diplomatic intervention from Saudi Arabia and Egypt prevented the situation from escalating further.
Thousands of people fled to Algeria, in the region of Tindouf, to
escape the violence of the fighting.
According to Polisario, their aim at that time was to protect
the civil population which fled the cities to escape the extreme
violence from the occupation troops, such as napalm bombings. Since
then, the Polisario has been committed to a process of modernising
traditional Saharan society and overcoming tribalism as a form of
social organisation. The actual organisation of the refugee camps is
presented to the exterior world like a kind of perfect society.
According to Morocco, people were intimidated and forced by
the Polisario to leave the cities and join Tindouf against their
will. Moroccan supporters give examples like attacking on a small
village beside Smara in 1979 and kindnaping 700 inhabitants. Morocco
talks about "true dictatorial, repressive, sometimes terrorist
nature (of Polisario) which was hidden behind the misleading image
of combatants for a cause", and gives to Polisario the whole
responsibility of what happened in those days.
According to United Nations System Standing Committee on
Nutrition: "By late 1975, thousands of people had fled annexed
territories to camps in the east of the region. After the camps had
been bombarded with napalm, people moved further to south-west
Algeria, near the oasis town of Tindouf. Some 155.000 to 165.000
people, according to different estimates, mainly women, children and
the elderly, are settled in four camps in this isolated desert area.
The camps are administered by SADR ministries. Isolation and the
environmental hostility of the area makes humanitarian aid difficult
to deliver and impedes refugee selfsufficiency."
Spain officially
ended its administration in Western Sahara on
February 26, 1976, as the UN received
communication of the end of the Spanish presence in
the territory and Spain's last soldier departed the
territory. Spanish Foreign Minister, Areilza,
affirmed that Spain did not transfer to Morocco and
Mauritania the sovereignty over the territory but
only transferred its administration. The next day,
the
Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic was declared
by Polisario representatives. In those days the Special UN Envoy sent in February could only verify the impossibility of a free consultation among the population. 
THE WAR
THE DISPUTE FROM 1991 TO PRESENT DAY |
