BIPPI B's Independent Pro-Peace Initiative | ||||
Dispute for control of Western
Sahara
– 1975/1991
(to present day)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
OF THE TERRITORY From 1973 the colonizers gradually lost
control over the countryside to the armed
guerrillas of the
nationalist
Frente Polisario. Any
Spanish attempts to form loyal Saharawi
political institutions to support its rule failed. As the health of the
Spanish leader
Franco deteriorated, Spain slipped into
disarray, and sought a way out of the Sahara
conflict. In late 1975, Spain held meetings with Polisario to negotiate the terms for a
handover of power. But at the same time,
Morocco and
Mauritania began to put pressure on
Spain arguing
that Western Sahara formed an historical part
of their own territories. The United Nations
became deeply involved after Morocco asked for an
advisory opinion on its demands from
the
International Court of Justice. To
examine the wishes of the population, the UN also sent a
visiting mission which
returned its report,
announcing "an overwhelming consensus" in
favour of
independence. On October 16, 1975, the ICJ delivered
its verdict. The court found
with a clear majority, that the historical
ties of Morocco and Mauritania to Western Sahara
did not grant them the right to the
territory. The Court
declared that the Saharawi population, as the
true owners of the land, held a right of
self-determination. Neither Morocco nor Mauritania
accepted this, and on October 31, 1975,
Morocco sent its
army into Western Sahara to attack
Polisario positions.
On November 14, 1975, Spain, Morocco and Mauritania signed the
tripartite Madrid Agreement
by which Morocco acquired the northern two-thirds of the territory,
while Mauritania acquired the southern third. Tens of thousands of people fled to Algeria, in the region of Tindouf, to escape the violence of the fighting. On February 18, 1976, the columns of refugees were victims of bombardments with napalm, phosphorus and cluster bombs by Moroccan aviation. Many were reported dead near Guelta Zemmour and Bir Lahlou. The town of Tindouf was built near an isolated Saharan oasis in 1852 by members of the Sahrawi Tajakant tribe, but sacked and destroyed by Reguibat Sahrawis in 1895. It remained deserted until French troops arrived in the area in 1934. Since Algerian independence in 1962, the town has been purposely built up, partly because of its importance as a last outpost before the Moroccan, and Mauritanian borders.
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.
On
February 27, 1976, in the
"freed territory" of
Bir Lahlou, the
Polisario proclaimed the independence of Western Sahara and the birth of the
Saharawi Arabic Democratic Republic
or SADR.
A
temporary
constitution
of the SADR was first promulgated in 1976, but it has been revised
several times since then. The last major redrafting came in 1991,
but this version was further changed by the
Sahrawi National Council
- the SADR's
parliament in exile
- in 1995 and 1999. In spite of this, Morocco and Mauritania officially divided Western Sahara on April 14, by a bilateral act not recognized by the international community.
In May,
being completed the evacuation of the refugees, the Polisario
began offensive military actions.
The movement grew tremendously as
Saharawi refugees flocked to the camps and Algeria supplied arms and
funding. Within months, its army had expanded to several thousand
armed fighters, camels were replaced by modern jeeps, and 19th
century muskets were replaced by assault rifles. The fighting would drag on for two years, draining an already improvised economy, provoking ethnic conflict, and causing large numbers of casualties. The direct cost of Mauritania's colonial venture proved exorbitant. Mauritania rapidly increased its armed forces from only 3,000 at the beginning of 1976 to about 12,000 at the beginning of 1977; by mid-1978 the Mauritanian armed forces numbered between 15,000 and 17,000. Between 1975 and 1977, the government's expenditures increased by 64 percent, most of which was allotted for defence. In June a column of Polisario guerrillas crossed 1,500 km of desert and shelled Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital. On June 9, during clashes with Mauritanian forces, El-Ouali Moustapha Sayed was killed by a gunshot through the head. His position President was briefly assumed in an interim capacity by Mahfoud Ali Beiba, who was then replaced by Mohammed Abdelaziz at the Polisario's III General Popular Congress in August 1976. The 3d congress was held right after the death of the National liberation movement’s founder, El-Ouali Moustapha Sayed, during the first Polisario’s military offensive in Nouakchott against Ould Daddah’s regime."No peace, no stability before the return and complete independence", was the Congress theme which was held after the hasty withdrawal of Spain. Pushed by the decisions of this congress, Polisario would move from defence due to the invasion of the territory, to military offensive “Chahid El-Wali” against the new invaders who came to replace the Spanish colonizer. By time the offensive led to the fall of Ould Daddah regime in Mauritania, and to the confinement of Moroccan troops within what Rabat called then “useful triangle”, driven to the corner because of the war that reached Moroccan own territories. It recorded the increasing interest given to the national liberation issue, which was discussed at the level of international authorities, and it adopted a strategy for the war both on the military and diplomatic fronts.
Even
France and Spain learned how to fear the Saharawi guerrillas.
Polisario
guerrillas severely weakened Mauritania by repeatedly cutting the
Zouerate-Nouadhibou railway line that was the main route for the
export of iron ore, on which Mauritania depended for 80-90% of its
export earnings. Impoverished Mauritania couldn't afford the costs
of the war. In July Nouakchott was attacked again by the Frente Polisario, and President Daddah was forced to appoint a military officer to head the ministry of defence. 9.000 Moroccan troops were airlifted into Zouerate to reinforce Mauritanians, so that the Mauritanian military (15.000 to 17.000 troops) resented its role as a back-up force to the Moroccans. In October 1977, after two more French citizens were seized during a raid on the railway, French President Giscard d'Estaing ordered preparations for the military action called Opération Lamantin to begin. It consisted of Jaguar aircraft surveillance and attack on Polisario troops from French bases in Senegal, while small Army teams were deployed in Mauritanian garrisons.On December 12, French aircraft used napalm on Polisario units and their Mauritanian prisoners after attacking on the railway. Again, six days after, Jaguar aircraft bombed a Polisario column after attacking on the railway, killing 74 of 82 Mauritanian prisoners. So Polisario released French prisoners to UN. In the meanwhile Spain announced an end to arms shipments to Morocco and Mauritania. In January 1978, during a special congress of the PPM, Daddah unsuccessfully tried to seek a path out of the Western Sahara war; however, the increasingly isolated leader proved unable to undertake any diplomatic or political initiatives. In addition, relations between Daddah and senior army officers were strained because the president constantly shifted senior officers from posting to posting to guard against a possible coup. In February 1978, in a desperate move, Daddah appointed Colonel Mustapha Ould Salek to be army commander. In the late 1960s, Daddah had relegated Salek, who was suspected of pro-French leanings, to the reserve corps. (Salek had re-entered active duty only in 1977, when he was made commander of the Third Military Region, at Atar, and relations between Daddah and Salek were still strained.) On July 10, 1978, the newly appointed army commander led a group of junior officers in the bloodless overthrow of the eighteen-year-old Daddah government. Under Salek, a twenty-man junta calling itself the Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN) assumed power. The CMRN was a centrist, moderate, pro-French and pro-Moroccan regime, whose first mandate was to bring peace to Mauritania. The Polisario, which believed Mauritania would withdrew from the war if given the opportunity, declared a unilateral cease-fire, which the CMRN accepted at once. Salek and the CMRN then directed its collective diplomatic attention to Morocco, whose troops were still thought necessary to protect SNIM operations and thus enable the Mauritanian economy to recover. In April 1978 Polisario guerrillas boarded a Spanish fishing boat, Las Palomas, and captured 8 of its crew. Few days after French Jaguars attacked Polisario guerrillas again. But the situation was going to change.
On July
10, 1978, in Mauritania, President Ould Daddah was deposed in a coup
led by army officers who set up a Comité Militaire de
Redressement National and pledge to restore peace. One of the
causes of his regime's end was great dissatisfaction with
Mauritania's war in Western Sahara. Many Mauritanians sympathized
with the Polisario cause, and Daddah lost public support. In August 1978 the Spanish government led by Suárez from Union de Centro Democratico recognized the Frente Polisario as the only representant of the Saharawi people. After the Algerian President's death on December 27, 1978, Polisario announced the launching of the "Houari Boumedienne" offensive and shortly afterwards guerrillas fought their way into Tan-Tan in southern Morocco and hold it for four hours with 1.700 fighters.
In
1978 a OAU resolution established a committee of widely respected
heads of state,
le comitè
des sages,
to examine and report on the dispute. The committee was composed of
the presidents of Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, the Ivory Coast and
Mali. They made several visits to the area and interviewed many
people. The report was presented in July 1979. It called for an
immediate cease-fire between Polisario and Morocco and the holding
of a referendum, in cooperation with the UN. Another committee of five African heads of state was made up to plan for holding the referendum.
In the same time in Mauritania, the
difficulties facing Salek’s government multiplied and
soon proved to be insurmountable.
Following Morocco's lead, the CMRN opposed the creation of a new,
independent state in the Western Sahara, although Salek did not rule
out the possibility of a federated state with limited autonomy. In
the meantime, while Polisario guerrillas and Moroccan troops
continued to fight, the Mauritanian Army withdrew from active
participation in the war, although the CMRN was constrained from
signing a peace treaty in order to placate Morocco. The death of Algerian president Houari Boumediene in
December 1978 further heightened tensions. Also, Senegalese
president Leopold Senghor, who was displeased with Salek's ties with
Morocco, instigated a press campaign that highlighted racial
problems in Mauritania. Salek did little to ease the racial problem
when, in March 1979, he named eighty-one Maures and only seventeen
blacks to his new national advisory committee. Polisario leaders had become increasingly impatient
with Mauritania's inability to make a conclusive commitment to
peace, and in April 1979 they demanded the evacuation of Mauritanian
troops from Tiris al Gharbiyya as a precondition for further talks. Finally, the French
government lost confidence in Salek's ability to extricate
Mauritania from both the Western Sahara war and Moroccan influence.
Isolated and weak, Salek's government was overthrown on April 6,
1979, by Colonel Ahmed Ould Bouceif and Colonel Mohamed Khouna
Haidalla, who formed the Military Committee for National Salvation
(Comité Militaire de Salut National--CMRN). Salek, however, was
permitted to remain in the government as a figurehead president. In
late May, Bouceif was killed in an airplane crash; Haidalla was
designated prime minister and Colonel Mohamed Louly was named president.
Like its predecessor, the CMRN sought first to negotiate peace with
the Polisario without sacrificing its friendly ties with Morocco and
France. In its domestic policies, the Mauredominated CMRN embittered
both black and Maure civilians because it refused to share power
with either group. In addition, the government insisted on using
Arabic exclusively in the secondary schools, provoking
a wave of student protests in April 1979. US State Department gave the US Company Northrop Page Communications the go-ahead to build a $200-million electronic detection-system to help Morocco detect Polisario fighters. Nevertheless, American support for the Moroccan government was far from unanimous. Many members of the USA Congress, as well as other organisations, had questioned the whole Moroccan-American relationship even during in time of cold war, even when Morocco was seen as an essentuial barrier against Soviet adventurism in Africa, because of the persistent and well-documented violation of basic civil rights by King Hassan's regime. In the late 1970s the flow of American armaments to Morocco partly halted, but despite it the USA President Carter (future Nobel Peace Prize) moved ahead with significant sales of military equipment and aircraft to Morocco in 1979. In July 1979 the Polisario ended its cease-fire. Confronted with endless warfare and total economic collapse, the CMSN on August 5 signed the Algiers Agreement, by which Mauritania renounced its claim to Western Sahara and promised to withdraw completely within seven months. The Polisario, in return, renounced all claims regarding Mauritania. Most significant, Mauritania recognized the Polisario as the sole legitimate representative of the people of the Western Sahara, although in an effort to convince Morocco of its neutrality in the conflict, it did not recognize the Polisario's governing arm, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The CMSN government also agreed to withdraw from Tiris al Gharbiyya. However, just a few days after the signing of the peace treaty, Morocco occupied Tiris al Gharbiyya, rendering the issue moot and threatening the peace. King Hassan II annexed Tiris el-Gharbia several days after Mauritania's peace treaty with the Polisario. Consequently the Mauritanian government of CMSN again sought French support. French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing ordered a paratroop unit to Nouadhibou to defend Mauritania against a possible Moroccan invasion and to prevent the Polisario from using the nearby territory as a rear base for attacking Moroccan armed forces in the Western Sahara. Mauritania expelled several Moroccan diplomats and withdrew the passports of pro-Moroccan politicians. Last Moroccan troops left Maurita nia on December 26.In 1980, as relations worsened between the two countries, Nouakchott renounced the Mauritanian-Moroccan defence pact and ordered Morocco to withdraw its troops from Mauritanian territory. Morocco initially refused the evacuation order and tried to make the removal of its last garrison at Bir Mogreïn in northern Mauritania contingent on the withdrawal of Mauritanian forces from La Guera in the Western Sahara. Mauritania refused this request because it believed that continued administration of La Guera, with easy access to the iron ore port at Nouadhibou, was vital for security. The government claimed that a Moroccan presence only five kilometres from the port would invite Polisario attacks inside Mauritania and give King Hassan a potential stranglehold over the Mauritanian economy. The two countries broke off relations in March 1981 when Mauritania accused Morocco of instigating a coup to establish a pro-Moroccan government in Nouakchott. In 1983 relations deteriorated further when Mauritania officially recognized the government-in-exile established by the Polisario, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
In summer
Polisario guerrillas overrun the Moroccan base of Lebouirate, where
they took 111 prisoners and destroyed 37 tanks T-54. Some report
hundreds of Moroccans killed. Polisario hold the town for over a
year. They fought their way into Smara and captured another Moroccan
base at Mahbes. Following the Saharawi's reports, "The amount of
Moroccan armour visibly lost to the Polisario is a defence arsenal
which many small countries would be delighted to own..." (Shyam
Bhatia, The London Observer). On Novembre 11, 1980, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution (A/RES/35/19) urging Morocco to "terminate the occupation of the Territory of Western Sahara". At the beginning of the '80s, after Polisario's army (ELPS) defeated several times the Moroccan FAR, France sent military advisers to King Hassan II. Followed American advisers in 1982 and Israeli advisers in 1985.
Polisario
were gradually making inroads into liberating the eastern side of
the country; these inroads were becoming too close for the
Moroccans. After Israeli advice and assisted by a billion dollar
pay-out from the USA, between 1981-1987 Morocco built one of the largest man-made
structures in the world, the so-called
berm: a giant barrier over
1,600 km long,
separating the Polisario-controlled eastern section of Western
Sahara from the Moroccan-controlled parts in the west(Saharawis
call it “the wall of shame”).
The construction
of the berm resulted in what amounts to a military
stalemate. With neither side able to win decisively in the field,
military activity was scaled down in the mid-1980s. Polisario had
control of a big chunk of the country, but anything of any importance
(the fishing ports, the cities and the phosphate mines) is on the
Moroccan side of the wall.
Morocco had too huge internal problems to sustain the high cost of
the war, a continuing drought devastated the economy of the country
and little or no money were left for development. To make matters
worse, the price of Morocco’s main export, phosphate, declined while
its import bill, especially for oil, rose significantly. If the Carter administration maintained a position of ambiguous neutrality on the issue of Western Sahara, the Reagan administration (1981-1989) appeared committed to support for Morocco, considered as a reliable friend and ally in an unstable region. In the past there have been US military bases in Morocco and the US navy regularly uses Moroccan ports. The USA feared that if Morocco was loosing in the Sahara, King Hassan II may lose his throne. This moved Washington into a more active role against the Polisario-led struggle for independence. Although Reagan continued to declare support for OAU efforts towards a peaceful solution in Western Sahara, he supported in fact Moroccan efforts to achieve a military victory over Polisario and crush the struggle for self-determination. On February 22, 1982, the OAU admitted the SADR as the 51st full-fledged member. As a consequence, by time, 73 states recognised the SADR while Morocco left the Organisation. The UN and the OAU worked together in these years to allow a self-determination referendum. Many resolutions were approved and they declared to be available to cooperate in the organisation of a fair referendum. The two organisations urged direct negotiations between Morocco and Polisario, but the first contacts between the parts failed.
By
1983, in Mauritania, the Chairman
Haidalla had aligned himself with leftist
factions within the ruling CMSN and strengthened relations with
Algeria, which supported the Polisario. Subsequently, and against
the advice and wishes of a majority in the CMSN, in 1984 Haidalla
recognized the SADR. Mauritania's supportive stance toward the
Polisario increasingly angered King Hassan II, who accused Mauritania
of harbouring Polisario troops. In 1984 the Spanish government started to sell arms to Morocco. In October 1984 Polisario launched the "Grand Maghreb" offensive with dozens of tanks supported by heavy artillery. These attempts had for goal to prevent the construction of the wall because the chiefs of the Polisario were conscious of the deadly danger that it represented for the future of their movement, as the disappearance of the surprise generated the loss of their liberty of action. Mauritania's foreign relations changed when the coup led by the Mauritanian military in December 1984 brought Taya to power. Taya distanced Mauritania from the Polisario, while continuing to recognize its rights to self-determination. Concurrently, Taya improved Mauritania's relations with Morocco and re-established diplomatic ties in April 1985. Nevertheless, the Nouakchott government continued to fear that Morocco would violate Mauritania's borders in pursuit of Polisario guerrillas. The low intensity warfare continued while direct negotiations between Morocco and Polisario, promoted by UN and OUA, failed in 1986. First of all, commander Ayoub and his men, trained in Algeria but also in Cuba and Yugoslavia, operated in the zones still not secured by the berm (in 1983 and 1984, some attacks took place in Guelta Zemmour, Lemseied, Lahraicha and Zmoul Nirane), then, until 1989, directly against this one. In May 1987, Morocco finished the construction of a sixth berm (“the Big Wall”) in the Western Sahara along Mauritania's northern border. The system of berms built along the Western Sahara's eastern and southern borders and manned by Moroccan troops effectively insulated the entire territory and forced the Polisario onto Mauritanian soil. This threat pushed the CMSN to station nearly two-thirds of Mauritania's military along the north-western borders and to seek increased French military aid. In May 1988 Algeria and Morocco agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations, broken since 1976, as well as rail links, air links, and a gas pipeline deal. On August 11th, 1988, UN Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar proposed a cease-fire and the organisation of a referendum under international control, on the base of the 1974 Spanish census. On 30 August 1988, Morocco and Polisario accepted the UN-OUA baked peace plan and in November Polisario decreed a unilateral cease-fire. A UN resolution approved the peace process, but when Spain voted in favour of the resolution, for reaction King Hassan II cancelled its visit to the Iberian country and, at the same time, the rivendications on Ceuta and Melilla, the remaining plazas de soberanía ("places of sovereignty"), became stronger. On January 4th, 1989, King Hassan II met in Marrakech some responsibles of Polisario. Then he affirmed he met only some Moroccan subjects. As a consequence of the provocation, Polisario announced to start again with military operations. In February 1989 the North African Heads of State, meeting in Marrakesh, signed a treaty establishing the Union of the Arab Maghreb. The new body, which included Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia, aimed to promote trade by allowing the free movement of goods, services and workers.
In March 1989,
the European Parliament adopted a resolution affirming that the
problem in Western Sahara is decolonisation. The solution is in the
application of the right of auto-determination, according to the UN
and OUA resolutions.
In 1990, while Amnesty International published a dossier on the violation of human rights in Morocco, denouncing the “disappearing” of Saharawi people, the UN Security Council approved the resolution 658/90 containing the "Settlement Plan" for Western Sahara.The Polisario had thus been thwarted militarily, its freedom of movement confined, but Morocco was, for its part, exhausted by a war that immobilized hundreds of thousands of troops and consumed 60% of its GDP. Being evident that neither Polisario nor Morocco could definitely defeat the other, Polisario announced another unilateral cease-fire in April. The Settlement Plan provided for the voluntary repatriation of the refugees, so that they could vote within the province, a UN monitored cease fire, effective 1992, the cantonment of the Polisario troops in the lead up to the referendum (the so called Transitional Period) and the reduction of the Moroccan troops up down to a maximum of 60,000. The latter would be deployed along the Berm exclusively on a defensive posture. Meanwhile, there would be an exchange of prisoners of war, Morocco would release all political prisoners and the United Nations Secretary General would have the remit to suspend all legislation and stay all decisions by the Moroccan Government that could be detrimental to the application of the Settlement Plan. The Plan finally provided that, in the event the outcomes of the referendum were to be integration, the Polisario Front would demobilize and disband in four weeks from the date of the proclamation of the official result. In the event the Saharawis were to choose independence, Morocco would have to withdraw both its troops and administration in six weeks. In August 1990, the Iraq's invasion of Kuwait changed the international scenario. The USA needed international alliances and King Hassan II became one of the most important USA's allies in the Arab world, joining the military coalition against Iraq in the First Gulf War. By the resolution 690/91 the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established in accordance with the Settlement Plan to assist the Secretary General and the Special Representative in the fulfillment of the United Nations mandate on the holding of a Referendum for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. MINURSO was created as an integrated group of United Nations civilian, military and civilian police personnel; up to total 1.000 civilian and 1.700 military personnel, it was mandated to:
The chain of proceedings on the establishment of MINURSO can be read in the UN repertoire of Practice of the Security Council (Supplement 1989-1992, Chapter V, C. Peacekeeping missions, pg. 12-16).
A long process of
identification began, towards the referendum on the
self-determination of the Saharawis which should be made in
January 1992. The 1974 Census would be technically updated
to exclude the deceased and determine those who would have
become of age (18 years-o) to be eligible for the electoral
roll. THE DECOLONISATION THE DISPUTE FROM 1991 TO PRESENT DAY |