Recently France and the United States again blocked the inclusion of human rights monitoring in the UN peacekeeping mission for Western Sahara, the only UN peacekeeping mission lacking such a mandate. And although U.S. policymakers were reported to have successfully pressured for release of Saharan human rights activist Aminatou Haidar last December, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stressed t
hat there is no change in U.S. policy. And 54 U.S. senators have signed a letter endorsing Moroccan occupation.
Further the excerpts from an article by Zoubir are presented.
The article by Zoubir is part of a special issue of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars Bulletin on “U.S. Militarization of the Sahara-Sahel”. The issue also includes analytical articles by editor Jacob Mundy, Stephen Harmon, Caroline Ifeka, Alex Thurston, Konstantina Isidoros, Vinjay Prasad, Anne McDougall, Daniel Volman, and Jeremy Keenan, covering a range of countries and aspects of the security situation in the region.
The Western Sahara conflict: regional and international repercussions
By Yahia H Zoubir, June 2010. Excerpts. Full article with references is available here.
The Western Sahara conflict, defined as a ‘forgotten conflict’ or ‘frozen conflict’ is approaching its 35th year; it has had significant damaging effects. A proposed regional trading bloc, Arab Maghrib Union, inaugurated with great fanfare in 1989, has been in hibernation since 1996, precisely because of this dispute. The question has poisoned relations between Algeria, the main sponsor of Western Saharan self-determination, and Morocco, which claims the territory it has illegally occupied since 1975.
Even if the issue very rarely makes the headlines, the Western Sahara conflict has had a significant impact on the development of the region. Indeed, the lack of regional integration is a serious consequence: economic exchange between the Maghrib states represents only 1.3% of their trade, the lowest regional trade in the world. Economists in the United States have shown that an integrated Maghrib market and free trade area would produce highly beneficial results for the populations of the region.
In addition, the dispute has generated other consequences. It has affected relations between France (defending the Moroccan monarchy’s irredentist claims) and Algeria, as well as relations between Spain (the former colonial power in Western Sahara) and, on the one hand, Morocco, and, on the other, Spain and Algeria. The United States, which during the Cold War allowed the occupation of the former Spanish colony by Morocco, has also suffered some of the consequences in its policy in the Maghrib: Its repeated calls for Maghrib integration have proven fruitless.
Geopolitics
According to the author, only a geopolitical perspective can explain the stalemate that has persisted in the Western Sahara conflict. The alleged technical difficulties to ensure a referendum have been mere pretext to allow Morocco to continue its col
onization of the territory. If today powers like the United States, France and Spain, support, albeit to different degrees, the concept of ‘autonomy for the Sahrawi people’, they have failed to impose it because international law is on the side of the Sahrawi people.
The conflict has increased even more as a younger generations of Sahrawis have resorted to active, continued peaceful resistance, which has succeeded in alerting the international community on human rights issues. The case of the activist Aminatou Haidar (picture on the right) is a perfect illustration. In fact, her hunger strike, triggered in November-December 2009 and the diplomatic reaction that ensued, have had such reverberations that the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, asked the UN Security Council on January 28, 2010, during a closed-door meeting, to include human rights monitoring in the prerogatives of the MINURSO, UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara – the only UN peacekeeping force that does not include, as part of its mandate, the protection of human rights. The same request had been made in 2009 but France opposed it.
Violations of human rights continue
On 30 April 2010, France once again, opposed the inclusion of the protection of human rights in MINURSO’s mandate. Therefore, UNSC Resolution 1920, which has extended MINURSO’s mandate for another year, does not contain any mention of human rights. In the meantime, the violations of human rights in occupied Western Sahara have in fact amplified despite their denunciations by respectable human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.
The lack of resolution of the Western Sahara conflict boils down to two main points: the conflicting positions of Morocco and Western Saharan nationalists, on the one hand, and geopolitical considerations, on the other hand. These geopolitical interests have been the main impediment to the resolution of the conflict because they strengthened the obstinate position of Morocco, which argues, thanks to external support, that it will only negotiate on the basis of ‘autonomy’ within Moroccan sovereignty. This proposal currently enjoys the implicit consent of France, the United States, and Spain, regardless of UN resolutions that refute any preconditions for the current negotiations.
Morocco opposes referendum
Despite the acceptance of the original UN Settlement Plan by Morocco and Polisario in 1991, all attempts to organize the referendum on self-determination of the last colony i
n Africa have failed. Since 2001, Morocco has continuously opposed the inclusion of the option of independence to any referendum process based on self-determination. Today, the Moroccans consider the referendum process altogether as an ‘obsolete practice’. Moroccans are comforted in their position owing to the backing they receive from France and the United States in the Security Council.
The Security Council has refused to impose a solution that includes the option of independence, as inscribed in UN resolutions. …Recently, France, the United States (under George W Bush) and Spain have made no doubt as to their support for the proposal Morocco made in 2007 to supposedly grant Western Sahara ‘autonomy’ within the Moroccan Kingdom. Implicitly, these countries have recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, while adopting an official position that indicates otherwise.
Polisario wants independence
Polisario’s counterproposal submitted to the United Nations in 2007, which conforms to international legality, does not reject outright the Moroccan ‘autonomy’ option, but insists that the any proposal be considered only as a third option (independence and integration being the others) as part of talks between the two parties. Polisario is also committed to accepting the results of the referendum whatever they are and to negotiate with the Kingdom of Morocco, under the auspices of the United Nations, the guarantees that it is prepared to grant to the Moroccan population residing in Western Sahara, as well as to the Kingdom of Morocco, in terms of Morocco’s political, economic and security interests in Western Sahara, in the event that the referendum on self-determination would lead to independence.
Morocco has consolidated its colonization of the territory, but it also exploits illegally, with no fear of punishment, the natural resources of Western Sahara, primarily phosphates and fisheries. The European Union is complicit in this exploitation through the fisheries agreement with Morocco, which includes Western Saharan waters, notwithstanding the doubts that the European Parliament has e
xpressed on the reasonableness of EU policy; in fact, it deemed EU fishing in Western Saharan waters to be illegal.
About the author
Yahia H. Zoubir is a professor of international relations and management and director of geopolitical research at the Euromed School of Business and Management (Marseille). He is the co-editor with Amirah-Fernandez Haizam of North Africa: politics, region, and the limits of transformation (Routledge 2008).
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Human Rights House has written many stories about violations of human rights in Western Sahara and land’s unlawful exploitation by Morocco. See these stories on the right side, in the part “Related links”.
This article is based on www.allafrica.com information and article by Yahia H. Zoubir. See the original full text here.
Related links:
EFTA-Morocco free trade agreement – new dispute over Western Sahara
Western Saharan hunger strikers – Morocco’s human rights violations
Sahrawis dissatisfied with UN chief and peacekeeping mission MINURSO
Polisario Front calls on UN to supervise human rights in territories under its control
