Photo Credit: gmcwesternsahara.org
May 12, 2021
The wave of independence witnessed across the world, particularly in Africa, in the 1950s and 1960s seems to have never finished. There is still one country in the African continent that is yet to realize its right to self-determination and freedom, and which has been waiting for a referendum on its independence for decades: the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), also known as Western Sahara.
Before the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, which was later denominated the “scramble for Africa” and which signaled the beginning of the colonial era, Europeans had only made a few incursions into the African continent, with trading posts mainly centered around the coasts and an economy revolving around the slave trade. In fact, the vast interior part of the continent remained, until then, largely unknown, inaccessible, and unattainable. During that Conference, some European powers -Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and, until World War I, Germany – drew arbitrary lines on a map of places they had never been to, with no regard for existing peoples, kingdoms, and geography. Since then, 75 years of colonial rule aimed at exploiting Africa’s wealth and at oppressing its peoples have passed before the Europeans could finally leave the continent.
The decolonization of Africa was promoted by the United Nations after the Second World War, as stated in Article 73 of the UN Charter, and with the Resolution n.1514, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1960, that affirmed the right to independence of colonial countries and colonized peoples. However, by the late-70s there were still some territories under colonial rule. For instance, Portuguese colonies of Mozambique, Cape Verde, Angola, São Tomé, and Principe, gained their independence in 1975 with the fall of the authoritarian regime “Estado Novo”. In the same year, the Spanish Kingdom withdrew from its colony in Western Sahara, at the time known as Spanish Sahara, rich in phosphates and fishing grounds. It was with this event that things started to quickly escalate towards an armed conflict in this region.
In 1963, Western Sahara was included by the United Nations in the list of countries to be decolonized, the so-called Non-Self Governing Territories, and two years later the UN General Assembly reaffirmed the right to independence of the Sahrawi people, calling on Spain to put an end to its colonial occupation. During this time-lapse, the region was disputed by four parties: Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, and the Polisario Front ( Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguia el Hamra y Río de Oro), founded in 1973 with the main goal to obtain the recognition of the right to self-determination and independence of the indigenous Sahrawi people.
Spain eventually agreed on decolonizing Western Sahara and decided to hold a referendum, under the pressure of the UN, so that the Sahrawi people could choose between the annexation to Morocco and Mauritania, or to create a new state controlled by the Polisario Front.
However, in early 1975, Morocco expressed its total opposition to the independence of the country, despite the fact that a UN special mission to the territories disputed reconfirmed the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people. Thus, the referendum was officially given the “green signal”, but in the end, it led to the “Green March”: a strategic mass demonstration coordinated by the Moroccan government. It marked the beginning of a Moroccan illegal invasion, occupation, and annexation, which has continued since then with the tacit support of the United States and the EU countries. The UN Security Council called on Morocco to “put an end forthwith to the declared march into Western Sahara” (Resolution 380). For the people of Western Sahara, the Green March meant the beginning of four decades under occupation or in refugee camps, a continuation of colonial rule by a different country. An armed conflict, which continued till 1991, erupted between the Polisario Front and Morocco.
Meanwhile, Mauritania joined Morocco in the occupation of Western Sahara with the idea of dividing it among the two. A few months later Spain left the former colony to its fate, and the three States signed the Madrid Accords: the administrative control of Western Sahara was handed over to Morocco and Mauritania. As a reaction, the Polisario Front, supported by Alegria, proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)claiming Western Sahara as their legitimate land.
In 1979, Mauritania and SADR, with its government in exile in Tindouf, Algeria, signed a peace treaty, and the former deserted all claims to Western Sahara. But, right after that, Morocco quickly moved in the land left, securing de facto control over most of the territory, including all the major cities and natural resources. Simultaneously, the SADR was admitted to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the African Union’s predecessor, as the government of Western Sahara. Consequently, Morocco withdrew its membership. Morocco was readmitted to the African Union only in 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”.
Moreover, the conflict was curtailed when Morocco built a long sand wall(BERM) in the desert enclosing about four-fifths of the territory within its control, and leaving tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees on the other side. It separated the Moroccan-annexed areas from the Polisario-controlled areas. Finally, a cease-fire was negotiated in 1991 between the two parties but, as the conflict froze, thousands of refugees were still stuck in the “temporary” camps.
Generations of Sahrawis people and families have grown up in Algeria’s remote desert refugee camps, largely forgotten by the outside world. The Sahrawi Refugee Crisis is considered to be one of the most protracted humanitarian crises globally. Most of the Sahrawi refugees live in very precarious conditions in refugee camps in the Tindouf region of Algeria, “a barren, arid, windswept and desolate portion of the Sahara Desert, entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance”, as stated by the Danish Refugee Council.
The cease-fire was overseen by the peacekeeping mission MINURSO(“MissiondeNationsUnies pour l’Organisation d’unRéférendum auSaharaOccidental“), under the terms of a UN Settlement Plan to monitor the cease-fire and to promote the organization of a referendum through which the Sahrawis of Western Sahara have to choose whether to have autonomy, independence or integrate the territory into Morocco. Despite the agreement between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the MINURSO mandate has been extended 47 times since 1991.
However, the plan could not be implemented, due to Morocco’s demands for voters lists that favoured its grip on power. Today the government in Rabat rejects all solutions that are intended to establish the area under Moroccan sovereignty. There have been also many instances of human rights violations and serious breaches of the Geneva convention committed by the Moroccan Government, the Polisario Front, and the Algerian government. Human Right Watch has reported the abuses committed by the Moroccan government against Sahrawi people: “The government bans peaceful demonstrations and refuses legal recognition to human rights organizations; the security forces arbitrarily arrest demonstrators and suspected Sahrawi activists, beat them and subject them to torture, and force them to sign incriminating police statements, all with virtual impunity; and the courts convict and imprison them after unfair trials”.
Furthermore, in 2010, the Polisario Front suspended contacts with the MINURSO, due to the failure of implementing the self-determination referendum and because of the endless human rights abuses, and accused the force of “…turning into a protector shield of a colonial fact, the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco“.
The Moroccan aggression, occupation, and annexation of the territory constitute a serious violation of international law, and Western Sahara is not recognized as part of Morocco by any states. But some states support the Moroccan autonomy plan that aims at integrating the whole Western Sahara territory within its borders. The plan of “territorial integrity” is favoured by the Arab League, which does not recognize the SADR. The main fear of the Sahrawi people is that the independence claim has become a lost cause after the U.S. administration of former President Donald Trump, in December 2020, abruptly and suddenly recognized Morocco as being the legitimate holder of the vast territory of Western Sahara. “Morocco recognized the United States in 1777. It is thus fitting we recognize their sovereignty over Western Sahara”, President Trump tweeted in December 2020. However, one month before, the Polisario had announced that the 1991 ceasefire was null and void after Morocco had sent troops into an UN-patrolled buffer zone to reopen the road.
The formal recognition of the disputed territory has been carried out in a moment when the Trump administration has prioritized strengthening Israel’s diplomatic position in the Middle East. Indeed, Morocco had joined the growing list of predominantly Arab countries to establish open diplomatic relations with Israel (the other countries belonging to the Arab League that did the same are Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Sudan). Morocco accomplished this task in exchange for the United States’ support of Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara. The U.S.A has thus become the only great world power to do so.
For the SADR leaders and authorities, Joe Biden’s election as the President of the USA brought a new air of hope. The Sahrawi government-in-exile based in Algeria has called on President Biden to reverse his predecessor’s decision to accept Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. However, their hope vanished very quickly. Biden decided not to reverse Trump’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. “Years of peace have not worked. Now it is time to return to war and we women of Western Sahara will sacrifice our children for the cause,” declared the sixty-five-year-old woman Mbaraka from a refugee camp in Tindouf, which hosts several camps housing more than 165,000 refugees. Located in one of the most inhospitable areas of the planet, where the summer temperature rises to more than 50 degrees in the shade and in winter it is freezing cold, they live in windswept concrete or mud shelters with few jobs and little to hope for a better future and an eventual return to their own country. According to OXFAM Belgium, “it is solely thanks to the solid organization structure and the large feeling of solidarity, characteristic of these people, that they were able to build an organized society in this desert”.
To conclude, from an objective analysis of the dispute presented so far, it can be suggested that the claim of Morocco on Western Sahara is contentious and that the people of Western Sahara should have the ultimate right to self-determination, to freely choose their own destiny, which must be met through the establishment of a fully sovereign State.
Fabrizio Parrilli, 24, Master’s degree Student of International Cooperation on Human Rights at the University of Bologna, Italy. My areas of interest are mainly focused on international issues, contemporary history, protection of human rights, political and cultural dynamics, youth work, and education. I love travelling, discovering new cultures, and having fun. My motto is live, love, laugh. E-mail: parrillifabrizio@gmail.com