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Morocco versus Polisario: a Political Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Anthony G. Pazzanita
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Extract

By 1994 Africa had only one major unresolved colonial question. Namibia and Eritrea having acquired their independence in March 1990 and May 1993 respectively, the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara remains controlled by the Kingdom of Morocco (as it has since 1975), despite the expenditure of thousands of human lives, billions of dollars, and strenuous diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute through the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U.) and the United Nations. Both Morocco, under the monarchical régime of King Hassan II, and the Frente popular para la Liberación de Saguia el-Hamra y Río de Oro (Polisario Front) composed of Saharawis dedicated to the establishment of an independent Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (S.A.D.R.), have found each other far more resourceful and less willing to compromise than they could possibly have surmised almost two decades ago.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 265 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 For an indication of the complexity of this matter, see ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation Concerning Western Sahara’, S/23299, New York, 19 December 1991, pp. 5–12Google Scholar, and another United Nations document, ‘The Situation Concerning Western Sahara: Report by the Secretary-General’, S/25170, 26 January 1993, pp. 10–13.Google Scholar

2 ‘Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report, Near East and South Asia’, Washington, DC, 2 Febuary 1993, p. 23, and 3 March 1993, p. 13. This source is hereinafter referred to as FBIS-NES.Google Scholar

3 Africa Research Bulletin. Political Series (Exeter), 30, 1, 1–31 01 1993, p. 10866.Google Scholar

4 See Zoubir, Yahia H., ‘Reactions in the Maghreb to the Gulf Crisis and War’, in Arab Studies Quarterly (Washington, DC), 15, 1, Winter 1993, pp. 91–2.Google Scholar

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6 See, for example, Amnesty International, Morocco. Breaking the Wall of Silence: the ‘disappeared’ in Morocco (New York, 04 1993).Google Scholar

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8 Ibid. p. 57. In 1993, Moroccan interests in the United States were represented by the law firm of White and Case, and by the public-relations/lobbying firms of Neill and Company and the Capitol Group.

9 Ibid. pp. 57–62. However, opposition to Morocco's policies continued in the U.S. Congress throughout the 1980s.

10 Middle East Institute, Middle East Organizations in Washington, DC (Washington, DC, 1990), p. 48.Google Scholar

11 The New York Times, 13 September 1989, and Time Magazine (New York), ‘Western Sahara: the challenge of peace’, Special Advertising Section, 4 December 1989.Google Scholar

12 Hodges, Tony, Western Sahara: the roots of a desert war (Westport, CT, 1983), pp. 232–4.Google Scholar

13 Ibid. pp. 267–78.

14 See Hodges, Tony, Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara (Metuchen, NJ, and London, 1982), p. 306.Google Scholar

15 See Legum, Cohn (ed.), Africa Contemporary Record: annual survey and documents, Vol. 15, 1982–83 (New York, 1983), pp. A59–60, and Vol. 16s, 1983–1984 (New York, 1984), pp. A90–6.Google Scholar

16 The New York Times, 13 and 18 November 1984.

17 In one of the many ironies of the conifict, Ibrahim Hakim defected to Morocco in August 1992. See Africa Research Bulletin, 29, 8, 1–31 08 1992, p. 10689Google Scholar, and FBIS–NES, 12 August 1992, p. 20.

18 Hodges, Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, p. 306.

19 The New York Times, 15 November 1981.

20 Ibid. As a Moroccan officer observed, for Morocco ‘it is a line of obstacles and surveillance, not a thing to hide behind’.

21 Africa Contemporary Record, Vol. 20, 1987–88 (New York, 1988), pp. B566–7.Google Scholar

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23 Cf. Layachi, Azzedine, The United States and North Africa: a cognitive approach to foreign policy (New York and London, 1990).Google Scholar

24 The United Nations document, ‘Western Sahara: working paper prepared by the Secretariat’, A/AC.109/1163, New York, 8 July p. 11, first revealed this policy change by way of quoting an Agence France presse dispatch from Algiers dated 21 June 1993.Google Scholar

25 United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation Concerning Western Sahara (New York), 28 07 1993, pp. 4–8.Google Scholar

26 United Nations, The Situation Conerning Western Sahara: report by the Secretay-Genera1 (New York), 10 03 1994, pp. 3 and 7–9.Google Scholar

27 The Times (London), 19 03 1994, and U.N. Security Council Resolution 907 of 29 March 1994.Google Scholar