Could the Western Sahara Blow Up?

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. - Back Commentator Editorial
Board
BC
October 4, 2012

http://www.blackcommentator.com/488/488_aw_western_sahara_share.html

In the northwest corner of Africa, an on-going
conflict against an occupation could be entering a
new stage. The Western Sahara, known as the
Spanish Sahara prior to the withdrawal of Spain,
has been the site of a bitter struggle for national
liberation. Currently led by the organization
POLISARIO, a movement for the independence of
the Western Sahara began to take shape in the
1960s and early 1970s. When Spain was finally
forced to withdraw from its colony, there was open
season for Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania, each
country claiming that it should have possession of
the territory.

Insufficient pressure has been brought to bear on
Morocco to withdraw.

Algeria was the first to end its claim to the territory,
then turning to support POLISARIO. Mauritania
eventually abandoned its claims. Morocco, on the
other hand, set out to seize the territory, including
the sending in of thousands of Moroccan settlers.
After years of fighting a truce was called, but it has
always been an uneasy one. Saharawis (the people
of the Western Sahara) have been largely displaced
from their lands, many living in refugee camps on
the Algerian border or going into exile. Repeated
efforts at finding a just and lasting solution to this
crisis have largely been frustrated by Moroccan
intransigence, an intransigence backed by Morocco's
ally, France. At each moment when it has appeared
that a peaceful settlement has been within reach,
the Moroccans have undermined the effort.

Recent polls of Saharawi youth have set off alarms
for all those willing and interested in listening.
These polls indicate that Saharawi youth are
increasingly dissatisfied with the stalemate and are
tending to look for a renewal of the armed struggle.
Despite being an armed movement, most observers
have indicated that POLISARIO has respected the
truce, but the pressure from angry Saharawi youth
may force a shift in the strategy of the national
liberation movement.

Though many African countries, and even more
African social movements, support POLISARIO and
national self-determination for the Saharawi people,
insufficient pressure has been brought to bear on
Morocco to withdraw. Forcing a Moroccan
withdrawal and respect for Saharawi national self-
determination will necessitate not only pressure on
Morocco, but an insistence that France cease its
own level of interference. While the USA, in the
1990s, attempted to mediate a solution, it found
itself confronting Moroccan obstinacy and was,
itself, unwilling to put the right sort of pressure on
its North African ally.

Saharawi youth are increasingly dissatisfied with
the stalemate and are tending to look for a renewal
of the armed struggle.

The northern and western regions of Africa are in
considerable turmoil. The Libyan Revolution,
hijacked by NATO, has led to a flood of arms into
the region, promoting great instability (such as in
Mali, and in Libya itself). Al Qaeda-aligned groups,
sometimes supported by various governments in the
region, have been destabilizing forces. Morocco has
attempted to avoid dealing honestly and directly
with the Saharawi by unsuccessfully painting
POLISARIO as one of those terrorist or terrorist-
aligned groups. The Moroccan government's refusal
to address this question of their illegal occupation of
the Western Sahara may result in further
destabilization of the region and a return to all-out
war. Such a prospect is more than Africa needs, but
such a result will be completely understandable in
light of the continuous frustrations experienced by
the Saharawi people. This is a situation where there
is a desperate need for both an "honest broker" as
well as public pressure on both Morocco and
France. Morocco has been very successful in hiding
this issue from much of the world's population. It is
time this cover is lifted.
___________________

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member
and Columnist, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar
with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate
past president of TransAfricaForum, and the author
of "They're Bankrupting Us" - And Twenty Other
Myths about Unions. He is also the co-author of
Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor
and a New Path toward Social Justice, which
examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA.

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