AP News, March 2nd, 2007
Morocco will present an autonomy plan for Western Sahara to the United Nations next month in hopes of ending a three-decade conflict that has stranded 160,000 refugees in the Sahara, a top Moroccan official said Friday.
The plan would give the disputed region a parliament, a chief of state, Cabinet ministries and a judiciary that would oversee day-to-day life, said Khalihenna Ould Errachid, King Mohamed VI's chief adviser on the territory.
Morocco, which took control of Western Sahara in the 1970s after Spain pulled out, says autonomy is the only way to end a conflict with the Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed independence movement. It first proposed autonomy in 2000.
The Polisario Front, though, insists on holding a referendum on independence. Morocco says a vote would be unworkable.
The stalled conflict has left refugees in bleak camps in the Algerian Sahara, poisoned relations between Morocco and Algeria, and inflicts heavy costs on Morocco, already struggling with widespread poverty and unemployment.
Last fall, key members of the U.N. Security Council made clear they wanted real progress on Western Sahara before the U.N. mission's current mandate runs out on April 30. The autonomy plan is expected to be presented at the U.N. in April.
"We can stay at an impasse, or seek a middle way that leaves neither winners nor losers _ and that's autonomy," Ould Errachid said Wednesday in the first of two interviews this week.
A Western Sahara parliament could create laws _ as long as they do not violate Morocco's national law, while regional courts would fall under the Moroccan legal system, he said.
The regional government would oversee areas like education, tourism and social services. Morocco would retain control of foreign relations, defense, finance and border control, he said.
Western Sahara would also keep Morocco's flag, currency and stamps. King Mohamed VI would continue to be recognized as the highest religious authority in the land.
Morocco currently subsidizes life for Western Sahara's 50,000 to 90,000 Saharawis and 200,000 Moroccan settlers. Under autonomy, the territory will be expected to pay its own way, Ould Errachid said.
Western Sahara boasts phosphates, fisheries and possible offshore oil, but the territory's disputed status has prevented their full exploitation. Last year, the European Union signed a fishing deal with Morocco allowing European fisherman to fish Western Sahara's waters.
Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara after its Spanish colonizers ceded them the territory in 1975. Full-scale war with the Polisario Front broke out in 1976, and Morocco took over most of Western Sahara after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.
The U.N. has said it upholds the principle of self-determination and that any solution to Western Sahara must be accepted by both Morocco and Polisario.
The U.N. brokered a cease-fire in 1991 and installed a mission to pave the way for an independence referendum. Morocco refused a 2003 U.N. peace plan, accepted by Polisario, that envisaged temporary autonomy followed by a referendum in which both Saharawis and Moroccan settlers would vote.
