Les rencontres informelles à Vienne ont été clôturées. Ceux qui réclamaient que le gouvernement marocain n’a pas changé d’attitude n’ont pas été déçus. Le plan d’autonomie a été avancé, encore une fois, comme un « point de compromis », selon le ministre des affaires étragères marocain, Fassi Fihri.

Quatre séries de négociations officielles ont déjà eu lieu à Manhasset (New York) entre le Maroc et le Polisario et n’ont pas permis de rapprocher les points de vue et aboutir à un compromis. Et à chaque fois, on entendait « nous avons décidé de nous rencontrer dans les prochains mois ». Cette fois-ci « nous avons décidé de poursuivre cet exercice de négociation et de discussion », c’est ce qui a été décidé, selon Fassi Fihri. Et pour cacher l’échec des négociations, le chef de la diplomatie marocaine ajoute que « beaucou a été fait dans le cadre de cette réunion ».

Les négociations n’avancent pas. Par contre, sur le champ diplomatique, la cause sahraouie a enregistré des progrès très importants. Le premier et plus important étant l’loignement clair de l’administration d’Obama des positions maintenues par son prédécesseur dans l’affaire du Sahara Occidental. Dans la missive adressée au roi Mohamed VI, Obama fait demande de construir « une entité avec identité propre, dans un premier temps, et après nous verrons ». Une approximation qui soulève beaucoup de soucis à Rabat, malgré que sur le soutien de la France est toujours dans la poche pour contrecarrer toute tentative, de la part de la communauté internationale, de forcer la main aux autorités marocaines.

Rachid Nini, directeur du quotidien Al-Massae, présumé grand défenseur des libertés publiques au Maroc, presque aux larmes, décrivait dans un article paru le 12 août, dans son journal, les derniers revers de la diplomatie marocaine :

– Enzo Scotty, secretaire d’Etat aux affaires étrangères italiennes a réaffirmé que l’Italie plaide pour une solution du conflit au Sahara occidental qui «garantit le droit du peuple sahraoui à l’autodétermination» et le Conseil de la ville de Rome a adopté une motion de soutien au peuple sahraoui dans sa lutte de libération nationale, appelant l’ONU à mettre en œuvre ses résolutions tendant à décoloniser le Sahara occidental et le gouvernement italien à reconnaître au Polisario son statut diplomatique en Italie.

– La commission financière du Sénat américain a réclamé au Maroc « un rapport détaillé sur le respect des droits de l’Homme au Sahara Occidental ». Il est à rappeler que le respect des droits de l’homme au Sahara est devenu une condition préalable imposée par le Sénat américain pour octroyer toute aide financière au Maroc dans les prochaines années. Certaines sources médiatiques ont même avancé une lettre du président américain Barack Obama dans laquelle il demande au roi du Maroc de faire avancer les négociations avec le Polisario pour une solution finale au problème sahraoui.

– L’échec du lobby pro-marocain à imposer l’autonomie auprès du nouveau locataire de la Maison Blanche.

– Le Parlement chilien a demandé à son gouvernement de reconnaître et d’établir des relations diplomatiques offiecielles avec la République Arabe Sahraouie Démocratique.

– Cloturedes travaux de la 4e réunion de la Commission des Chefs d’Etats-Major des pays membres de la capacité de la région d’Afrique du Nord relevant de la Force africaine, tenus au cercle de l’Armée à Beni Messous (Alger) sur « un accord portant sur les deux volets, opérationnel et organisationnel ».
Constituée de la Libye, l’Egypte, la Mauritanie, la République Arabe Sahraouie Démocratique et la Tunisie ainsi que les membres du secrétariat exécutif de cette instance et des représentants de la Commission de l’Union africaine (UA), la capacité africaine «sera opérationnelle dès le mois de juin 2010.

Anna Theofilopoulou, a former UN decolonization specialist that worked on Western Sahara’s peace process from 1994-2004, has followed both the Settlement Plan and Baker’s seven-year peace effort from start til finish, she is one of very few to really know the Sahara negotiations game inside out.

She is categoric when she says that with the autonomy initiative, the current impasse will go on for some more years. Given the absence of will by members of the Security Council to take a clear and determined position and the general preference for « make believe » action, this is quite probable. The UN has had a reasonable plan on the table that met all the specifications laid out by the Security Council to Baker when he was asked in July 2002 to pursue his efforts to find a political solution. It has expressed its readiness to consider any approach that would allow for self-determination. After initially supporting the Baker Peace Plan, the Council changed its position once one of the parties raised objections. Instead of taking a firm position, it vacillated.

What she hints at but doesn’t say is: that starting endless, pointless negotiations in order to gain time, is in fact Morocco’s first hand-option, and will remain so for as long as the UN will not surrender self-determination as a principle of decolonization. That is precisely the reason for this.

Morocco’s current autonomy proposal, while not much different in substance to what was given to Baker in December 2003, follows a different strategy. Claiming to be open to negotiations, it does not go into the details of the previous autonomy project. Instead, it defines the outline and principles governing autonomy, allowing for the proposal « to be enriched by the other parties during the negotiations phase. The conflict has been stuck since 1991 precisely because the two parties cannot agree on the definition of anything.

Morocco’s strategy appears to be to normalise its occupation of Western Sahara by appearing to give ground by granting autonomy, while in actual fact consolidating its control and neutralising the efforts of the international community to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region. If the UN adopte his autonomy plan that means a recognition of its souvereignity over a non self autonome territory.

Anyone who thinks that Morocco would ever allow the Sahrawi to control any of the territory’s mineral or fishing wealth is seriously suffering from naivety illness. It just won’t happen. The Moroccan military, elite, and monarchy have been happily stealing Western Sahara’s abundant resources for over thirty years and are not about to relinquish their cash cow.

They are floating it because it is essentially a propaganda exercise designed to give the impression that Morocco is a progressive nation seeking and end to a long-running conflict, up against an intractable foe (i.e. the Polisario Front).

So, the autonomy plan either changes nothing on the ground, or is a prelude to war. It is possible that Morocco is seeking to legitimize its « ownership » of Western Sahara in the eyes of the international community so that it can complete its conquest of Western Sahara and claim it is just dealing with an uprising by « separatists » in territory that everyone recognizes as Moroccan. However, this would risk conflict with Algeria and regional destabilization. But we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility that the autonomy plan is a precursor to further aggressive military activity on the part of Rabat.

The American diplomat Christopher Ross was chosen this past summer to untangle this mess. Ross was originally selected for the job in September, but it took several months to make it official, after Morocco obstructed his appointment because, as the moroccan press say, that, from now on, any talks must focus on how to implement the king’s autonomy plan, not whether to do it the Moroccan autonomy plan must be the « sole platform » for future discussions, leaving aside any proposals from POLISARIO. That is of course unacceptable to the Sahrawis, who respond that in such a case, there would be no point in having negotiations at all.

Ross inherits an unenviable portfolio. Morocco remains as unlikely as ever to agree to a referendum that offers independence for the territory, and the Polisario will settle for nothing less. To date, UN proposals have all been unsatisfactory to, at least, one of the three parties. The proposed UN referendum on independence signed in 1991 died when the Polisario and Morocco disagreed over who in the Western Sahara should have the right to vote. In 2001, Morocco signed on to the first version of the Baker plan, under which the Western Sahara would become an autonomous region of Morocco, but Polisario predictably rejected the plan. In 2003, Baker revised the plan to include autonomy and a referendum of the entire Western Saharan population, including the Polisario refugees in camps in Algeria. Polisario signed on, as did the UN Security Council, but without Morocco’s cooperation the deal fell through.

After visiting, twice, the Maghreb region, Ross said he won’t accept any solution that doesn’t have self-determination. Alternately, this could mean nothing. Moroccan claim that self-determination includes autonomy, and he hasn’t mentioned a referendum. But at least he is seraching for a « solution based on the self-determination principle » and he isn’t endorsing autonomy like Van Walsum. The new UN envoy on Western Sahara isn’t taking up last envoy Peter Van Walsum’s weak stance on self-determination.

Officially, Morocco indicated that it wanted negotiations to be based on the autonomy plan, but that never seemed likely. It could just have been an attempt to play hardball, so Western nations do not get the idea that Morocco is ready for more compromise; also, it’s worth bearing in mind that Morocco is rather comfortable with the status quo, and would rather extend it than enter unknown diplomatic territory.

If international law were followed, this would be an easy enough problem for Ross to sort out. Western Sahara falls under U.N. Charter laws. General Assembly Resolution 1514 outlawed colonialism and imposed an obligation on all colonial powers to let the indigenous population within the colonial territory vote for self-determination.

If Ambassador Ross convinces the parties involved to follow international law, he will have the honor of closing the door on Africa’s colonial past. The new UN envoy Ross seems to have reawakened hopes for sahrawi community. Let us hope that a year from now, Sahrawis are not still claiming for their rights and that refugees in Algeria be in their homeland.

But reality is different. The sad reality is that there is a little chance the talks in Austria would break the deadlock, even with a new format. That means that a fifth round of UN-sponsored negotiations is expected, but promises little immediate progress. All Analysts are unanimous : little prospect of breakthrough.

The informal meetings between Morocco and Front POLISARIO has again made a little noise. The good news: it is still moving. The bad news: it is moving to the statu quo if the international community still watching this conflict with indifference.

Les mères des six jeunes sahraouis déclarent soutenir la lutte de leurs enfants

Les mères des six jeunes Sahraouis qui ont été retenus par les autorités marocaines à l’aéroport d’Agadir mercredi, et empêchés de voyager vers Londres, ont exprimé dans un communiqué de presse leur soutien à leurs enfants.

Ci-après la traduction du texte, l’original est en Arabe.

El Aaiun/ Sahara Occidental : 06 août 2009

Nous sommes les mères des six jeunes Sahraouis qui ont été empêchés par les autorités Marocaines dans l’aéroport d’Agadir, de voyager le mercredi 6 août 2009 vers la capitale Britannique, Londres où ils devaient participer à une rencontre entre étudiants sur la question du Sahara Occidental, du 5 au 18 août. Ils ont débuté aujourd’hui une grève de la faim à l’intérieur de l’aéroport pour protester contre cette décision Marocaine illégale, contraire à tous les traités internationaux des droits de l’Homme, et spécialement à l’article 13 de la déclaration universelle des droits de l’Homme.

Etant donné que les autorités Marocaines ont empêché nos enfants de voyager alors qu’ils possédaient les passeports et visas nécessaires à l’entrée au Royaume Uni, nous :

– soutenons et sommes solidaires de la grève de la faim de nos enfants dans l’aéroport d’Agadir depuis mercredi 5 août 2009

– Condamnons le siège de la police marocaine dont ils sont l’objet et dénonçons la privation de leur droit fondamental à la liberté d’expression, et de leur droit à participer à la rencontre entre étudiants organisée à Londres sur le sujet du Sahara Occidental

Nous tenons l’état Marocain pour comptable et responsable de cette violation flagrante des droits de l’Homme, et de tout effet négatif de la grève de la faim sur leur santé, grève de la faim qu’ils ont été contraints d’entreprendre pour défendre leur dignité et leurs droits.

Signatures:

– Fatma Mohamed Mbarek Amaidane / mère de Amaidane Maimouna

– Aicha Omar Amaisa / mère de El Haouasi Nguia

– Mariem Said Tirsal / mère de Hayat Rguibi

– Cherifa Abdrahman Hammouda / mère de Elassri Mohamed Fadel

– Mahjouba Mohamed Bneita / mère de Mohamed Daanoun

– El Azza Sleiman Andallah / mère de Razouk Choummad

Our parcel has arrived, and our 19-day enforced rest in Laayoune (in Western Sahara) is over. We’ve eaten camel, accidentally gatecrashed a wedding and generally pottered around this strange Saharan city. Now a tailwind is calling and we’re ready to jump back on the bikes for the next 500 kilometre stretch through the Sahara to Dakhla. This update, on our time in Laayoune, should keep you busy until we get there…

Our first sight in Laayoune – late that night when we limped into town exhausted – was of a European-looking woman sitting in the middle of the road at a busy crossroads. A Moroccan policeman directed traffic around her while a crowd of people looked on from the pavement, rapt. Their heads briefly turned to take in the sight of two filthy European cyclists emerging from the desert before they decided the spectacle in front of them was more interesting, and we were left to walk on into the city centre alone – bar a group of children whose shorter attention spans had already been exhausted by the woman.

We never found out who she was, why she was sitting in the road or why the policeman thought it better to direct traffic around her than help her to the pavement. And our time in Laayoune since then have been characterised by the same sense of unreality, or surreality, and the same unnerving feeling that we don’t have a clue what’s really going on around us here, in Africa’s last colony.

This used to be “Spanish Sahara”, and Laayoune was built by the Spanish to administer the phosphate industry. It’s now Western Sahara’s biggest city. For our first couple of days here, we assumed the 200,000-odd population was entirely made up of Moroccan immigrants, encouraged to move here by a Moroccan government wanting to make its illegal occupation of Western Sahara harder to oppose through the de facto colonisation of the territory. As I’ve mentioned, the relocation of Moroccans to Western Sahara began with the Green March when Spain abandoned this territory 34 years ago, and continues today with tax incentives.

There are certainly enough signs of wealth amongst the Moroccan people here – men in suits, women wearing Western-style clothes, bank guards carrying semi-automatics with the safety catches off… – to suggest that Morocco’s professional class is firmly entrenched here. But slowly, starting to recognise the traditional dress of the Sahrawi, we realised that many of the people we were speaking to, buying food from, sitting next to, were Sahrawis – the indigenous “desert people” of the region.

This explained something of the city’s odd atmosphere to us – a statement which itself probably needs a bit of explaining. So here’s a brief background on the situation in Western Sahara – a situation which doesn’t seem to hit the world’s headlines. (I’ll come to the wedding soon, honest.)

When Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975, a violent war between Morocco and the Sahrawi independence organisation Polisario followed, ending with a ceasefire in 1991. In the same year, the UN’s MINURSO mission arrived, deployed for one year, to monitor a referendum on the future of the territory.

MINURSO is still here. The referendum still hasn’t happened. While neither side is angelic, Morocco has, over the years, led the Sahrawis – and the international community – on a merry dance of delay tactics, including what some have called the serious undermining/controlling of MINURSO – which Morocco, with the help of its security council friends (especially France and Bush’s US), has helped to ensure remains the only UN peacekeeping force in the world without a mandate to monitor human rights.

According to those who know, human rights monitoring is desperately needed. From Human Rights Watch: “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.”

Sahrawi families and communities have also been physically separated by the conflict. Some live in this Moroccan occupied part of Western Sahara, others live in the Polisario controlled zone east of the 2000-kilometre, land-mined wall Morocco built to partition the country – a Berlin wall in the desert. Others still live in refugee camps in Algeria – and some of those refugees, only a year younger than I am, have known nothing else; this is one of the world’s longer running conflicts.

So Laayoune has baffled us a bit. The most confounding thing, to us, has been the appearance – despite the UN forces, despite the military presence, despite the torture – of total normality. Life carries on. The occupiers and the occupied live side by side, walk the same streets, pass by each other thousands of times a day without anything happening – at least nothing that three weeks here as tourists has revealed. (I’m not old enough to know, but I wonder whether this has always been the way with colonies: whether, in day to day life, the minds of both colonisers and colonised perform all sorts tricks to avoid acknowledging reality. Especially the colonisers, I suspect.)

In some ways, we’ve been playing the same game. Too nervous to mention politics, we’ve carried on as usual and just wonder quietly to ourselves – without daring to ask anyone – whether the man in the shop who told us the “local” word for rice rather than the Moroccan word was making a political point, or whether the stream of cars that drives through the city most days, horns blaring, passengers cheering, Sahrawi women waving their veils out of the window is a protest or a wedding party.

This was the mindset we were in when, walking through Laayoune one night, we heard loud, live music blaring from behind a wall. Seeing an open gateway, we decided to poke our heads in to see if it was a concert. At the gateway, I noticed waiters carrying platters of food to groups of Sahrawi women sitting at tables. They were sitting under an open tent and outside, in the car park, a camel lay alongside the Toyota Landcruisers.

Realising it was a private event, I called out to Huw to stop. It was too late. Huw had reached the outer edge of the vortex of Sahrawi hospitality, been spotted, surrounded and, finally, drawn into the warm whirl of patterned veils and hennaed hands. Instants later, I was also discovered, held by the hand, offered food, given a seat, brought fruit juice, told I was welcome (”all Europeans are always welcome”), invited to dance, welcomed again and engaged in several conversations at once. It turned out to be a wedding. The bride and groom and most of the men were nowhere to be seen and the only people left – women and musicians – were enjoying themselves immensely.

It’s easy, in cities, to forget where you are physically, what landscapes surround the concrete bubble. At the wedding though, suddenly we were back in the desert. The rhythm of the music – drums and strings and singing – reminded me of the pace of a walking camel. The women danced, turning in circles on the same spot, with their arms and henna-painted hands doing most of the moving and their eyes – if they didn’t pull their veil completely over their heads when they started dancing – doing most of the communicating. Sometimes they danced in groups and sometimes alone, but they were always encouraged to keep dancing by rhythmic clapping from other women sitting or standing around them.

Huw and I narrowly escaped the dancing, and the eating (we’d just gorged ourselves in a restaurant). Instead we sat, while a stream of women came to talk to us. We were welcome, we were told (in fluent Spanish). We must stay. And, from one woman raising her hand in a fist and staring emphatically into my eyes: “We are not Moroccans. We are Sahrawis.”

It was the first time we’d heard the word Sahrawi in Western Sahara (we didn’t hear it once in Morocco). And with the look in her eye, Laayoune’s mask slipped a little for me, and I felt my first glimmer of understanding about the passions running under the surface here.

As I say, it was just a glimmer, and this blog is just our attempt – as relatively uninformed tourists – to make some sense of the situation here, which is obfuscated by propaganda on both sides. We don’t have strong preconceptions about the situation here, but we do have some: specifically, a belief in the rights of all people to self determination.

If you want a better understanding of what’s happening in Western Sahara, here are some links to people and organisations far better informed than we are:

Amnesty International
Global Voices
Human Rights Watch
Mahgreb Politics Review
One hump or two
Sand & Dust
The Moor Next Door
Western Sahara Info

Source : Listen to Africa , 03 juillet 2009 (Foto copyright Listen to Africa)