2015 will mark the 40th anniversary of the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco. With the UK’s concern about the rising threat of insecurity from the region, and a renewed focus on British values and human rights promotion within foreign policy, the UK can lead progress towards concluding the Western Sahara issue.
Western Sahara lies on the northwest African coast and is south of Morocco, north and west of Mauritania, and south west of Algeria. It is worth noting that Sahrawi society is one in which men and women play equally important roles. From 1884 to 1974 the territory was a Spanish colony but in line with the UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960, the Sahrawi people were to vote on self-determination and independence upon decolonization.
In 1975, Morocco and Mauritanian stalled the referendum process by submitting an appeal to the International Court of Justice, asserting their rights to the territory. Although the International Court of Justice clearly ruled against the Moroccan and Mauritanian claims, King Hassan II of Morocco authorized 350,000 of his citizens to march across the border in the so-called ‘Green March.’ Spain promptly negotiated a transition of power with Morocco and Mauritania, without holding the referendum required by the UN, and had left by early 1976.
Since then, the Moroccans have maintained a stranglehold over the territory and its people through its security services. The Moroccan state has also complicated any potential referendum on self-determination by offering incentives such as tax breaks to Moroccan citizens who move into Western Sahara. Discrimination against Sahrawis is prevalent in all aspects of life, including schooling, employment, college enrollment, and travel.
So what does this have to do with the UK? Well, there are three issues that should be of interest to us here. Firstly, British values and human rights are increasingly a part of the lexicon in British politics. Despite the wide-spread and systematic human rights violations in Western Sahara, the UN mission there (known as MINURSO) has no human rights monitoring mandate. This is because France continues to block such a mandate in the UN. In addition to this staggering omission, there are ten times as many Moroccans working for MINURSO than Western Saharans.
Secondly, Cairn Energy plc, an Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration company, is part of a consortium that recently started some ethically questionable drilling off the coast of Western Sahara. In spite of a letter sent by leading Sahrawi activists (including Aminatou Haidar, a recent Nobel Peace Prize nominee) pleading the consortium to halt its proceedings, Kosmos Energy, the company heading the exploration, has reassured everyone that they are in regular consultation with the Moroccan government, even though the area in question is outside of Moroccan territory.
Lastly, according to the EU-Morocco Fisheries Agreement, registered vessels, including some from the UK, are allowed to fish extensively off the coast of Western Sahara. For this privilege the Moroccan government is receiving a €30 million contribution over a four year period. This is in clear violation of a 2002 UN opinion on the matter, which stated that any activities must benefit the people of Western Sahara.
These are three important areas that the UK can and should take action on if we take human rights promotion seriously. This is not the political nightmare that is Israel-Palestine; we are talking about a geopolitical backwater. We have nothing to lose. An overall solution to the issue will be extremely challenging but there are some important actions that could be taken in the mean time:
- Explicitly confront Cairn Energy plc about its activities in the area, with the possibility of sanctions.
- Seek to prevent UK-based vessels from fishing off the coast of Western Sahara.
- Include Western Sahara as a case study in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s next Human Rights and Democracy Report.
- Be more public, and less reactive, in our criticisms of the absence of human rights monitoring within MINURSO’s mandate.
- Establish exchanges between leading Sahrawi women and female ministers within the UK parliament. This would highlight the prominent role Arab women can play in politics, as they already do in Western Sahara.
* Craig Browne is a graduate student and research assistant at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
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8 Comments
This is one of those “forgotten” conflicts that has been allowed to drag on for far too long. Thank you for bringing it up. Even if this didn’t have any impact on the UK, I feel that the annexation of this territory should be treated the same way as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we should be pushing the EU to impose sanctions on Morocco as a start.
Interesting to compare and contrast with countries further to the west. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, we went to war and got that country back again. In Western Sahara, hardly a finger raised. And what is the difference? Oil.
Both interesting points, which come back to my allusion to this being a geopolitical backwater. We really don’t have a lot to lose by supporting Sahrawi rights, and it would all be in keeping with our concern for human rights around the world.
I find this article to be lacking several salient points.
*That there were tribes not mentioned above – not least the Beni who absorbed the majority of the Berber tribes who were there before the former moved into the territory. These before the Algerian Sahrawi
*That the Sahrawi have been fighting a terrorist war for the last forty years under their organisation , the Polisario Front – set up,funded and agitated by the Algerian government. Which is why the Moroccans
*The Algerians have been in conflict (which led to war at one point) with Morocco since the latters independence.
*The UN has been trying to set up a referendum since the early nineties, which Algeria has been against since it doesn’t accept that the Green Marchers are resident – even though they have been residents in the area for over 30 years.
*The UN also accepts that Morocco and Mauritania have historic links to the country.
Geoffrey Payne – Western Sahara is thought to have considerable offshore oil reserves.
I´d like to congratulate the author of this article for his interesting writings and specially on the Africa´s last colony´s issue where he explains very well the colonial and occupation presence in Western Sahara and also the illegality of the economic agreements signed by the Kingdom of Morocco with some interprises.
A Social Liberal – You would appear to be stating that Sahrawis have no agency of their own as you focus mostly on the role of Algeria. However, this does not explain Morocco’s response to the ICJ opinion in 1975, which King Hassan II actually requested and then ignored. Your arguments also fail to address the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in Western Sahara by Moroccan security personnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI6QLEaA75U
These are two very important facts that seem to be ignored by supporters of the Moroccan cause. And then there’s the awkward reality that no other country in the world officially recognises such Moroccan territorial claims. But this is not the focus of this article. Rights are being violated in Western Sahara and the UK should make more of an effort to do something to stop that.
Social Liberal is lacking the facts and basing his “arguments” on the baseless known moroccan propaganda. Here are some facts about his points why his points are wrong:
1. There are no beni tribs in Western Sahara and no “algerian saharawis”. More,When Morocco got its independence from France there were no claim of “missed” territories were made. Morocco divided Western Sahara with Mauritania in 1975. No contry will divide his land with other country. Morocco also claimed Mauritania, parts of Algeria, Mali and Senegal!
2. No country in the world classifies Western Sahara or the liberation movement Polisario front as being terrorists. Moroccan government and military has a shadow relationship with drug smuggling gangs and terrorist organizations i in the sahel. Moroccans were behin Madrid train attacks and the only 9/11 surviver Mousaoui is Moroccan.
3.Morocco tried to annex some algerian territories soon after Algeria got independent in 1962. It has nothing to do with its annexation and occupation of the Western Sahara.
4. Morocco is the only party that has opposed the celebration of the referendum. Moroccan king Mohamed disgraced the word of his father and rejected the referendum in 2000, after the publication of the list of voters. Morocco even rejected the Baker Plan in 2003. Such Plan included a referendum where all the moroccan settlers, including the “green march” invaders would have the right to vote!
Probably you know all this facts but you just wanted to divert the attention from such a thouthful article about what a democracy like the UK should do to help solve an unjustice.
Mark Williams MP (Lib Dem, Ceredigion) has been asking regularly on this issue since his election in 2005