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Western Sahara (EH in ISO 3166-1) is a territory of northwestern Africa, bordered by Morocco on the north, Algeria on the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The largest city is El Aaiún (Laayoune), containing the majority of the population.
Whether it is an integral part of the Kingdom of Morocco or is rightfully governed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), set up by the indigenous Sahrawi liberation movement Polisario Front, is disputed. At present it is largely occupied, and entirely claimed, by Morocco, but this claim is not recognized by any state. The SADR is recognized by several dozen, and a full member of the African Union. Western Sahara is on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
Western Sahara is the most sparsely populated territory in the world.
History
Main article: History of Western Sahara
Spain created the colony of Spanish Sahara through successive treaties and agreements with local populations and France during the first two decades of the 20th century. Due to internal pressures following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, and the global trend in decolonization, Spain planned to divest itself of the Sahara, and promised a referendum regarding independence. Morocco occupied the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara from 1975-1979, and the rest of the territory, following Mauritania's withdrawal in the south. A guerrilla war carried by the nationalist Polisario Front contesting Rabat's sovereignty ended in a 1991 cease-fire by United Nations peacekeeping mission MINURSO.
The referendum, originally scheduled for 1992, was planned to give the indigenous population the option between independence or inclusion to Morocco, but has not taken place as of 2005. At the heart of the dispute lays the question of who can be registered as an indigenous voter, since the majority of the current population was settled in the area after the occupation by Morocco, and since voter registration is done by Moroccan authorities. The UN had no power or political will to try to force a solution on either party. In 1997, the Houston Agreement made another attempt to implement the referendum, but failed. Both sides blame each other for the stalling of the referendum, but it is obvious that Morocco, as the current de facto power in much of the territory, stood only to lose. Indeed, shortly after the Houston Agreement, the kingdom officially declared including an option of independence on the referendum ballot was "no longer necessary".
A US-backed document known as the "James Baker peace plan" was discussed by the United Nations Security Council in 2000, and envisioned a future Western Sahara Authority (WSA), to be followed after five years by the referendum. It was rejected by both sides, although initially spawned from a Moroccan proposal and exhibiting a stark pro-Moroccan bias in comparison to the agreed-upon 1991 plan. According to Baker's draft, Moroccan settlers would be granted the vote in the Sahrawi independence referendum, and the ballot would be split three-ways by the inclusion of an unspecified "autonomy", further undermining the independece camp. Also, Morocco was allowed to keep its occupying army in the area and to retain the control over all security issues during both the autonomy years and the election. Most controversially, however, the occupying army would be tasked with fighting "terrorism" and "separatism" even during the election campaign; clauses understandably unpopular with the Polisario.
In 2003 however, after some additions spelled out the powers of the WSA (making it less reliant on the occupying power) and provided further detail on the referendum process (making it harder to stall or subvert), the plan's second draft, commonly known as Baker II, was in a quizzical suprise move accepted by the Polisario as a "basis of negotiations". After that it quickly garnered widespread international support, culminating in the UN Security Council's unanimous endorsement of the plan in the summer of 2003.
Today, however, the Baker II document appears politically dead, having lead nowhere, and with Baker having resigned his post at the UN in 2004. His resignation followed several months of failed attempts to get Morocco to at least enter into formal negotiations on the plan, but he met with complete rejection. The new king, Mohammed VI of Morocco, opposes the very concept of a referendum on indpendence, and has said Morocco will never agree to one. Curiosly, his father, Hassan II of Morocco, initially supported the idea in principle in 1982, and in signed contracts in 1991 and 1997.
The UN has put forth no replacement strategy after the breakdown of Baker II, and renewed fighting is a possibility. In 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported increased military activity on both sides of the front and breaches of several cease-fire provisions against strengthening military fortifications.
Morocco, uneasy with the UN process, has repeatedly tried to replace it with bilateral negotiations with Algeria, receiving vocal support from France and occasionally and currently from the United States. These negotiations would define the exact limits of a Western Sahara autonomy under Moroccan rule, but only after Morocco's "inalienable right" to the territory was recognized as a precondition to the talks. The Algerian goverment has consistently refused, claiming it has neither the will nor the right to negotiate on the behalf of the Sahrawi people, pointing instead to the Polisario and the Sahrawi republic as the legitimate representatives of Western Sahara.
Politics
Main articles: Politics of Western Sahara
The legal status of the territory and the question of its sovereignty is unresolved; the territory is contested by Morocco and Polisario Front. The government of Morocco is a monarchy, with a parliament of elected officials. The government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a single-party parliamentary and presidential system, not unlike Germany.
There are several political issues in addition to the occupation, such as the use of land mines, political prisoners, the massive refugee camps at Tindouf, Algeria, and a variety of human rights abuses.
See also Foreign relations of Morocco, Foreign relations of Western Sahara
Subdivisions
Currently, Western Sahara is largely administered by Morocco. The extent of Morocco's administration is north and west of the Moroccan Wall (or berm), approximately two-thirds of the territory. The Moroccan name for Western Sahara is the "Southern Provinces", which indicate Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra. The remaining area is administered by the SADR. When the territory was a dependency of Spain, the same two subdivisions existed.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Western Sahara
Western Sahara is located in Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Mauritania and Morocco. It also borders Algeria to the northeast. The land is some of the most arid and inhospitable on the planet, but is rich in phosphates in Bou Craa. There is also speculation of oil along the Atlantic Coast.
Economy
Main article: Economy of Western Sahara
Western Sahara has few natural resources and lacks sufficient rainfall for most agricultural activities. Its economy is centred around nomadic herding, fishing, and phosphate mining. Most food for the urban population must be imported. All trade and other economic activities are controlled by the Moroccan government. The government has encouraged citizens to relocate to the territory by giving massive subsidies, including free or low-rent housing, and dramatic price controls on basic goods. Incomes and standards of living are substantially below those of Morocco.
The refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, are wholly reliant on foreign and Algerian aid. Food, clothing and even water are brought in by car and plane. Since the nineties a rudimentary monetary economy has evolved in the camps, after Spain started paying pensions to former forcibly recruited Sahrawi soldiers in its colonial army, and with money and merchandise brought in by Sahrawis working or studying abroad. A minor but significant addition comes from those Sahrawis pursuing traditional nomadic camel-herding in the Polisario-controlled parts of Western Sahara and in Mauretania.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Western Sahara
As of July 2004, and not counting the Moroccan army, an estimated 267,405 people live in the territory of Western Sahara, most of Moroccan nationality. Size of the native population versus Moroccan settlers is not known, but the settlers heavily outnumber the indigenous population, thousands of whom live in the refugee camps. Indigenous Western Saharans, often called Sahrawis, speak a dialect called Hassaniya Arabic, also spoken in Mauritania. Sahrawis, particularly the elderly, often speak Spanish. The main religion is Islam.
See the CIA World Factbook 2004
Culture
Main article: Culture of Western Sahara
The indigenous people of Western Sahara are the Sahrawis, a nomadic or Bedouin people who speak the Ḥassānīya dialect of Arabic, also spoken in northern Mauritania. They are of mixed Arab-Berber descent, but consider themselves Arab. It is theorized that they descend from the Beni Hassan, a Yemeni tribe supposed to have migrated across the desert in the 11th century.
In recent years, the West has been introduced to their culture through the release of a handful of compact discs of Sahrawi music, notably the political songs by the pro-Polisario refugee group El-Wali. The Sahrawis are Muslims of the Sunni sect and the Maliki law school. Their interpretation of Islam has traditionally being quite liberal and adapted to nomad life (i.e. generally functioning without mosques).
The originally clan- and tribe-based society underwent a massive social upheaval in 1975, when almost the entire population was forced into exile and settled in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria. Families were broken up by the flight and nomad life made impossible. The organization governing the camps, the Polisario Front, has methodically attempted to modernize Sahrawi society, placing great emphasis especially on education, the eradication of tribalism (to be replaced by a general Sahrawi nationhood) and the emancipation of women. The role of women was enhanced by their shouldering of the main responsibility for the refugee camps and government bureaucracy during the war years, as virtually the entire male population was enrolled in the Polisario army.
Education was also assisted by refugee life. While teaching materials are still scarce, the "urbanization" of the refugee camps and the abundance of free time for camp dwellers (after the situation normalized circa 1977) greatly increased the effectiveness of literacy classes. Today, nearly 90% of refugee Sahrawis are able to read and write, the number having been less than 10% in 1975, and several thousands have reveived university educations in foreign countries as part of aid packages (mainly Algeria, Cuba, and Spain). This makes the Sahrawi refugees possibly the best-educated national group in all of Africa, with the exception of the Boer community in South Africa, as well as the best educated in the Arab world. In comparison, among Sahrawis in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, literacy rates remain low especially among women, and university graduates are rare.
To date, there have been few thorough studies of the culture due in part to the political situation. Some language and culture studies, mainly by French researchers, have been performed on Sahrawi communities in northern Mauritania, but after 30 years of conflict the Western Sahara Sahrawis have evolved into a clearly distinct nationality, its cultural and social basis being that of settled camp life, political militancy and national unity, as opposed to traditional Sahrawi nomadism and tribalism.
A question that will inevitably be posed by an independent Western Sahara is to what extent the three decades-long occupation has removed the two parts of the people from each other: while the refugee majority and their compatriots left under Moroccan rule share the same political goals, their cultural and social developments have proceeded in radically different directions.
See also
- Communications in Western Sahara
- List of cities in Morocco and Western Sahara
- MINURSO
- Music of Western Sahara
- Transportation in Western Sahara
Further reading
- Tony Hodges (1983), Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill Books (ISBN 0882081527)
- Anthony G. Pazzanita and Tony Hodges (1994), Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Scarecrow Press (ISBN 0810826615)
- Toby Shelley (2004), Endgame in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa's Last Colony?, Zed Books (ISBN 1842773410)
- Erik Jensen (2005), Western Sahara: Anatomy of a Stalemate, International Peace Studies (ISBN 1588263053)
External links
News
Overviews
Directories
- LookSmart - Western Sahara directory category
- Open Directory Project - Western Sahara directory category
- Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Western Sahara directory category
- The Index on Africa - Western Sahara directory category
- University of Pennsylvania - African Studies Center: Western Sahara directory category
- Yahoo! - Western Sahara directory category
Tourism
Other
- Association de soutien à un référendum libre et régulier au Sahara Occidental, a multilingual resource
- The Yahoo! group Sahara-update, which gives up-to-date news
- Western Sahara Online
- Western Sahara - A Forgotten Country!
- Western Sahara, Landmine Monitor Report 2003
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