MEMORANDUM BY THE SAHARAWI GOVERNMENT
THE QUESTION OF WESTERN SAHARA
September 2007

Western Sahara was military invaded in 1975 by Morocco and it remains under Morocco illegal occupation. Nevertheless, the international community has been deploying ceaseless efforts aimed at achieving the decolonisation of the territory, considered the last colonial case in Africa. Listed as a Non-Self-Governing Territory by the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation since 1965, Western Sahara is subject to the implementation of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) entitled Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

1. The 61st Session of the General Assembly adopted last year a resolution contained in document A/61/415 that reaffirmed the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination. It was the 41st consecutive year in which the international community declared solemnly that the decolonization conflict of Western Sahara opposing the two parties, the Kingdom of Morocco and the POLISARIO Front, can be resolved only by allowing the Saharawi people to exercise their right to self-determination.

2. It is worth mentioning that the International Court of Justice, upon a request made by the United Nations General Assembly which was prompted by Morocco and Mauritania territorial ambitions over Western Sahara, issued a legal opinion on 16 October 1975 in which it established that:

“The materials and information presented to it do not establish any tie of territorial sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity. Thus the Court has not found legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonization of Western Sahara and, in particular, of the principle of self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the Territory.”

3. It is thus only natural for the efforts aiming at resolving the question of Western Sahara, to have as ultimate objective the granting to the people of that territory the opportunity to decide their future by organising a free and fair referendum on self-determination.

4. In this connection, and after a protracted war of 16 years, the Settlement Plan approved by both parties to the conflict, Morocco and the POLISARIO Front, and by the Security Council in its resolutions 658 (1990) and 690 (1991), reflects this will. It stipulates the entry into force of a cease fire that must be followed by a free and fair referendum on self-determination, without any administrative or military constraints, for the Saharawi people. The electoral body for the referendum will be based on the last Spanish census of the local population of 1974.

Morocco obstructions

5. The ceasefire entered into force in September 1991. However the referendum has not been held yet. The delaying tactics, renunciations, and sudden changes of position by Morocco have however resulted in undermining the Settlement Plan, similarly to what they did to the Houston Agreements of September 1997 which were negotiated and signed by both parties in September 1997 under the auspices of Mr. James Baker III, the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General.

6. The other plan entitled the Peace Plan for Self-determination of the People of Western Sahara (Baker Plan) put forward by Mr. James Baker, at the request of the Security Council following Morocco's rejection of the settlement Plan, and approved by Security council resolution 1495 (2003), follows the same approach of the Settlement plan. Indeed, it calls for the holding of a referendum, after a four-to-five-year period of internal self-governance, for Saharawi as well as Moroccans who have been residing in the territory in December 1999.

However, this effort was exerted in vain because Morocco rejected the Peace Plan. To the surprise of Mr. Baker, Morocco rejected his plan under the pretext that the referendum included the option for independence. However, all the peace plans accepted by Morocco have included the option of independence.

7. The United Nations Secretary-General, as well as Mr. Baker and his successor Mr. Peter Van Walsum underlined to the Security Council that it was inconceivable for a referendum on self-determination organised by the United Nations not to include the option of independence.

The reasons for Morocco’s rejection of the various United Nations plans were disclosed by Mr. Baker in August 2004 interview with American TV channel PBS: “The closer we got, the more nervous I think the Moroccans got about whether they might not win the referendum”. And that explains why “after the voter list has been made, the voters had been identified, she (Morocco) said well, it’s no longer applicable”, he said.

8. In fact, the reason for Morocco’s reneging on its international commitments is the fact that it knows too well that Western Sahara is not Moroccan and that it might lose it if a referendum on self-determination was to be held even with the participation of Moroccan citizens residing in Western Sahara.

A great deal of damage was thus caused by Morocco to the prospect of peace and to the UN credibility. The occupying power strategy has so far achieved its objectives as long as Morocco was able to prevent the United Nations and the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) from holding the referendum on self-determination called for by the international organisations.

9. Yet the problem of Western Sahara is still on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council and the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination is more relevant than ever since it has been solemnly reiterated by the Security Council in October 2006 and in April 2007 as well as by the General Assembly in December 2006 and in April 2007.

10. It is worth mentioning that in its report dated 8 September 2006, the mission of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Western Sahara recommended the following: “As it has been stated in various UN fora, the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara must be ensured and implemented without any further delay.”

Morocco proposal of “autonomy”

11. Since its rejection of the Baker plan in 2004, Morocco has never stopped declaring time and again that it was willing to accept a solution to the question of Western Sahara only “within the sovereignty of Morocco”. In this context, on 11 April 2007, it presented to the UN a proposal aiming at granting “autonomy” to the territory of Western Sahara “within Morocco’s sovereignty and territorial unity”.
12. Presented as a major concession, this project which puts aside all the achievements made so far by the United Nations to settle the conflict, is another delaying tactic by Morocco since its only purpose is to gain the recognition by the international community of the fait-accompli or, in other words, of the Moroccan “sovereignty” over a Non-Self-Governing Territory without meeting the requirements of the United Nations doctrine and practice with regard to decolonization.

13. The Moroccan project is bound to fail, for it is founded on wrong principles, it proposes an unacceptable and dangerous solution, and puts an end to the national aspirations of a whole people.

a) In fact, the basic principle according to which Western Sahara is considered a Moroccan province is wrong since, from the international legitimacy’s point of view, Morocco does not exercise territorial sovereignty or even administrative authority over it. It is considered a Non-Self-Governing Territory whose status must be decided by its original residents. Furthermore, no State or international organisation have to date recognised any Moroccan sovereignty over this territory.

b) In addition, by declaring that autonomy is the only solution, Morocco is prejudging the will of the Saharawi people by limiting their choice, from the start, to autonomy thus violating the sacrosanct principle applicable to Non-Self-Governing Territories as enshrined in resolution 1514 (XV) and the doctrine and practice of the United Nations with regard to decolonisation, i.e. the principle of self-determination that requires the concerned populations to express their will through a free and fair referendum that necessarily includes the option for independence.

c) Furthermore, this approach deliberately ignores the Saharawi national reality, their long struggle for freedom, as well as the strong wish for independence that has been manifested daily for the last thirty years in the occupied Saharawi territories.

d) The project is also dangerous. In fact, willing to impose an autonomy-based solution on a people who are fundamentally hostile to any form of Moroccan trusteeship and who have fought the Moroccan occupation for thirty years, is taking deliberately the risk to increase the tension and create an intolerable situation that would jeopardise the stability of the territory and the region and undermine the chances for a just and final settlement of the conflict.
e) Finally, Western Sahara is not a territory that lacks autonomy. Rather, because of a foreign occupation, it is a territory that lacks sovereignty.

14. The problem could not therefore be resolved by granting autonomy, no matter how wide-scoped it might be, but only by the free choice of its original residents who would freely decide whether they want the territory for themselves to make an independent State out of it, or whether they are willing to be integrated in the Kingdom of Morocco and be a province in that country.

The POLISARIO Front Proposal

15. In order to overcome the deadlock caused by Morocco, the POLISARIO Front presented to the UN, on 10 April 2007, a proposal titled “Proposal of the Frente POLISARIO for a mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”(see annex). The proposal is based on two pillars:

First, the proposal stresses the need for the referendum on self-determination that would include the options already agreed-independence, integration, autonomy-by the two parties and endorsed by the Security Council.

Second, if the referendum would lead to the independence of Western Sahara, the POLISARIO Front will be ready to negotiate with Morocco the establishment of strategic relations between the two countries in all domains, particularly those that are or could be a cause of real or assumed concern to Morocco.

The current negotiating process

16. On 30 April 2007, the Security Council adopted resolution 1754 (2007) in which it took note, in the preamble, of the two proposals and called upon both parties, Morocco and the POLISARIO Front, ‘to enter into negotiations without preconditions in good faith with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara’ (OP 2).

17. In the context of the resolution, under the UN Secretary-General’s auspices, delegations from the POLISARIO Front and Morocco met at Greentree Estate in Manhasset on 18-19 June 2007. Delegations from Algeria and Mauritania, as neighbouring countries, were also invited to the opening and closing sessions of the meeting. A second round of negotiations between the two parties was also held at Greentree Estate in Manhasset on 10-11 August 2007. A third round of negotiations between the POLISARIO Front and Morocco is scheduled to take place in Europe by the end of the year.

18. The POLISARIO Front came to the two rounds of negotiations encouraged by the same sense of earnestness and good faith with which it participated and accompanied the preceding process of negotiations that was initiated by Mr. James Baker III.

19. On both occasions, it has fully cooperated with Mr Peter van Walsum, Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, in the discussion of all issues including the confidence-building measures, which he proposed in the second round, with a view to creating a positive climate between the two parties. It is regrettable however that the Moroccan delegation was reluctant to discuss this highly important humanitarian issue, exhibiting once again its unwillingness to move the process forward.

20. The POLISARIO Front is still hopeful that the third round of negotiations would mark a qualitative development of the process as a whole, and that Morocco would cease its dilatory manoeuvres and engage, in good faith, in the effective implementation of the Security Council resolution 1754 (2007).

21. Finding a just and final settlement that respects the international legitimacy for the problem of Western Sahara today is not only necessary but possible. The Settlement Plan as well as the Peace Plan for Self-determination of the people of Western Sahara can provide, at any moment, if the political will exists, an appropriate and honourable framework to settle the conflict.

The Security Council resolution 1754 (2007) has called upon the two parties to reach a political solution which guarantees the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination.

22. What other solution could be more just, more legitimate, more democratic and more acceptable than the one that respects the will of the population of the territory and fulfils the requirements of the international law and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations?

23. The settlement is necessary because the Kingdom of Morocco, the POLISARIO Front, as well as all the peoples of the region cannot afford a protracted conflict. In an era of regional groupings and globalisation, those peoples are more willing than ever to achieve their dream of a united, stable and prosper Maghreb.

Conclusion

24. The United Nations that assumes a particular responsibility vis-à-vis the people of Western Sahara, including that of protecting human rights, which are being brutally violated by Morocco forces, and their natural resources, should spare no effort to do them justice and to finally implement the international legitimacy in Western Sahara, similarly to other regions in the world.

25. While the composition of the United Nations evolves toward an inclusive universality of peoples of all sizes that have accomplished their national aspirations, especially through the process of decolonisation, Moroccan unilateralism should not be encouraged at the expense of denying the people of Western Sahara their inalienable right to self-determination.

26. This new manipulative approach that the Moroccan party is using to gain a renunciation by the international community of the basic human right, i.e. the right of peoples to decide their fate, is doomed to fail.

27. Therefore, the unilateral, illegal and antidemocratic Moroccan project of autonomy does not constitute obviously “the mutually acceptable political solution which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara” called for by the Security Council resolution 1754 (2007) or by the international community. It is even tantamount to betting on perpetuating the deadlock.

28. For its part, the POLISARIO Front, in keeping with the Security Council position, is ready to work and cooperate with the United Nations Secretary-General in order to achieve this mutually acceptable political solution which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.