Peace Watch

Western Sahara: Crocker Helps Seek Settlement of Conflict

June 1997

oard chairman Chester A. Crocker was recently asked to join former secretary of state James A. Baker III on a diplomatic mission to help break the stalemate in the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front guerrillas over control of a section of the Western Sahara.

Baker--as the personal envoy of United Nations (UN) secretary general Kofi Annan--invited Crocker to assist him in assessing the current status of the conflict, which erupted in 1976 after Spain pulled out of the area--then called the Spanish Sahara--and turned it over to Morocco and Mauritania. The Algerian-backed Polisario rebels are seeking independence for the largely Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, which is approximately the size of Colorado and stretches along the Atlantic coast for 1,100 kilometers between Morocco and Mauritania. The population of the phosphate-rich territory is estimated at 150,000-220,000.

Crocker, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, traveled with Baker to north Africa April 23-28 to meet with top-level government officials in Algeria, Mauritania, and Morocco, including Morocco's King Hassan II.

They also met with UN officials and Polisario leaders in Tindouf, a town in southwestern Algeria that is adjacent to several Polisario camps based in that country. The purpose of the meetings was to assess what can be done to break the impasse concerning the UN settlement plan, which was adopted in 1991 but has not yet been implemented.

Background

Neither Algeria nor the Polisario guerrillas has accepted the division of the former Spanish Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania. With Polisario fighters threatening to disrupt critical rail and road links in Mauritania, the government there withdrew from the conflict, and Morocco occupied the area. The Polisario Front declared itself a government in exile in 1976, was formally recognized by more than half of the members of the Organization for African Unity (OAU), and was seated as a member of the OAU in 1984 as the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Morocco left the OAU in protest.

In 1991, the United Nations brokered a cease-fire between Morocco and the Polisario as well as a peace agreement, which stipulated that residents of the disputed territory should vote in a referendum to determine either independence or integration into Morocco. Since then the referendum has been in abeyance as the parties continue to argue over who should be eligible to vote, with each side seeking to define eligibility to its advantage.

A UN peace operation on the ground--the Mission of the UN for Western Sahara (Minurso), headquartered in the town of Laayoune in the Western Sahara, with a liaison office in Algeria--has become mired in controversy, especially in Washington. The UN closed voter identification offices in the area in 1996, after U.S. House Republicans charged that the mission was a waste of U.S. taxpayers' money. UN officials said in 1995 that they had already spent over $250 million on the peacekeeping mission and voter registration drive. The UN force has been reduced to about 230 military personnel stationed at 10 observation sites along the boundaries of the territory and a small civilian component.

Crocker said that the impasse represents "a militarily frozen conflict, with no agreement as to the status of the territory." Annan asked Baker to determine whether the settlement plan is indeed feasible and to assess what new ingredients might be brought to bear to break the stalemate. If the settlement is not workable, Baker will report to Annan what other initiatives might move the peace process forward. The UN Security Council has extended funding for the peace operation through September 30. In a special report to the security council dated May 9, Annan stressed the need to "remind the parties that the international community will not continue to support the peacekeeping effort indefinitely." Observers anticipate that if a settlement is not reached by September, the United Nations will pull its peace operation out of the area, with unknown consequences for the parties.