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Morocco's Plan: Good Faith or Bad Scheme?

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  • Morocco's Plan: Good Faith or Bad Scheme?

    You have to admire many of the things that King Mohammed VI of Morocco has done since he ascended the throne upon the death of his autocratic father in 1999. Morocco's Equity and Reconciliation Commission, which aired the horrendous human rights abuses committed in past decades, is a model of justice that every other Arab state needs to follow. He's been less forthcoming, however, in settling the problem of Western Sahara, "Africa's last colony," which has been back on the U.N.s agenda this week. After a year of study kicked off when the King visited Laayoune in March 2006, the Moroccan government has just handed the U.N. a proposal to revolve the Western Sahara dispute through negotiations.

    As a proposal for autonomy, the Moroccan proposal seems reasonable. It says that within the framework as subjects of the Kingdom of Morocco, the Western Saharan people "themselves will run their affairs democratically, through legislative, executive and judicial bodies enjoying exclusive powers." Moreover, the Moroccan government says it is willing to "take part in serious, constructive negotiations" with other parties, presumably including the pro-independence Polisario Front, on the details of autonomy and submit the results to a popular referendum. Western Sahara is a North African desert territory about the size of Colorado with a population of about 267,000 Sahrawis, not including some 100,000 refugees living in border camps in Algeria. Moroccan forces took control of the territory in 1975 after a century of Spanish colonialism, a move contested by the Polisario, which launched a guerrilla campaign until a 1991 ceasefire.

    The problem is that the Moroccan government wants the other parties as well as the international community to accept the concept of autonomy up front, before the negotiations begin. The Polisario rejected the Moroccan proposal and continues to demand a U.N.-sponsored referendum on the territory's future in line with the rights of Sahrawis to "self-determination," enshrined in the de-colonialization U.N. Resolution 1514 of 1960.

    For a variety of historical, political, economic and security reasons, Morocco's refusal to let go of the Western Sahara is understandable if not grounded in international law. U.N. envoys have tried for years and failed to get Morocco and other parties to agree on the terms of a referendum on independence, autonomy or full integration into the Moroccan kingdom. The current Moroccan initiative is an attempt to revive efforts toward a settlement, albeit one that precludes independence and focuses exclusively on the parameters of autonomy.

    Morocco is counting on its strong relations with the U.S., enhanced by coordination in the "War on Terrorism," in its hopes of building the momentum for a final settlement that Rabat believes the initiative has created. But even Washington, at this point, continues to reject Moroccan claims of sovereignty and to call for "Morocco and the Polisario to engage in direct negotiations, without preconditions, to resolve the Western Sahara dispute," as Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns recently put it.

    Burns, however, did describe the Moroccan initiative as "a serious and credible proposal" as far as it goes. Morocco deserves credit for making a sincere effort to resolve the conflict. Anything that can get the parties into negotiations is useful. The Western Sahara dispute has been a major spoiler in efforts to build a stronger union of Maghreb states, essential for expanding trade and combatting Islamic extremism of the sort that caused major terrorist attacks in Algiers and Casablanca this month.

    The trick will be convincing Morocco that its initiative is a starting point in discussions, rather than the last word. Morocco has wisely shelved any thought of a unilateral approach. But it will be unwise if it thinks the international community will agree to settle the question of "self-determination" in negotiations on Morocco's terms alone. In his bi-annual report on the issue to the U.N. Security Council, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called on Morocco and the Polisario to negotiate "without preconditions" and recommended that Algeria and Mauritania, another neighbor, be included.

    Anyone who encourages a settlement will have to keep in mind the lessons of previous frustrated envoys, including former Secretary of State James Baker, who spent seven years as a U.N. mediator. In his 2006 memoir, "Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics!", Baker complains that Morocco rejected his final effort, Peace Plan for Self-Determination for the People of Western Sahara, despite its being approved 15-0 by the Security Council. "I had given it my best shot," Baker writes, reserving his last thoughts on the issue for the Sahrawis: "I still think often of the people in the camps--victims of forces beyond their control, never returning home, largely forgotten--and of the many others living unhappily under occupation in Western Sahara itself."

    --By Scott MacLeod/Cairo
    The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” Winston Churchill

  • #2
    Beh le journaliste n'avait qu'a lire le titre de l'offre marocaine, il aurait eu une idee du cadre dans lequel le Maroc a pousse vers les negociations.

    Pour James Baker, je ne sais pas comment il faut dire ca, mais le plan Baker est mort quand Baker a demissione, pour s'assurer que tout le monde a compris, l'ONU vient de voter la derniere resolution qui l'enterine definitivement et appelle a une solution politique mutuellement acceptable.

    Quant a ce que veut le Maroc de la communaute internationale, le Maroc presente une "offre", il n'impose absolument rien du tout au polisario, ce sont des adultes, ils connaissent leurs interets et ont leur strategie, c'est a negocier ou a laisser. Ils peuvent faire capoter les negociations ou refuser de negocier s'ils pensent avoir une strategie qui va faire sortir le Maroc du Sahara, c'est leur droit

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    • #3
      bon article

      bon article en faite beaucoup de bien sur le maroc et beaucoup de malentendue aussi pas grave venant d'un journaliste ....inconue mais ca reste bien

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