WASHINGTON, 9 May – The recent meeting in Washington between Moroccan King Mohamed VI and United States President George W. Bush has apparently precipitated a severe setback in the United Nations autonomy plan for Western Sahara, and it may have paved the way for the resignation of the special envoy for Western Sahara, former US Secretary of State James Baker III.

Last week, says sources, Baker was instructed by Bush to present a new autonomy plan to the UN Security Council. The Baker proposal was one of four options offered up earlier this year that had already been flatly rejected by the Sahrawis — the people indigenous to the disputed North African territory, — the Algerian government — which backs breakaway Sahrawi militants known as the "Polisario Front" — and Spain.

Western Sahara lies between Morocco and Mauritania. It is rich in phosphates and is believed to have huge reserves of oil and natural gas. From 1975 to 1991, Polisario guerrillas fought against the Spanish colonial regime and then against Morocco and Mauritania, forcing the latter to withdraw its claim to the territory. Morocco, however, occupied the land, deployed tens of thousands of troops southward and forced an estimated 120,000 Sahrawis to flee to refugee camps in southern Algeria.

Since a 1991 cease-fire, the UN has worked unsuccessfully to broker a referendum. The process of allowing Sahrawis to choose independence or integration with Morocco has been mired by constant disagreements over the composition of the electoral roll.

The autonomy plan recently suggested by Baker would have given Sahrawi refugees the right to return to Western Sahara. However, the plan would also have given Morocco — which occupies the western half of the UN-patrolled territory — continued control while offering only limited self-government to the Sahrawis.

On the April 30, the Baker autonomy plan was voted down overwhelmingly. Soon after the defeat, rumors began to circulate that the former secretary of state is so frustrated by the failure of his five-year mediation effort that he has formally tendered his resignation to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. A UN spokesperson denies this rumor, while sources at the US Department of State say it is true. Meanwhile, the mandate for the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has been extended once again, this time until July 31, 2002.

"In our view, we find it appalling that the US would abandon the referendum and seek a solution which deprives the Sahrawi people their fundamental right to self-determination," says Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation, a Washington-based public policy organization that advocates self-determination movements in the Western Sahara, North Korea and other countries. "The voter list using the criteria agreed upon by both Morocco and the Polisario was released in January 2000. Despite the voter challenges put forward by Morocco, the referendum was still viable."

Scholte says a high-ranking MINURSO official acknowledged in a recent meeting with Americans visiting UN offices in Tindouf, Algeria, that if the UN had processed the Moroccan voter challenges in the agreed upon framework, "the voter list could have been finalized by now."

The sticking point with the referendum plan, says Scholte, is the failure of the UN to pressure Moroccan into abiding by its commitment. "Because there is no enforcement mechanism," she adds, "the UN just keeps caving in to Morocco’s obstruction. Furthermore, it is deeply troubling that the timing of [Baker’s] autonomy proposal suggests that the US made some deal with the King of Morocco while he was in Washington. This totally disregards the rights of the Sahrawi people."

Scholte was doubtful Bush’s post-September 11, 2001 "War on Global Terror" is in any linked to the president’s apparent willingness to cave in to Moroccan pressure: "Algeria has suffered the killing of nearly 100,000 people as a result of religiously-motivated political unrest," she says. "Because of this, I would think Algeria — not Morocco — would be Bush’s natural ally in the new global war on terror." This view seems to be supported by an October 10, 2001, news story that appeared in Asdaa, an Arabic-language daily published in Casablanca. Under the headline, ‘Bin Laden spent three months in Morocco preparing terrorist attacks," the Asdaa story notes that Osama Bin Laden, the number one suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, had "stayed in Morocco for three months... accompanied by a group of 40 ‘Arab Afghans.’"

"Osama Bin Laden was persona non grata in the Kingdom of Morocco," the Asdaa article continues," but authorities did nothing to prevent him from entering the country. He had to leave Morocco because he was unable to obtain legal residency there.... Bin Laden’s main mission in the Moroccan territory was to furnish and help Algerian terrorist groups... Osama Bin Laden supposedly has a bank account in Morocco and the necessary funds to carry out this operation."

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