LAAYOUNE, Western Sahara, 26 March 2006 — Morocco’s King Mohammed VI yesterday asked Western Sahara leaders to reflect on an autonomy plan for the disputed territory while insisting the desert region must remain part of his North African kingdom. In a speech, the king said he wanted a royal consulting committee made up of the territory’s tribal, political and other leaders to discuss the plan. He insisted, however: “We won’t give up even one inch of our dear desert.”
The king spoke at the close of a five-day visit to the territory, his fourth trip to Western Sahara and the first since 2002. Morocco annexed the mineral-rich coastal area, the former Spanish Sahara, in 1975. Rebels from the Polisario Front then waged a desert war to gain independence. The fighting ended in 1991 with a UN-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on the region’s future. The referendum has never been held, in large part because Morocco and the Polisario failed to agree on who could be counted as voters.
Moroccan diplomats have said they will present a plan to the United Nations next month that would allow the inhabitants, known as Sahrawis, to run their own affairs, while remaining under Moroccan rule. The rebels have rejected the idea, saying a referendum must be held first. The king asked the Saharan consulting committee to back his plan and join up with “public authorities and elected officials to defend the Sahara as Moroccan.”
Consultations between Moroccan political parties and representatives of Western Sahara must bring “a coherent, national and realistic conception of autonomy that guarantees all inhabitants of the Sahara the possibility of running their regional affairs,” Mohammed said.
The little known and poorly understood dispute has proved destabilizing for the sensitive region. Washington — an ally of both Morocco and Algeria, where many of the rebels are based — is concerned that the unrest could make it easier for terrorists to operate in the Sahara region’s vast expanses.
The king named members of a Royal Consultative Council for Sahara Affairs which includes tribal chiefs, women’s representatives, youth groups and civic associations officials. The Council was set up in the 1990s but remained dormant amid UN-brokered efforts to hold a referendum on self-determination in the Western Sahara. The revival of the 141-member Council underlined Rabat’s eagerness to win the hearts and minds of the local population ahead of its diplomatic offensive next month to rally support in the United Nations for its autonomy plan, officials said.
