RABAT, 3 March 2007 — Morocco will present an autonomy plan for Western Sahara to the United Nations next month, a top Moroccan official said yesterday, outlining the government’s latest bid to resolve a three-decade conflict on its terms.
Morocco, which took control of Western Sahara in the 1970s after Spain pulled out, says autonomy is the only way to end a conflict with the Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed independence movement.
It first proposed autonomy in 2000. The Polisario Front, though, insists on holding a referendum on independence, while the government rejects a referendum as unworkable. The autonomy plan, expected to be presented at the United Nations in April, is the latest overture to halt a conflict that foiled years of UN diplomatic efforts.
Khalihenna Ould Errachid, King Mohamed VI’s chief adviser on the territory, told The Associated Press that the autonomy plan would give Western Sahara a Parliament, a chief of state, Cabinet ministries and a judiciary.
“We can stay at an impasse, or seek a middle way that leaves neither winners nor losers — and that’s autonomy,” Ould Errachid said Wednesday in the first of two interviews this week. A Western Sahara Parliament could create laws — only as long as they don’t violate Morocco’s national law, while regional courts would fall under the Moroccan legal system, he said.
The regional government would oversee day-to-day life in the territory in areas like education, tourism and social services — but Morocco would retain control of foreign relations, defense, finance and border control, he said.
In recent weeks, Moroccan diplomats have visited several Western capitals including Paris, Washington and London to tout the plan, which has not yet been presented in public. Polisario and Western Sahara’s native Saharawis reject the idea of autonomy, demanding full independence.
“If Polisario doesn’t want to talk about autonomy, Morocco will go ahead alone,” said Ould Errachid, adding however that Morocco would not be likely to press on with an autonomy plan without UN approval.
Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara after its Spanish colonizers left the territory in 1975.
The United Nations has said it upholds the principle of self-determination and that any solution to Western Sahara must be accepted by both Morocco and Polisario.
