RABAT, 12 April 2007 — Morocco has presented to the United Nations an autonomy plan for Western Sahara it sees as a solution to Africa’s oldest territorial dispute, a senior government official said yesterday.
“Morocco’s representative Mustapha Sahel handed a copy of the autonomy plan to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today,” he told Reuters.
Rabat says its staunch ally France and neighboring Spain lent their backing to the plan which, officials said, grants larger autonomy for Sahrawis to run their domestic affairs in the former Spanish colony. Morocco’s central government will keep control of symbols of state sovereignty like defense and diplomacy, officials said.
“France and Spain support our plan because the see it as a solution to satisfy the demands of the population in Western Sahara as well as the demands of the international community,” the top government official said, adding that details of the proposal would be made public later on.
Morocco claims centuries-old rights over the territory rich in phosphates, fisheries and possibly offshore oil. Rabat has been ruling Western Sahara since 1975 when Spain withdrew, triggering a low-level guerrilla war with the Polisario Front, which is headquartered in Algeria.
