 Polisario Front (Government): The Polisario Front was formally constituted on May 10, 1973 with the express intention of militarily forcing an end to Spanish colonization. Its first Secretary General was El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed. On May 20 he led the Khanga raid, Polisario's first armed action, in which a Spanish post manned by a team of Tropas Nomadas (Sahrawi-staffed auxiliary forces) was overrun and rifles seized. Polisario then gradually gained control over large swaths of desert countryside, and its power grew from early 1975 when the Tropas Nomadas began deserting to the Polisario, bringing weapons and training with them. At this point, Polisario's manpower included perhaps 800 men and women, but they were backed by a vastly larger network of supporters. A UN visiting mission headed by Simeon Aké that was conducted in June 1975 concluded that Sahrawi support for independence (as opposed to Spanish rule or integration with a neighbouring country) amounted to an "overwhelming consensus" and that the Polisario Front was by far the most powerful political force in the country. History: Spanish Retreat While Spain started negotiating a handover of power in the summer of 1975, in the end the Franco regime decided to throw in its lot with Western Sahara's neighbours instead. After Moroccan pressures through the Green March of November 6, Spain entered negotiations that led to the signing of the Madrid Accords between Spain, Morocco and Mauritania. Upon Spain's withdrawal, and in application of the Madrid Accords in 1976, Morocco took over the Saguia El Hamra & the northern half of Rio de Oro, while Mauritania took control of the southern half of Rio De Oro. The Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 27, February 1976, and waged a guerrilla war against both Morocco and Mauritania. The World Court at The Hague had issued its verdict on the former Spanish colony just weeks before, which each party interpreted as confirming its rights on the disputed territory. Meanwhile, in the fall of 1975, tens of thousands of sahrawis have been running out from the Morocco-controlled cities into the desert, building up improvised refugee camps in Amgala, Tifariti, Umm Dreiga... In early 1976, the Royal Moroccan Air Force started bombing the camps on the north part of the territory. On the fall of February 1976, Morocco attacks Umm Dreiga refugee camps with Napalm & White phosphorus causing nearly 2,000 deaths. The Polisario kept up the guerrilla war and rebased in Tindouf in the western regions of Algeria. For the next two years the movement grew tremendously as Sahrawi refugees flocked to the camps and Algeria & Libya supplied arms and funding. Within months, its army had expanded to several thousand armed fighters, camels were replaced by modern jeeps, and 19th century muskets were replaced by assault rifles. The reorganized army was able to inflict severe damage through guerrilla-style hit-and-run attacks against enemy forces in Western Sahara and in Morocco and Mauritania proper. Mauritanian Withdrawal: The weak Mauritanian regime of Ould Daddah, whose army numbered under 3,000 men, proved unable to fend off the guerrilla incursions. After repeated strikes at the country's principal source of income, the iron mines of Zouerate, the government was nearly incapacitated by the lack of funds and the ensuing internal disorder. Ethnic unrest in the Mauritanian armed forces also strongly contributed to the ineffectiveness of the army: forcibly conscripted black Africans from the south of the country resisted getting involved in what they viewed as a northern intra-Arab dispute, and the tribes of northern Mauritania often sympathized with Polisario, fearing possible Moroccan regional ambitions and resenting perceived increasing dependence of the Daddah regime on Moroccan military support. Not even overt French Air Force backing in 1978, when SEPECAT Jaguar fighters strafed and bombed Polisario guerrilla columns en route to Mauritania, proved enough to save the regime, and the death of Polisario leader El Ouali in a raid on Nouakchott did not as anticipated result in the collapse of Polisario morale. Instead, he was replaced by Mohamed Abdelaziz, with no letup in the pace of attacks. The Daddah regime finally fell in 1978 to a coup d'état led by war-weary military officers, who immediately agreed to a cease fire with the Polisario. A comprehensive peace treaty was signed on August 5, 1979, in which the new government recognized Sahrawi rights to Western Sahara and relinquished its own claims. Mauritania withdrew all its forces and would later proceed to formally recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, causing a massive rupture in relations with Morocco. King Hassan II of Morocco immediately claimed the area of Western Sahara evacuated by Mauritania (Tiris al-Gharbiya, roughly corresponding to the southern half of Río de Oro), which was unilaterally annexed by Morocco in August 1979. Moroccan Ceasefire: A cease-fire between the Polisario and Morocco, monitored by MINURSO (UN) has been in effect since September 6, 1991, on the promise of a referendum on independence the following year. The referendum, however, stalled over disagreements on voter rights, and numerous attempts at restarting the process (most significantly the launching of the 2003 Baker plan) seem to have failed. The prolonged cease-fire has held without major disturbances, but Polisario has repeatedly threatened to resume fighting if no break-through occurs. Morocco's withdrawal from both the terms of the original Settlement Plan and the Baker Plan negotiations in 2003 left the peace-keeping mission without a political agenda: this further increased the risks of renewed war. Diplomatic Relations: The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is currently recognized as a sovereign representative of Western Sahara by eighty-one states, mostly African and other governments in the developing world. Twenty-two states have withdrawn their former recognition, and twelve have "frozen" their diplomatic relations with the republic pending the outcome of the UN referendum. Sahrawi embassies exist in fourteen states. On the other hand, Moroccan territorial integrity, apparently meaning including Western Sahara, is explicitly recognized by the Arab League and by twenty-five states. Although it has no representation at the United Nations, the republic has been a full member of the African Union since 1984. Morocco withdrew from the OAU in protest. The SADR is also a member of the Asian-African Strategic Partnership formed at the 2005 Asian-African Conference, over Moroccan objections to SADR participation. In 2006, the SADR participated in a conference of the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of the Latin American and the Caribbean (COPPAL). The SADR is not a member of the Arab League, nor of the Arab Maghreb Union, both of which include Morocco as a full member. |
renjikuchiki1Jan 31, 2010 7:25 PM
| "Forged in darkness with wheat harvested from Hell's half acre. Baked by Beelzabub; slathered with mayonnaise beaten from the evil eggs of dark chickens, force-fed to dogs by the hands of a one-eyed madman. Cheese boiled from the rancid utters of fanged cows. Layered with 666 separate meats from an animal which has maggots for blood." ATHF |