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Western Sahara

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: African Countries;
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                       الصحراء الغربية
   Al-Ṣaḥrā' al-Ġarbiyyah
   Western Sahara
   Location of Western Sahara
           Capital          n/a
         Largest city       Al `Uyūn (العيون)  (Arabic)
                            El Aaiún  (Spanish^2)
                            Laâyoune  (French^2)
      Official languages    Arabic
                            (Spanish widely spoken)
   Government               Divided^1
           Disputed
    - Relinquished by Spain November 14, 1975
    - SADR proclaimed       February 27, 1976
                                    Area
    - Total                 266,000 km² ( 77th)
                            102,703 sq mi
    - Water (%)             negligible
                                 Population
    - Jul 2005 estimate     341,000 ( 177th)
    - Density               1.3/km² ( 228th)
                            3.4/sq mi
           Currency         Moroccan dirham ( MAD)
          Time zone         ( UTC+0)
         Internet TLD
         Calling code       +212^3
   ^1 Mostly administrated by Morocco as its Southern Provinces. The "
   Free Zone" is the area that the Polisario Front claim to control on
   behalf of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on February 27, 1976).
   ^2 Transliterations.
   ^3 Code for Morocco; no code specific to Western Sahara has been issued
   by the ITU.

   Western Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الغربية; transliterated: al-Ṣaḥrā'
   al-Gharbīyah; Spanish: Sahara Occidental) is one of the most sparsely
   populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert
   flatlands. It is a territory of northwestern Africa, bordered by
   Morocco to the north, Algeria in the northeast, Mauritania to the east
   and south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The largest city is El
   Aaiún (Laâyoune), which is home to a majority of the population of the
   territory.

   Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of
   Non-Self-Governing Territories since the 60s when it was a Spanish
   colony.

   The Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front's Sahrawi Arab
   Democratic Republic (SADR) dispute control of the territory. Since a
   United Nations-sponsored cease-fire agreement in 1991, most of the
   territory has been administered by Morocco, the remainder by the SADR
   as the Free Zone. The SADR is recognized by 43 states, and a full
   member of the African Union. Moroccan territorial integrity has been
   supported by members of the Arab League, and by 25 states.

History

   The earliest inhabitants of the Western Sahara in historical times were
   black agriculturalists called Bafour. Later they were to be replaced by
   the Berber population that still lives there. There may also have been
   some Phoenician contacts but with hardly any remaining influence.

   The arrival of Islam in the 8th century played a major role in the
   development of relationships between Western Sahara and the
   neighbouring regions. Trade developed further and the region became a
   passage of caravans especially between Marrakech and Tombouctou in
   Mali. Soon Almoravids were able to control the area.

   The Beni Hassan were the Arab bedouin tribes, that invaded the northern
   border-area of the Sahara in the 14th and 15th century. From them the
   Berbers took, over time, the Hassaniya language and a large part of
   their present cultural tradition.

Spanish province

   During the first decade of the 20th century, after an agreement among
   the colonial powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884, Spain took
   possession of the Western Sahara and declared it to be a Spanish
   protectorate. As internal political and social pressures in mainland
   Spain built up towards the end of Francisco Franco's rule, and as an
   effect of the global trend in decolonization, Spain began rapidly and
   even chaotically divesting itself of most of its remaining colonial
   possessions. Spain planned to divest itself of the Sahara, and in
   1974-75 issued promises of a referendum on independence. This had been
   demanded by the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi nationalist organization
   fighting the Spanish since 1973.

   However, the territory's neighbours also showed interest in the Spanish
   Sahara. Both Morocco and Mauritania claimed sovereignty over the
   territory based on competing traditional claims, arguing that its was
   artificially separated from their territories by the European colonial
   powers. The third neighbour of Spanish Sahara, Algeria, viewed these
   demands with suspicion, influenced also by its long-running rivalry
   with Morocco. After arguing for a process of decolonization guided by
   the United Nations, the government of Houari Boumédiènne committed
   itself in 1975 to assisting the Polisario Front, which opposed both
   Moroccan and Mauritanian claims and demanded full independence.

   The UN attempted to settle these disputes through a visiting mission in
   late 1975, as well as a verdict from the International Court of Justice
   (ICJ), which declared that the Sahrawi people possessed the right of
   self-determination. On November 6, 1975 the Green March into Western
   Sahara began when 350,000 unarmed Moroccans converged on the city of
   Tarfaya in southern Morocco and waited for a signal from King Hassan II
   of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara, in order to claim it for
   Greater Morocco.

Demands for independence

   After the death of Franco in November, the new Spanish government
   abandoned Western Sahara in December, repatriating even Spanish corpses
   from its cemeteries. Morocco then annexed the northern two-thirds of
   Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces, while Mauritania took the
   southern third as Tiris al-Gharbiyya. This however met staunch
   opposition from the Polisario, which had by now gained backing from
   Algeria and waged a guerrilla campaign. In 1979, following Mauritania's
   withdrawal due to pressures from Polisario, Morocco extended its
   control to the rest of the territory, and gradually contained the
   guerrillas through setting up the Moroccan Wall. The war ended in a
   1991 cease-fire, overseen by the peacekeeping mission MINURSO, under
   the terms of the UN's Settlement Plan.

Stalling of the independence referendum

   The referendum, originally scheduled for 1992, was planned to give the
   indigenous population the option between independence or inclusion to
   Morocco. As of 2006, however, it has not taken place. At the heart of
   the dispute lies the question of who can be registered as an indigenous
   voter. In 1997, the Houston Agreement made another attempt to implement
   the referendum, but failed.

   Both sides blame each other for the stalling of the referendum. But
   while the Polisario has consistently asked for the UN to go ahead with
   the vote, standing only to lose from the status quo, Morocco has been
   troubled by the risk of losing a referendum or receiving a large enough
   vote against annexation to undermine years of nationalist rhetoric from
   the government. Indeed, shortly after the Houston Agreement, the
   kingdom officially declared that it was "no longer necessary" to
   include an option of independence on the ballot, offering instead
   autonomy. Erik Jensen, who played an administrative role in MINURSO,
   wrote that neither side would agree to a voter registration in which
   they were destined to lose (see Western Sahara: Anatomy of a
   Stalemate).

Baker Plan

   A United States-backed document known as the " Baker peace plan" was
   discussed by the United Nations Security Council in 2000, and
   envisioned a future Western Sahara Authority (WSA), to be followed
   after five years by the referendum. It was rejected by both sides,
   although it was initially derived from a Moroccan proposal. According
   to Baker's draft, tens of thousands of post-annexation immigrants from
   Morocco proper (viewed by Polisario as settlers, but by Morocco as
   legitimate inhabitants of the area) would be granted the vote in the
   Sahrawi independence referendum, and the ballot would be split
   three-ways by the inclusion of an unspecified " autonomy", further
   undermining the independence camp. Also, Morocco was allowed to keep
   its army in the area and to retain the control over all security issues
   during both the autonomy years and the election.

   In 2003, a new version of the plan was made official, with some
   additions spelling out the powers of the WSA, making it less reliant on
   the Moroccan devolution. It also provided further detail on the
   referendum process in order to make it harder to stall or subvert. This
   second draft, commonly known as Baker II, was accepted by the Polisario
   as a "basis of negotiations" to the surprise of many. This appeared to
   abandon Polisario's previous position of only negotiating based on the
   standards of voter identification from 1991. After that, the draft
   quickly garnered widespread international support, culminating in the
   UN Security Council's unanimous endorsement of the plan in the summer
   of 2003.

Western Sahara today

   Today the Baker II document appears politically dead, with Baker having
   resigned his post at the UN in 2004. His resignation followed several
   months of failed attempts to get Morocco to enter into formal
   negotiations on the plan, but he met with rejection. The new king,
   Mohammed VI of Morocco, opposes the concept of a referendum on
   independence, and has said Morocco will never agree to one. In the same
   time, he supports, through his advising Royal Advisory Council for
   Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), a self-governing Western Sahara as an
   autonomous community within Morocco. His father, Hassan II of Morocco,
   initially supported the idea in principle in 1982, and in signed
   contracts in 1991 and 1997.

   The UN has put forth no replacement strategy after the breakdown of
   Baker II, and renewed fighting may be a possibility. In 2005, United
   Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported increased military
   activity on both sides of the front and breaches of several cease-fire
   provisions against strengthening military fortifications.

   Morocco has repeatedly tried to get Algeria into bilateral
   negotiations, receiving vocal support from France and occasionally (and
   currently) from the United States. These negotiations would define the
   exact limits of a Western Sahara autonomy under Moroccan rule, but only
   after Morocco's "inalienable right" to the territory was recognized as
   a precondition to the talks. The Algerian government has consistently
   refused, claiming it has neither the will nor the right to negotiate on
   the behalf of the Polisario Front.

   Demonstrations and riots by supporters of independence and/or a
   referendum broke out in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara
   in May 2005, and were met by police. Several international human rights
   organizations have expressed concern at what they termed abuse by
   Moroccan security forces, and a number of Sahrawi activists have been
   jailed. Pro-independence Sahrawi sources, including the Polisario, have
   given these demonstrations the name " Independence Intifada", while
   sources supporting the Moroccan claims have attempted to minimize the
   events as being of limited importance. International press and other
   media coverage has been sparse, and reporting is complicated by the
   Moroccan government's policy of strictly controlling independent media
   coverage within the territory.

   Demonstrations and protests are still occurring in late 2006, after
   Morocco declared in February that it was contemplating a plan for
   devolving a limited variant of autonomy to the territory, but still
   explicitly refused any referendum on independence. The Polisario Front
   has intermittently threatened to resume fighting, referring to the
   Moroccan refusal of a referendum as a breach of the cease-fire terms,
   but most observers seem to consider armed conflict unlikely.

Politics

   Police checkpoint at suburbs of Laayoune.
   Enlarge
   Police checkpoint at suburbs of Laayoune.

   The legal status of the territory and the question of its sovereignty
   remains unresolved; the territory is contested between Morocco and
   Polisario Front. It is considered a non self-governed territory by the
   United Nations.

   The government of Morocco is a formally constitutional monarchy under
   Muhammad VI with a bicameral parliament. The last elections to the
   lower house were deemed reasonably free and fair by international
   observers, but the capacity to appoint the government, dissolve
   parliament and other powers, remains in the hands of the monarch. The
   Morocco-controlled parts of Western Sahara are divided into several
   provinces treated as integral parts of the kingdom. The Moroccan
   government heavily subsidizes the Saharan provinces under its control
   with cut-rate fuel and related subsidies, to appease nationalist
   dissent and attract immigrants - or settlers - from loyalist Sahrawi
   and other communities in Morocco proper.

   The exiled government of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic
   Republic (SADR) is a form of single-party parliamentary and
   presidential system, but according to its constitution, this will be
   changed into a multi-party system at the achievement of independence.
   It is presently based at the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, which it
   controls. It also claims to control the part of Western Sahara to the
   east of the Moroccan Wall, as the " Free Zone". This area is more or
   less unpopulated and the Morrocan government views it as a no-man's
   land patrolled by UN troops.

Human rights

   The Western Sahara conflict has resulted in severe human rights abuses,
   most notably the displacement of tens of thousands of Sahrawi civilians
   from the country, the forced expropriation and expulsion of tens of
   thousends of Moroccan civilians by the Algerian government from Algeria
   as well as violations of human rights and serious breaches of the
   Geneva Conventions by the Polisario Front and Algerian government.

   Both Morocco and the Polisario accuse each other of violating the human
   rights of the populations under their control, in the
   Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara and the Tindouf refugee
   camps in Algeria, respectively. Morocco and organisations such as
   France Libertés consider Algeria to be directly responsible for any
   crimes committed on its territory, and accuse the country of having
   been directly involved in such violations.

   Morocco has been repeatedly criticised by international human rights
   organizations such as Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and
   the World Organization Against Torture , Freedom House , Reporters
   Without Borders , the International Committee of the Red Cross and the
   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for its actions in Western
   Sahara.

   Polisario has received criticism from the French organization France
   Libertes on its treatment of Moroccan prisoners-of-war, and on its
   general behaviour in the Tindouf refugee camps in reports by the
   Belgian organization ESISC, or European Strategic Intelligence and
   Security Centre.. A number of former Polisario officials who have
   defected to Morocco accuse the organisation of abuse of human rights
   and sequestration of the population in Tindouf .

   During the war (1975-91), both sides accused each other of targeting
   civilians. Moroccan claims of Polisario terrorism has generally little
   to no support abroad, with the USA, EU and UN all refusing to include
   the group on their lists of terrorist organizations. Polisario leaders
   maintain that they are ideologically opposed to terrorism, and insist
   that collective punishment and forced disappearances among Sahrawi
   civilians should be considered state terrorism on the part of Morocco .

Administrative division

   Currently, Western Sahara is largely administered by Morocco. The
   extent of Morocco's administration is north and west of the border
   wall, approximately two-thirds of the territory. The official Moroccan
   government name for Western Sahara is the " Southern Provinces", which
   indicate Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra. When the territory was a
   dependency of Spain, the same two subdivisions existed. The remaining
   area is largely empty and control of it is claimed by the Polisario
   Front as liberated territory. It is divided into military zones for
   military/administrative purposes and for MINURSO peace-keeping, but the
   absence of a settled population has made further administrative
   structures unnecessary. For information on the subdivisions of the
   Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in the refugee camps of Algeria, see
   Tindouf.

   During the joint Moroccan-Mauritanian control of the area, the
   Mauritanian-controlled part, roughly corresponding to Saquia el-Hamra,
   was known as Tiris al-Gharbiyya.

Geography

   NASA photo of El Aaiún.
   Enlarge
   NASA photo of El Aaiún.
   Satellite image of Western Sahara, generated from raster graphics data
   supplied by The Map Library
   Enlarge
   Satellite image of Western Sahara, generated from raster graphics data
   supplied by The Map Library

   Western Sahara is located in Northern Africa, bordering the North
   Atlantic Ocean, between Mauritania and Morocco. It also borders Algeria
   to the northeast. The land is some of the most arid and inhospitable on
   the planet, but is rich in phosphates in Bou Craa.

Economy

   Aside from its rich phosphate deposits and fishing waters, Western
   Sahara has few natural resources and lacks sufficient rainfall for most
   agricultural activities. There is speculation that there may be rich
   off-shore oil and natural gas fields, but the debate persists as to
   whether these resources can be profitably exploited, and if this would
   be legally permitted due to the non- decolonized status of Western
   Sahara (see below).

   Western Sahara's economy is centred around nomadic herding, fishing,
   and phosphate mining. Most food for the urban population is imported.
   All trade and other economic activities are controlled by the Moroccan
   government. The government has encouraged citizens to relocate to the
   territory by giving subsidies and price controls on basic goods. These
   heavy subsidies have created a state-dominated economy in the
   Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara, with the Moroccan
   government as the single biggest employer.

Exploitation debate

   After reasonably exploitable oil fields were located in neighbouring
   Mauritania, speculation intensified on the possibility of major oil
   resources being located off the coast of Western Sahara. Despite the
   fact that findings remain inconclusive, both Morocco and the Polisario
   have made deals with oil and gas exploration companies. US and French
   companies (notably Total and Kerr-McGee) began prospecting on behalf of
   Morocco.

   In 2002, Hans Corell, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and
   head of its Office of Legal Affairs issued a legal opinion on the
   matter. This opinion stated that while exploration of the area was
   permitted, exploitation was not, on the basis that Morocco is not a
   recognized administrative power of the territory, and thus lacks the
   capacity to issue such licenses. After pressures from corporate
   ethics-groups, Total S.A. pulled out.

   In May 2006 the remaining company Kerr-McGee also left following sales
   of numerous share holders like the National Norwegian Oil Fund, due to
   continued pressure from NGOs and corporate groups.

   Despite the UN report and the development regarding the exploration of
   oil, the European Union wants to exploit fishing resources in waters
   outside Western Sahara and has signed a fishing treaty with Morocco.

Demographics

   The indigenous population of Western Sahara is known as Sahrawis. These
   are Hassaniya-speaking tribes of mixed Arab- Berber heritage,
   effectively continuations of the tribal groupings of Hassaniya speaking
   Moorish tribes extending south into Mauritania and north into Morocco
   as well as east into Algeria. The Sahrawis are traditionally nomadic
   bedouins, and can be found in all surrounding countries. War and
   conflict has lead to major displacements of the population.

   As of July 2004, an estimated 267,405 people (excluding the Moroccan
   army of some 160,000) live in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western
   Sahara. Morocco has engaged in "Moroccanization" of the area, bringing
   in large numbers of settlers in anticipation of a UN-administered
   referendum on independence. While many of them are from Sahrawi tribal
   groups extending up into southern Morocco, some are also non-Sahrawi
   Moroccans from other regions. The settler population is today thought
   to outnumber the indigenous Western Sahara Sahrawis. The precise size
   and composition of the population is subject to political controversy.

   The Polisario-controlled parts of Western Sahara are barren and have no
   resident population, but they are travelled by small numbers of
   Sahrawis herding camels, going back and forth between the Tindouf area
   and Mauritania. However, the presence of mines scattered throughout the
   territory by both the Polisario and the Moroccan army makes it a
   dangerous way of life.

The Spanish census and MINURSO

   A 1974 Spanish census claimed there were some 74,000 Sahrawis in the
   area at the time (in addition to approximately 20,000 Spanish
   residents), but this number is likely to be on the low side, due to the
   difficulty in counting a nomad people.

   In December of 1999 the United Nations' MINURSO mission announced that
   it had identified 86,425 eligible voters for the independence
   referendum that was supposed to be held under the 1991 Settlement
   agreement and the 1997 Houston accords. By "eligible voter" the UN
   referred to any Sahrawi over 18 years of age that was part of the
   Spanish census or could prove his/her descent from someone who was.
   These 86,425 Sahrawis were dispersed between Moroccan-controlled
   Western Sahara and the refugee camps in Algeria, as well as smaller
   numbers in Mauritania and other places of exile. These numbers cover
   only Sahrawis 'indigenous' to the Western Sahara during the Spanish
   colonial period, not the total number of "ethnic" Sahrawis (i.e,
   members of Sahrawi tribal groupings). The number was highly politically
   significant due to the expected organization of a referendum on
   independence.

   The Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, home base of the Polisario, hold
   approximately 165,000 Sahrawi refugees from the area according to the
   last count made by the UN. Morocco disputes this number, saying it is
   much lower, and insists that many if not most of the refugees are
   non-Sahrawi Africans who have relocated there in order to profit from
   aid efforts. The UNHCR and the numerous other aid agencies that are
   present in the camps have found no evidence of this.

Culture

   The major ethnic group of the Western Sahara are the Sahrawis, a
   nomadic or Bedouin tribal or ethnic group speaking Ḥassānīya dialect of
   Arabic, also spoken in much of Mauritania. They are of mixed Arab-
   Berber descent, but claim descent from the Beni Hassan, a Yemeni tribe
   supposed to have migrated across the desert in the 11th century.

   Physically indistinguishable from the Hassaniya speaking Moors of
   Mauritania, the Sahwari people differ from their neighbors partly due
   to different tribal affiliations (as tribal confederations cut across
   present modern boundaries) and partly as a consequence of their
   exposure to Spanish colonial domination. Surrounding territories were
   generally under French colonial rule.

   Like other neighboring Saharan Bedouin and Hassaniya groups, the
   Sahrawis are Muslims of the Sunni sect and the Maliki law school. Local
   religious custom 'urf is, like other Saharan groups, heavily influenced
   by pre-Islamic Berber and African practices, and differs substantially
   from urban practices. For example, Sahrawi Islam has traditionally
   functioned without mosques in the normal sense of the word, in an
   adaptation to nomadic life.

   The originally clan- and tribe-based society underwent a massive social
   upheaval in 1975, when a part of the population was forced into exile
   and settled in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria. Families were
   broken up by the fight. For developments among this population, see
   Sahrawi and Tindouf Province.

   The Moroccan government considerably invested in the social and
   economic development of the Moroccan controlled Western Sahara with
   special emphasis on education, modernisation and infrastructure.
   El-Aaiun in particular has been the target of heavy government
   investment, and has grown rapidly. Several thousand Sahrawis study in
   Moroccan universities. Literacy rates are appreciated at some 50% of
   the population.

   To date, there have been few thorough studies of the culture due in
   part to the political situation. Some language and culture studies,
   mainly by French researchers, have been performed on Sahrawi
   communities in northern Mauritania.

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