South Africa's Ruling ANC Slams US Endorsement of Morocco's Western Sahara

Western Sahara was annexed by Morocco under a secret deal with Spain in the dying days of Francisco Franco's 36-year dictatorship. An International Court of Justice ruling and resolutions of the United Nations and African Union give support to independence for the territory.

South Africa's ruling party has attacked US President Donald Trump's recognition of Morocco's claim to occupied Western Sahara.

In a statement published on Friday, African National Congress spokesman Pule Mabe linked Trump's unilateral move with Morocco's recognition of the state of Israel as a quid pro quo trade-off. 

The deal would see "the resumption of normal diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the state of Israel, in exchange for the US recognizing 'Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory'," the ANC spokesman said.

Mabe pointed out that Trump's decision flew in the face of international resolutions and legal rulings - to which Morocco was also bound.

"The Kingdom of Morocco, a member of the African Union and therefore bound by its Constitutive Act and decisions, has no right to sovereignty over Western Sahara, a position recognized by countless resolutions of the African Union, the United Nations as well as the 1975 ruling of the International Court of Justice."

Mabe called it "unfortunate" that Morocco had recognised Israel "whilst the oppression and denial of self-determination of the Palestinian people continue unabated."

And he insisted that "the unalienable rights of the people of Western Sahara and Palestine to self determination and freedom shall not be derailed by Trump’s 'deal'."

​The ANC has longstanding ties to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), to which the Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah party is affiliated. Late ANC president nelson Mandela visited PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat in 1990, just two weeks after his release from prison by the Apartheid government.

“There are many similarities between our struggle and that of the PLO. We live under a unique form of colonialism in South Africa, as well as in Israel,” Mandela said at the time. 

Friday's edition of party online publication ANC Today carried a statement by the Sahrawi nationalist Polisario Front, stressing that Trump's decision "hampers the efforts of the international community to find a peaceful solution to the conflict" and came just weeks after Morocco violated the 1991 ceasefire agreement.

And a statement from the South African Communist Party called the US recognition a "direct offensive" against the aims of the African Union (AU) 'Silencing The Guns' special meeting on December 6 and "blatantly violates the AU’s Constitutive Act, in particular the principle for African countries to respect each other’s territorial integrity."

Trump tweeted news of the Morocco-Israel agreement on Thursday, followed swiftly by a claim that his recognition of Rabat's dominion over the Western Sahara was in return for Moroccan recognition of the 1776 US Declaration of Independence a year after it was issued in the midst of the Revolutionary War against the British empire.

by James Tweedie

 

The heroic struggle of the Saharawi people against Moroccan imperialism

Western Sahara is an independent state whose territory is mainly occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco. Its surface is of 266,000 km2 and its population in the zones occupied by Morocco is 500,000 inhabitants. Its climate is extremely arid and the territory has few natural resources due to the scarcity of rainfall. Its economy is centered on nomadic grazing, fishing and phosphate extraction in Bucraa, which is one of the largest phosphate deposits in the world.

From the nineteenth century the Sahara was occupied by Spain establishing colonial control over its territory. 
In 1975 Spain decided to withdraw by giving up the nominal control of the country and dividing the territory between Morocco and Mauritania.

The Saharan independence forces (Frente Polisario) that had fought against Spanish colonialism had to face the armies of Morocco and Mauritania first, and then, of Morocco, which would maintain its occupation of the territory by calling it "Southern Provinces". The presence of Morocco in Western Sahara is not recognized by any other gobernmen in the world.

Simultaneously the Polisario Frono declared independence in 1976, creating the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which after a few years was recognized by more than 80 countries.

The guerrillas of the Polisario, with base in Algeria, sent, between 1976 and 1978 continuous attacks against the Moroccan and Mauritanian troops in the Western Sahara (they even got to attack the capital of Mauritania). As a result of this war of attrition, Mauritania renounced its territorial claims in the Sahara and in 1979 signed peace with the Polisario Front. However, its place was occupied by Morocco, which proclaims its sovereignty over the entire territory of Western In August of 1980, Morocco began the construction of a wall that divides the territory of Western Sahara from north to south. The wall was completed in 1987, measuring 2720 kilometers long, protecting the phosphate deposits of Bucraa and the cities of El Aaiún and Smara. It is built of sand about 2 meters high, surrounded by minefields, has forts every 5 km and is guarded by tens of thousands of military personnel.

At present, Western Sahara is one of the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories under the supervision of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization: The SADR administers the region to the east not controlled by Morocco, which it calls the Free Zone. At the same time, Mauritania occupies the southern city of La Güera and adjacent areas within the peninsula of Cabo Blanco.

Morocco controls most of the food for the urban population, commerce and the main economic activities are controlled by the Moroccan government. Income and living standards are substantially below those of Morocco.

The population of Western Sahara is mostly of Arab origin (Arabized Berbers) and Berber. There is also a small minority of Spanish or European descent and sub-Saharan. Much of the original Sahrawi population (around 155,000 had to leave their lands forced to live in camps, particularly in Tindouf.

Although their territory is largely occupied by the military, the Saharans, based on their border camps that they established more than 40 years ago, are constantly circulating and occupying the territory that was left outside the wall, trying to clear the deserted, uncontaminated fields. At the same time they develop an intense diplomatic activity, which has allowed them to maintain their international presence without losing their uneven struggle against Moroccan imperialism.