Middle East International

24 September 2004

Western Sahara
Mbeki's letter
from a correspondent

South Africa's announcement that it had recognized the Sahrawi Arab Democratic
Republic was a rude setback for Morocco in Africa and a welcome fillip for
Polisario. A strongly-worded letter from South African President, Thabo Mbeki,
to King Mohammed VI explaining the decision rammed the point home. Rabat
called the move "biased, stunning and ill-timed" and recalled its ambassador
for consultation. For some years, Morocco has been nibbling away at
Polisario's list of countries (currently totalling some 60 states worldwide)
that recognize a putative independent state in Western Sahara. But the
addition of arguably the most influential Sub-Saharan country to Polisario's
list has more than symbolic value. It underlines the SADR's membership of the
African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity) and dispels any
short-term possibility of Morocco returning to the club of African nations
that it withdrew from in 1982, furious about its policy over the Western
Sahara. The peace plan devised by former US secretary of state, James Baker,
entered a period of stasis when Baker resigned in frustration as Kofi Annan's
special envoy earlier this year. Polisario had accepted the plan but Morocco
rejected it. While Spain, over the summer, seemed to be nearing France's
position that Morocco needed to be accommodated, the official declaration in
Cape Town on 15 September instead emphasized the need to implement the plan.
Furthermore, this declaration came ahead of an October Security Council
meeting being held to discuss Western Sahara. The establishment press in
Morocco was furious. Le Matin talked of an "unnatural alliance" between South
Africa and Algeria, tying it to the issue of another recent humiliation: South
Africa's defeat of Morocco in the competition to host the 2010 football World
Cup.

The closely typed four-page letter from Mbeki to the Moroccan king explaining
the move demonstrates a commitment to the cause of Sahrawi self-determination
that seems to go far beyond mere whim or expediency. The document is dated 1
August and a copy has been passed to MEI. In it Mbeki recounts how
postapartheid South Africa had heeded requests from Mohammed VI's father,
Hassan II, and former UN secretary-general Butrus Butrus- Ghali not to
recognize the SADR on the grounds that to do so would jeopardize settlement
negotiations. Morocco has long argued, with some justification, that
recognition of a Sahrawi state amounted to preemption of the result of a
referendum of self-determination. That logic held only as long as Morocco
accepted the need for such a referendum. But Morocco now openly states that
local autonomy is the only outcome it will countenance and that independence
should not be an option in any vote.

Mbeki does not mince his words: "You must agree, Your Majesty, this
constitutes an undisguised attempt to deny the very right of
self-determination the UN is bound by its Charter to defend and advance, whose
exercise by the people of Western Sahara it has sought for almost two
decades." Drawing an uncomfortable parallel for Rabat, Mbeki goes on: "And
yet, as with the question of Palestine, the issue of Western Sahara
ineluctably includes matters of territory and sovereignty over this territory.
To insist that these should not be an inherent part of any solution is to
argue that no just solution should be sought." For South Africa not to
recognize the SADR given that "Morocco has absolutely no intention to respect
the right of the people of Western Sahara to determine their destiny" would be
a "betrayal of our own struggle", the South African president wrote.

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Forwarded by:
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Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsahara@...

*** Referendum now! ***

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
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