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THE STRUGGLE for the WESTERN SAHARA Part I: Prelude by Barbara Harrell-Bond

THE STRUGGLE for the WESTERN SAHARA Part I: Prelude by Barbara Harrell-Bond

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WESTERN Part I: Prelude by Barbara Harrell-Bond

Superpower involvement The contest IS !letween the SahrZwi (Polsaro Front) and 'Vorocco ~*dhlchclaims the as part of 1 ti hstorc empre The American Universities Field California State University/Fullerton Staff, Inc.,founded in 1951, is a non- California State UniversityINorthridge American profit, membership corporation of Americ/an educational institutions. It Dartmouth College Universities employs a full-time staff of foreign East-West Center specialists who write from abroad and make periodic visits to University of Hawaii at Manoa member institutions. AUFS serves Indiana Universitv the public its seminar pro- Institute for Shipboard Education grams, films, and wide-ranging pub- lications on significant develop- University of Kansas ments in foreign societies. Michigan State University University of Missouri INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS University of Pittsburgh University of Alabama/Birmingham Ramapo College of New Jersey University of Alabama/Tuscaloosa Utah State University Brown University University of Wisconsin System

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THE AUTHOR BARBARA E. HARRELL-BOND is a the Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden. Ap- social anthropologist who has conducted pointed a Senior Research Fellow at the research in England and in West . School of Law, University of Warwick, in Her special interests are family, urban 1976, Dr. Harrell-Bond joined the Field problems, law, and the history of the im- Staff in 1978 to report on . position of alien law in colonial Africa. She received a B. Litt. and D. Phil. in anthropology from the University of Oxford. Her publications include Modern Marriage in : A Study of the Professional Group and Community Leadership and the Transformation of Freetown (1801-19761, the latter being co-researched and written with two historians, Dr. Allan Howard and Dr. David Skinner. She has also published widely in academic journals, lectured in a number of universities including the Uni- versity of Illinois (Urbana), the University of Helsinki, and the University of ,981,American Universities Field Warsaw, and was a Visiting Scholar at Staff, Hanover, NH 1981INo. 37 by Barbara Harrell-Bond THE STRUGGLE FOR THE Africa [BHB-7-'811 Part I: Prelude

Few Americans took much notice of the conflict involves major commer- these countries made over the the Reagan administration's first cial and strategic interests with Spanish colony. policy statement on the Western behind-the-scenes"superpower" in- Saharan conflict on March 26, 1981. volvement. After visiting refugee camps just While the Carter administration had inside the Algerian border-where made some attempt to link U.S. arms Yet the war has resulted in the crea- 150,000 , mainly women and sales to with progress tion of a large refugee population, children live in exile- Andrew Young toward a negotiated settlement of exiles from the Western Sahara. It is asked, "How do we get on the oppo- the , the new not known just how many SahrZwF site side of people who seem to administration declared that the there are, either in the country or as practice so well what we preach?"* Sahara issue would be dropped. As refugees. In 1974 the Spanish census counted fewer than 80,000 but these My thoughts echoed his sense of Morris Draper, Deputy Assistant shame as I watched women making Secretary of State for Near Eastern nomadic people were generally unwilling to cooperate and many re- spoons and knives and beating and South Asian Affairs put it, cooking pans out of salvaged war "Arms sales to Morocco would in the mained uncounted. Some contem- porary estimates contend that only materials-their "made in U.S.A." future be based on the same criteria marks still clearly visible. Inside the as 'for other friends.' "1 about 25,000 Sahrswiremain in the coastal cities occupied by the tents, sitting on pillows on the floor, 's refusal to grant self-deter- Moroccan army and that more huddled against the bitter winter mination to the people of this SahrZwi live outside the Western cold in blankets that are in scarce ex-colony and its invasion by Sahara than within the . The supply, I found it painful to accept, Morocco and after a province of Tan-Tan in Morocco is over and over again, their generous secret agreement with Spain in 1975 almost entirely SabrZwiand the 1978 hospitality. The Sahriiwi refugees have not received major coverage in census there counted 81,900. in 1977 rarely have meat to eat themselves, U.S. newspapers. Not many Ameri- Mauritania gave the figure of 47,000 but a guest is always given meat with cans are even aware that for six years for the two bordering the his cous cous. While being shown the U.S., while officially neutral, has Western Sahara and most of this around their hospitals and schools, I continued (along with , South population is thought to be SahrZwT was embarrassed to be asked by Africa, and the Soviet Union) to There are also SalyZiwi among the each woman I met, "What do the supply arms and give support for population of the Algerian wilaya of women in your country know about Morocco's claim which, as U.S. Bechar. us, the SabrZwT women?" Our Representative Stephen Solarz re- parochialism contrasted starkly with minded the House Committee on It is not known when the term their compelling interest in all Foreign Affairs in 1979, "the over- SahrZiwi was first applied to the aspects of Western society -from whelming majority of countries in the people of the Western Sahara, but the roles of men and women, to oppose as a contradiction of Spanish colonial documents have working conditions, management of the very principle of national self- consistently used this term to refer to education and health, and politics. determination." the "tribes" that populated the region. Spain always emphasized the The Western Sahara? "If the name distinctiveness of these people from This three-part Report is not merely of this Colorado-sized territory in the populations of Morocco and, an account of an unknown war in the northwest Africa evokes any image further south, Mauritania as part of northwest corner of the African at all," Solarz noted, "it is likely to be their efforts to refute the claims which risks escalation and one of along with their tents internationalization. It is also about a and against a background of unique social experiment being con- blinding sunlight and endless sand *Accent marks for the term SatyZwT ducted by a nation in exile, refugees engaged in the ancient and timeless must be applied to this typeface by struggling not only to exist but also confrontation between men and hand; thus they are used only on page to create the preconditions for a nature." Few would recognize that one. model African society-self-reliant, egalitarian, and unified. The Reports which the ALPS invaded to force the Early History of the Western Sahara are based on observations during an to concentrate on pro- Among the arguments in favor of extended visit to all the refugee tecting their own borders. Today, the Morocco's claims to the Western camps inside and a number Moroccan armies are confined to the Sahara have been assertions that the of days spent traveling in a Land triangle of territory encompassing El local population is "too small" to Rover over hundreds of kilometers of Aaiun, Bu Craa, and and to form a nation or that there is no desert from which the Arm6e de the southern coastal city of Dakhla, Sahrawi population distinct from ~ibhration Populaire Sahraoui the area they invaded after - other nomads who populate the (ALPS) has ousted Moroccan tania in a 1979 treaty withdrew its Sahara desert. occupying forces.3 It included a 200 claim to any part of the Western While much work remains to be done kilometer trip into southern Morocco Sahara. on the prehistory of the region, there is evidence of hominid habitation of the Western Sahara dating back at least one and a half million years.4 The population has included both black and white people since the Neolithic period. Skeletal evidence and cave paintings indicate that these early desert people included a strong Negroid element resulting from a migration northward and westward into the Sahara which began about 5500 B.C. These people had settled the area long before the arrival of the .

Our group 780 kilometers inside Southern Morocco. Traveling through the liberated zones of the Western Sahara. There is also support for contempo- energy which led the through the Atlas which would lead rary Saharan beliefs that "white" [known by this time1 as the overland to "" (all the coast pre-Arab Sanjaha Berbers took Almoravids, to conquer from to what is today ), the source control of the desert by pushing out a to N. Spain (incidentally allowing the of slaves, gold, and spices. There , the "Bafot," thought Sahrawis to claim past were numerous wrecks along this to have created the oases. Phoe- over Morocco)." dangerous coast and shipwrecked nician merchants traded with coastal sailors were often captured and held Berbers from about 1200 B.C. and Internal dissent and the continuing for ransom by the desert nomads. Phoenicians controlled the gold influx of eastern into Morocco Some of those who lived through the coming from along the led to the eventual collapse of long enforced journeys left accounts Atlantic coast. From about 200 B.C. Almoravidan control, but Arabs of their experiences and of their cap- a local alphabet was in use which reached into the western desert only tors. One such sailor was Alexander spread over the Mediterranean- in the fourteenth century when a Scott, whosefour-year captivity pro- Fezzan- triangle as the written group known as the gradually vided plenty of opportunity for form of the Berber language. entered what is today the Western observation. Mercer paraphrases Sahara. Themselves nomads, the Scott's account: Following the destruction of Car- Magil got on with the Sanhaja, and thage in 148 B.C., Rome colonized the higher status accorded Arab The men wore the haik around them, the whole of the North African coast. facilitated their acceptance a "blanketf> the chief and elders, The apparent fragmentation of the into the area. each referred to as "Sidi," had desert nomads may have suggested Naturally, there was conflict with . The women, slender, fair- easy conquest, but the Romans soon skinned when young, very wrinkled learned to avoid the Sahara Berbers, the Sanhaja over many issues; a practicalmatter was the right to use with age, had their blankets belted at and their attempts to administer the the waist and fixed at the shoulder area met with the failure that was to the wells, in the digging of which the Berbers were very active. The with silver clasps; a piece of blue characterize subsequent European linen covered their heads but they efforts to control these people over Sanhaja were merchants and shep- herds, well enough off materially, did not use veils. Marriage was the centuries. In29 B.C., the Romans simple, the price of a bride -from ten divided the indigenous people into pious and education-conscious- both boys and girls were taught- years old-was ten camels. Divorce, : the one in the west he said, was at will. On death a half way down the Moroccan coast yet still very much divided within their confederation. The Arabs, poor person was washed and at once was called Tingitana. In buried, bushes and stones being 43 A.D., Rome made this protecto- and relatively backward, were fighters. piled on the grave. Children were rate into a "province," as did Spain taught to write on smooth boards in in 1958. Political alliances, the appeal of lslam black ink made of milk and charcoal, By the fifth century control of the (a convert not only obtained the using pens of split cane or reed. .. . Tangier area had passed to the superior social status associated Vandals; during the following two with the new order, but could take by Attempts at centuries the area was taken over by force the possessions of the pagan), Their fighting ability and their relative the Byzantines. Neither group, how- intermarriage between the Berbers economic independence- nomadic ever, influenced the western desert and the Maqil Arabs, and the herdsmen had the advantage of Berbers' adoption of Hassaniya (the population, the Sanjaha, who devel- being able simply to move in and out language of the Maqil), led to their oped a way of life and a social organi- of an area when under pressure- assimilation of "Arab blood and zation which survives in the twen- prevented the from culture." This period marked the tieth century. These people formed a ever being colonized in the way that emergence of the present-day confederation of four main desert sedentary African societies were. Sahrawi as a people having a "tribal" groups living between the During the sixteenth century the separate identity from other desert Saadian dynasty of Morocco Moroccan Sus, the west Mauritania Berbers. Trarza (in ), and Timbuktu, mounted four unsuccessful expedi- speaking what is now called Berber. Descriptions of the Sahrawi over the tions. These were followed over the The "Tuareg" are the Sanjaha's period from the fifteenth to the mid- next centuries by armies of the an- closest descendants. nineteenth centuries come from the cestors of the present monarch. At chronicles of explorers and travelers times, Europeans operating in the With the arrival of the first Arabs in and the records of manhunts and area appealed to the Sultan of 680 A.D., the Berbers assimilated trading, mainly written by Euro- Morocco for protection, but they lslam and it was they, not the Arabs, peans. According to contemporary were told that the region did not who carried the south into accounts, this coastal population come under his jurisdiction; and, in the desert along with their trade in was composed of indigenous San- fact the south of Morocco itself was , horses, metalwork, copper, haja Berbers and Hassaniya Arabs known as bilad as-siba "the unsub- and cowries which they exchanged (the Maqil). All were fervent Mus- mitted land." Morocco's Saharan for ivory, gold, and kola nuts. By the lims, and feeling against "infidels" ambitions were temporarily checked tenth century the entire - was strong. by European colonization in north- area was nominally Muslim. west Africa. The last 60 years of the As John Mercer put it in a 1979 European motives for landing on the nineteenth century were marked by report, it was lslam that "brought an coast of the Western Sahara in- increased competition between eleventh-century upwelling of cluded the hope of finding a pass Spain, the Sultan of Morocco, and Britain-in the person of Donald In 1886 France and Spain negotiated Western Sahara was declared a MacKenzie, a Scottish trader-to the auestion of their res~ective Spanish . gain control of the Western Sahara. zones' of influence in West '~frica. French military pressure from the The Treaty of Paris, a secret agree- south in Senegal and Spanish and MacKenzie had the greatest success ment signed on June 27, 1900, set and is remembered by historians for French military activities inside thesouthern and eastern boundaries Morocco led to various alliances to two schemes in particular. One plan of Rio de Oro, and the Paris Conven- was to irrigate the Sahara by building resist the invaders. Internal rivalry tion of October 3, 1904 set the between indigenous groups, how- a canal that would also provide direct northern boundary of the Spanish access from Southampton to Tim- ever, favored the Europeans whose Sahara which included Saguiet el tactics of "divide and rule" brought buktu. The other scheme was to Hamra and the zone of as far about defeat. establish a trading post, and in this as Wadi Draa (further ratified in 1912 he was successfu I. and -19%). his convention also During the last decade of the nine- Although the Sultan of Morocco limited Spain's control over certain teenth century, the French invaded made several military incursions into settlementswithin the French sphere the interior of today's Mauritania and the area during the nineteenth on the Moroccan Mediterranean faced the armies of the famous century, one involving an army of coast. In 1904 the area now called desert leader Ma el Ainin, who in 20,000 men of whom 6,000 died of King Hassan's View of thirst, all failed. Spain also increased its activity in the area and its formal colonial relationship with the West- ern Sahara dates from 1884 when, I CARTE DU ))GRANDMAROC*(( after an agreement with local chiefs, it built a settlement at Villa Cisneros (now Dakhla) and declared a protec- torate over the area of Rio de Oro from Cape Bohador to Cape Blanc. Spain was still confined to coastal settlements that required constant military protection from the indige- nous people, but in 1885 its rights over parts of the Sahara were recog- nized at the . According to the European powers who were partitioning Africa, the provisions for "legal colonization" included the requirement that a territory should be "without mas- ter"-that is, that no effective sover- eignty should previously have been established or, if it had, that such sovereignty should not be strong enough to resist the imperial power. In the Western Sahara, neither of these conditions pertained. Over the centuries, the people of the Western Sahara had evolved a sys- tem of government based on a tradi- tional Council of Forty (Ait Rebain) formed by representatives of the various nomadic groups populating the area. This council met at least once a year to organize the use of pastures and water and to hear dis- putes between groups. It was from this council that the Spanish - tained permission to build their settlement at Dakhla. Spanish troops had ample experience of the military capabilities of the local people to re- sist Spain's expansion into the interior and such military strength was maintained until 1934. However, events in adjacent also in- fluenced the evolution of the Western Sahara.5 800 KM I 500 MILES I Northwest Africa

LA A nt-I~A IVlHUtlv KW

Marrakesh

CANARY I c I A m~nr Sidi

MAURITANIA 0 MALI Araouan

@ \ Lake De bo \ I' '< 1887 was armed and titled his Mauritania and Morocco, and a Moroccan Liberation Army to lay "Caliph" in the desert by Sultan center for armed resistance. In 1912, claim to the entire region. Morocco Hassan I. Reaction to the French for example, one Moroccan resis- had won its independence from advance caused many nomads to tance group attacked the French France in 1956 and at that time Si support Ma el Ainin's declaration of a from inside the borders of the West- Allal el Fassi, the leader of the Inde- jihador holy war. He moved the base ern Sahara and managed to get as far pendence Party (ISTIQUAL) had of his operations to the region of as . The French retaliated put forward Morocco's claims to all Saguiet-el-Hamra and there founded by attacking Smara and succeeded the territory held by Spain. (This thefortified city of Smara, which be- in totally destroying this historic party previously claimed "greater came a religious and economic center of learning along with its MoroccoH-the whole of Mauri- center. From this vantage point he famous library of some 5,000 manu- tania, the Western Sahara, and part sought aid from Morocco. But Ma el scripts. The destruction of Smara of both Algeria and Mali.) Ainin, because of inability to unite became a symbol-and its dese- the nomads, as well as the inferiority cration inspired further attacks In 1957, the Moroccan Liberation of his arms, failed to halt the French against the French. Army (including Sahrawis) crossed invasion. In 1907 when Morocco was the borders and attacked Spanish split between Abdelaziz, who col- Finally in 1934a joint French-Spanish troops as far south as the Mauri- laborated with the French, and his operation obliterated many pockets tanian border. The threat thus posed brother Abdelhafid, the Pretender, of resistance in the to the interests of both the Spanish Ma el Ainin visited the latter in and permitted Spain to extend its and the French (still in control of Marrakesh to obtain more arms. By effective control beyond its three Mauritania) led these two European this time, hewas certainly aware that coastal settlements into the interior. powers to launch the "Ecouvillon" France would soon attack from the Maintaining control was difficult, operation. After more than six northern side of the desert as well. however; Sahrawian resistance months of bitter fighting the movements regrouped and sporadic Moroccan Liberation Army was de- The forces of Ma el Ainin were be- fighting continued until, in 1957, feated. Even then, Spain needed an trayed by Abdelhafid who aligned Spain was confronted with general armed force to maintain its control of himself with the French and insurrection and Spanish troops the Western Sahara: in addition to promised he would eliminate "the retreated to the coastal settlements. 55,000 Spanish soldiers and 4,500 desert -preacher." Even the police, there were 10-15,000 Span- death of Ma el Ainin in 1910 did not Post World War II in the ish-led Sahrawi troops. "These end the resistance, however, his role Western Sahara troops were backed up by para- being taken up by his son, and it was By the early 1950s, the "winds of chutists and other special units in another 25 years before the nomads change" had begun blowing across Iberian Spain and a special reserve were "pacified." While the French the African continent. While other of 35,000 soldiers stationed in the bore the burden of subduing the European powers were grudgingly ."7 nomads, the Spanish cautiously conceding to the demands of the annexed an additional small portion nationalist movements within their Spain's huge occupying army was of the coast during 1916-1920. colonies, Spain and were needed not only to combat oppo- busy solidifying and formalizing their sition from within the new province France and Spain were not the only colonial governments and increasing but also to stave off the threat of a European powers competing in this their military presence to resist pres- further Moroccan invasion. The northwest region of Africa. Both sure to decolonize both from within latter threat increased as a result of Britain and France coveted Morocco their colonies and from the inter- subsequent power struggles within and France was forced to concede national community. Spain, like Morocco, and France reacted by her rights and interest in to Portugal, had not benefited commer- accelerating its program for Mauri- gain British acceptance of French cially from its colonial possessions as -tanian independence. In the same colonial rights in that country. had other European powers and, year (1958) that Mauritania became France also recognized 's claims unlike Britain and France, had not a French Commonwealth country, to in exchange for Italian been able to afford to set up the Mohammed V claimed the Saharan support in the struggle to control social, legal, educational, and eco- territories for Morocco. On April 1, Morocco. Germany, first attempting nomic infrastructure that would 1958, Spain ceded the area of to destabilize French control in allow them to withdraw and yet to Morocco and in 1959 the area of Morocco by supporting anti-French retain relationships of economic lfni in exchange for Moroccan con- resistance, was bought off when benefit to themselves. So Spain (like cessions vis-his and . France handed over territories in the Portugal) responded to the member- Congo. In 1912, Morocco came ship requirements of the United Mauritania was finally given full under French control. (Spain and Nations by declaring in 1958 that the political independence in 1960, but France continued to be dissatisfied Spanish Sahara was not a colony but Morocco refused to recognize the with the division of that country and a province of Spain.6 new state for nearly a decade, main- Spain's occupation of the northern taining that the area belonged to coastal towns remained a source of The problem was that Spain had her. controversy long after Morocco had never gained effective control of the gained independence in 1956.) interior and after 1956 its fragile The Program to Settle the Nomads presence there was further More than 20 years ago, the General By this time the Western Sahara had threatened by Sahrawi who had Assembly of the become a refuge for rebels from both joined forces with a segment of the passed Resolution 1514 (XV) concerning the granting of indepen- Franco assured the UN in 1966 that the Spanish Presence on the West dence to all colonial countries and Spain would begin to prepare the Coast of Africa." By 1972, 2,600 peoples. In 1964 a special UN com- Sahrawi for independence; the next Sahrawi students were being edu- mittee called on Spain to grant inde- year he announced the establish- cated, and in this same year, a total pendence to the Western Sahara; ment of a local assembly, the of 61 scholarships were made avail- this was approved in General Djemaa, made up of Saharan able to Sahrawi candidates to study Assembly Resolution 2229 (XXI) in notables who had demonstrated a in Spain.8 By then there were 50 1965. In 1966 the General Assembly clear loyalty to Spain. The new Sahrawi and 160 Spanish teachers invited Spain to hold a referendum Djemaa was to "advise" the working in the Western Sahara. under United Nations auspices "in Spanish government. Of its 104 Summer trips to Madrid were conformity with the aspirations of members, 24 were appointed by the organized for "deserving students" the indigenous people of Spanish Spanish, 40 were appointed as rep- who were encouraged to report on Sahara and in consultation with the resentatives of the most numerous their visits during class time when governments of Mauritania and tribes, and 40 were elected by the they returned to school. Morocco and any other interested heads of families of different tribes. party." The resolution also re- Simultaneously, a program of Efforts to inculcate a sense of unity quested the Secretary General of forced urbanization, begun in 1958, with Spain were not limited to the the United Nations to "appoint was pursued with even greater children. In 1966, no fewer than 16 immediately a special mission to be vigor. To force the Sahrawis to African Orders and 25 Imperial sent to Spanish Sahara for the pur- move into the towns, the Spanish Orders of the Yoke and Arrows were pose of recommending practical killed their cattle, poisoned their awarded to compliant Sahrawis. steps for the full implementation of wells, and closed borders. New Other handouts ranged from blan- the relevant resolutions of the buildings were erected in the towns kets to jet flights to Mecca. A sense General Assembly and in particular and communications were extended of nationalism was further encour- for determining the extent of United throughout the country. aged by playing on the Sahrawis' Nations' participation in the prepa- fear of neighboring states, and em- ration and supervision of the referen- Primary level education had been phasizing the threat of communism. dum." introduced in 1949, but by 1958 (In 1963, for example, Spain pub- there were still only 23 Sahrawi stu- lished a map of Africa which Spain's response to these pressures dents. In 1969 the first secondary asserted the communist domination was to delay. On the one hand, school was opened with a lecture on of Morocco to be 70-90 percent of Inside a refugee tent near . "The Legal and Historical Rights of the population, that of Mauritania Above, a Sahrawi camp. Few camps have wells like the one below; and water is very scarce.

development of new resistance movements. Efforts were made to break down the communal system of the indige- nous culture by employing indi- viduals in wage labor, encouraging private enterprise, and promoting distrust among the people. Sahrawi described this process in an inter- view with me: We must not forget that Spain also used the tactics of division to create differences between tribes, to divide the tribes into different branches, the branches into families, and the families into individuals. For ex- ample, the government would call the chief and say to him, "You are the only one faithful to Franco. You are the only one who works well in the interests of Spain. But the others came to tell us that you are not working for us, that you do not want to work for us. Why are your people talking against you?" If you had visited a camp in the Sahara before colonialism, you would not have been able to tell the rich from the poor, for the simple reason that we shared what we had and we lent to the poor. Our only wealth was our camels. A rich family might lend some of its camels to a poor family for a lifetime. The only obligation was that the offspring of the camels would always belong to the owner. Spain tried to make a Sahrawi into a man who works only for him- self, who does not help others. But at the same time, Spain did not give work to everyone. If they had given work to everyone, every- thing would have been fine. But they gave jobs only to the sons of the chiefs and the did not even let them help others.'l Legislation after 1958 formalized relations between the province and and Mali 60-80 percent, and that of time of the "politics of the Land Spain. Spanish citizenship was Algeria 50-70 percent.9) Rover," the latter having replaced granted to the Sahrawi and the the camels that were their traditional Western Sahara had limited repre- With their cattle, the base of their means of transport. While nomads sentation in the Madrid government. economic independence decimated, could travel over the desert much Universal suffrage was not intro- most Sahrawi people who remained more rapidly, they had to depend on duced but then neither did it exist in in the territory (unknown numbers the Spanish authorities for gasoline, Spain itself under the Franco migrated to the neighboring states spare tires, and replacement parts. regime. Most elected positions were of Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, and Moreover, Spanish patrols were held by Spanish residents, those Algeria) settled in the coastal cities able to maintain a much closer con- Sahrawi holding posts were those and the towns in the interior. The trol over their movements. Spain's who could be described as faithful Sahrawi refer to the 1960s as the main concern was to prevent the to the Spanish. While making these efforts to con- tioned along the border, and Its potential for irrigated agriculture vince the Sahrawi that it was in their delivered them to their representa- has never been charted although best interest to remain part of Spain, tive in the Canary Islands. The many feel that, once irrigated, the the colonizers were busy ascer- prospectors were back in Morocco area could produce enough food for taining what resources could be by March 16, and on March 21 its own population and that of exploited in the area. Morocco turned its hostages over to Morocco and Mauritania as well. their ambassadors in Rabat, stating "To the Victor Belong the Spoils" that it would henceforth "re1 on Before 1972, Spain's commerce in negotiations over the desert."ll Aside from fishing, the most exten- the region was largely limited to sive exploitation of the mineral fishing the coastal waters and to Despite these minor interferences, endowment has been that of phos- local markets among the settled prospecting for oil continued and as phate. The most important dis- population. Geologic exploration early as 1968, Esso described its covery was made .in 1947 when after 1940, however, indicated that finds as "the most important of the deposits around Fos Bu Craa were the potential mineral and other year in Africa,"14 potentially on the found to yield 80 percent phos- wealth of the Western Sahara could same scale as the Gulf area. The phate. The Bu Craa open-cast mine turn that sparsely populated country extent of these reserves has not is still the main quarry, but reserves into another Kuwait. been established, however, nor has scattered throughout the five zones there been any exploitation. In 1977, of the Saguiet el Hamra are reported The coastal waters of Morocco and Morocco granted concessions in the to contain ten billion tons.15 the Western Sahara constitute one Western Sahara to a number of oil of the richest sources of fish in the companies, but they have been re- The United States, the Soviet Union, Morocco, and the Western world. Annual production has been luctant given the instability of the estimated to be ten tons to the region to commit the necessary Sahara possess the largest re- sources of phosphate in the world square kilometer over an area of money for exploitation. and at present control 80 percent of 150,000 square kilometers. The world production. If Morocco coastline of the Western Sahara is Spanish geological surveys also in- were to acquire the Western Sahara about 1,000 kilometers long and dicated the presence of titanium, reserves, it alone would control an since their earliest contact with the vanadium, zinc, uranium, copper, estimated 71 percent of the known area, Spanish fishermen have been gold, natural gas, magnetite, and world reserves. exploiting this resource. Fishing iron. The reserves of iron ore, esti- began on a commercial basis after mated at 70 million tons, are a con- In 1967, a consortium for the mining World War I, with a 1,500,000 ton tinuation of deposits in Zouerate, of phosphate in the Western Sahara annual harvest by Spanish, French, Mauritania, which were mined was formed under the International Greek, and Portuguese fishermen.11 originally by the French. Iron re- Chemicals Corporation of America. Recently more sophisticated fleets serves of an assay value of 65 Financial difficulties led to the of trawlers from Poland, the percent have been found in the transfer of control to Spain under U.S.S.R., , Italy, Japan, deposits at Agrache in the Oed el the Empresa Nacional Minera del , and the United States Dahab of the Western Sahara. The Sahara.16 A conveyor belt was have been "poaching" in the area.12 possibility of acquiring access to installed from Bu Craa to the coast these reserves was a strong motive In 1960 Spain invited foreign oil and the West German firm of Krupp behind Mauritania's claims to the also contructed port facilities at El companies to prospect the area. As territory, since its own iron re- Mercer reports, their appearance, Aaiun.The conveyor belt runs 98 sources will, at the present rate of kilometers, the longest in the world, "with the threat of their exploitation extraction, be exhausted within the of the Saharauis' unlocated and and is capable of transporting 14 next ten years. Among the foreign million tons annually. Two ware- therefore limitless wealth, brought interests which supported Morocco on the next of the always-imminent houses were constructed at El Aaiun and Mauritania and offered to with a capacity of 300,000 tons. crises," and on March 11, 1960, finance development of this mine in when a Union Oil team was at work the Western Sahara was Saudi Mining began in 1971 and the first two kilometers from the northern Arabia, which granted $50 million. exports were made in 1972. Two border, Moroccan soldiers crossed (Had Mauritania's claims to the years later there were 2,400 persons the border and "captured the pros- region been successful, it could employed in the operation, 800 of pectors, five Spanish, three Ameri- have counted on iron ore supplies them Sahrawi.17 The conveyor belt cans, two Canadians and a French- for another century.) was highly vulnerable to attack by man, taking them and their lorries guerrillas and required army protec- and gear to Tan-Tan." A convenient Although prior to the 1960s the tion. In 1977 all production ceased opportunity to retaliate was pro- majority of the Sahrawi people were after it had been badly damaged and vided three days later when another nomadic and relied on cattle-rearing continued fighting subsequently has team of Italian prospectors (in the and trading for their livelihood, prevented its repair. pay of Morocco) "had lost the route some sedentary agriculture has in the bad weather, and, short of always been practiced in the West- The importance of phosphate to fuel, decided to cross the border to ern Sahara and many of the coastal world food supplies cannot be over- seek help at the Union Oil Camp." people were fishermen. Under- estimated. Most modern agriculture Spain took the Italians under their ground rivers lace the desert and requires phosphate fertilizers. With- "protection" in full view of the one of the largest underground out them, food production would Moroccan Liberation Army sta- lakes in the world is located there. fall by at least a third, probably by one-half for some products. Be- market, and within three years the doubts about the safety and eco- cause the increasing cost of crude oil price fell to $3O/ton.l8 nomic viability of nuclear power has raised the costs of petroleum- could affect Moroccan plans. based fertilizer and of transport, the The multinational companies that importance of phosphate-and thus control the fertilizer industry have The potential for uranium-from- of control over supply- has also in- remained impassive in the face of phosphate and the acknowledged creased. international pressures to lower limits of U.S. deposits, however, prices and increase fertilizer exports have once again allowed Morocco to The United States is both the to Third World countries that might play a commanding role in the phos- world's largest exporter of food and thus increase food production and phate market. In 1980, the London- the largest producer of refined phos- alleviate hunger.lg Critic Susan based Commodities Research Unit phate, although most of the latter is George reports that the president of predicted that phosphate prices retained for internal agricultural use. one corporation confidently noted, would appreciate by at least 20 per- The U.S. expects to maintain phos- "My own feeling is that we [the U.S. cent in the following year. By Sep- phate self-sufficiency up to 1990. government] will emphasize grain tember 1980 the price had already The Soviet Union, too, has pro- shipments rather than fertilizer ship- risen from $30 to $53 per metric ton, duced sufficient phosphate for its ments as part of overall policy."20 which will add some $200 million to own use in the past and that of the Morocco's export earnings. (Other Eastern bloc countries, but recently George, among others, believes the African producers, especially , it has suffered shortages and has fertilizer industry should be con- Senegal and , have also had to look for external sources. sidered a public utility rather than a benefited from this price increase.) With an eye possibly to political as source of private profit at the Morocco's expanding phosphate well as financial benefits, Morocco expense of the hungry and mal- production and its interest in main- signed a $2 billion agreement in 1978 nourished. taining control over world market with the Soviet Union for financial prices, therefore, related directly Phosphate is also used in the produc- and technical assistance for the tion of detergents, but perhaps the to its ambitions in the Western mining of a new deposit at Maskala most important use of phosphate, or Sahara. in exchange for a long-term at least the one that has increased Spain and the Rise of Nationalist agreement to supply that country the strategic value of control over with 10 million metric tons per year. Movements among the Sahrawi supply, is for the extraction of ura- Some observers conjecture that had is totally dependent on nium (yellowcake) from phosphoric imported supplies and France, one the Moroccan Liberation Army, with acid. The new uranium extraction help from fighters from the Western of the largest refiners, gets 80 per- industry is based in Florida, which cent of its supply from Morocco Sahara, been successful in rout- has 80 percent of U.S. deposits of ing the Spanish in 1956-57, the and Togo, which depends on phos- phosphate, but interest in other country would today be integrated phate for 40 percent of its export sources of supply is obvious.21 earnings. into Morocco to the satisfaction of Westinghouse Corporation has the indigenous peoples whose The world market for made an offer to sell Morocco ura- historical and familial links extend as has been highly erratic over the past nium extraction technology.22 Al- far into southern Morocco as Tan- decade, and it is also quite sus- though Westinghouse asserts that Tan. The success of the "Ecou- ceptible to manipulation through the operation in Morocco is a "mar- villon" operation launched by stockpiling. Moreover, a number of ginal proposition from an American French and Spanish forces, how- major oil companies- Continental businessman's viewpoint," a com- ever, drove the Moroccans back Oil, Mobil Oil, and Gulf- have pany spokesman observed that there inside their territorial divisions. From bought American phosphate mines was much to be gained for the that time on, it is argued, changes and have been accused of trying to Moroccan economy- hard currency that resulted from Spanish neo- control the market domestically and from export sales, jobs in a high- colonialism in the Western Sahara in internationally. A price war in the unemployment economy, and its the 1960s contributed to the rise of late 1960s brought the International own uranium to use as it sees fit modern nationalist movements. Minerals and Chemicals Corporation (emphasisadded). Moreover, the Sahrawi were en- to near bankruptcy, but since then couraged in their struggle for polit- Obviously the Western Sahara repre- prices have skyrocketed, from ical independence by the fact that sents a most important potential $14/ton in 1967 to in 1975. beneath the sands of this seemingly $68 source of uranium from phosphate. arid region were the resources that By this time Morocco was supplying Construction work on the plant in would allow for economic inde- most of the world market, though Morocco began in July 1980 and it is pendence as well. export competition from the U.S. expected to produce 600 tons of began to stiffen. The price in- yellowcake from 500,000 tons of There is very little documentary in- creases, along with much higher phosphoric acid. One serious prob- formation about the rise of Sah- import bills for petroleum products, lem is the fact that King Hassan's rawian nationalist movements which caused fertilizer consumption to government has chosen the Ameri- developed outside the Western drop. Europe's fell by 25 percent, can process which can only be Sahara, but the sporadic guerrilla that of Third World developing profitable when the price of uranium attacks on Spanish strongholds kept countries by 60-65 percent. US. is above $40 per pound; the uncer- Spain well aware that its urbaniza- sales to Europe undercut the tain market for uranium arising from tion program and the minimal social , Tan -Tan, and Rabat. Guerrilla activity across these bor- ders served to increase the repres- sive measures taken by Spain against the people within the country and every attack was followed by hundreds of arrests of the settled Sahrawi who were believed to be supporting the guerrillas. Another group of militant Sahrawi was based in Mauritania where it was joined by others from Morocco and Algeria. On May 10, 1973, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguiet el Hamra and Rio de Oro (the two administrative divisions of the country created by the Spanish), or the Polisario, held its first congress and declared its slogan-"total and unconditional independence" with "armed struggle as the necessary means to achieve it." Attacks on Spanish strongholds continued. At last Spain was forced to make con- cessions. Spain decided to create its own "independence movement" and established the official Partido de Unido Nacional Sahraoui (PUNS). The Sahrawi report that Spain forced local Sahrawi to join by the simple device of restricting the pur- chase of food and water to party cardholders. On July 12, 1974, Spain announced to the international com- munity that it was prepared to put into action a program for internal autonomy of the Western Sahara and proposed a referendum on self- determination for 1975. Spain apparently believed it would be possible to maintain a close rela- tionship with the Western Sahara if it "Made in U.S.A."arms captured by the Polisario. conceded self-government to the Sahrawi who served, side by side, and economic benefits offered to were against Spain's new idea of with resident Spanish in the local those who settled in the towns and ''continuing associa tion" (Spain administrative structures. But the cities were failing to win the hearts with the Western Sahara) and took process of of the and minds of the Sahrawi. Anne place in the major cities: El Aaiun, Western Sahara -so long delayed - Lippert reports on one of these Villa Cisneros (Dakhla) and Smara. was interrupted by the renewal of movements: Forty Saharans died in the clashes at Moroccan claims to the territory and El Aaiun. The Spanish arrested 640 by international rivalries which led to While Spanish authorities were Saharans in the capital and 360 in Spain's last-minute doublecross of appointing members to the Djemma other cities. Along with Bassiri, the Sahrawi. (no elections were held until 19711, several other Saharans died under Mohamed Sid Brahim Bassiri, a torture in prison in the Canary (August 1981 journalist who had studied in Cairo Islands. Saharan workers who sup- and Damas, created the Front for the ported the protest were fired, and Liberation of the Sahara (MLS). many Saharan soldiers were relieved From 1966 to his death under torture of their arms and sent home. in 1970, Bassiri was the leader of a movementresponsible for a series of Other calls by Sahrawi nationalists strikes and demonstrations against for Spanish withdrawal from the the Spanish. The protests of 1970 Western Sahara were made from NOTES 11. Ann Lippert, "Statement, July 23, development projects, Togo found itself 1979, to the U.S. House of Representa- saddled with debt and forced to turn to 2. International Herald Tribune, Feb- tives Subcommittee on Africa, Hearings the lnternational Monetary Fund for ruary 20, 1980. on the Conflict in Western Sahara and rescue and "discipline." U.S. Policy." 3. 1 was already doing research on the 19. The U.S. has successfully used its Western Sahara when I was asked by 12. West Africa, December 8, 1980. control over food distribution as a polit- OXFAM (Oxford) to visit the refugee Although Morocco and the Saharan ical weapon in particular cases. When camps and prepare a report on current Arab Democratic Republic (the name of Ghana was suffering serious food conditions there. OXFAM-Belgique has the new state as declared on February shortages in 1980, for example, and its for several years been providing aid of 27, 1976) are at war, they have a com- "moderate" regime was threatened by various types. I want to thank OXFAM mon enemy in the foreign trawlers political unrest, it was persuaded to for its assistance in making official con- operating in their territorial waters. boycott the Olympics in exchange for tacts for me with the Sahrawi Red Cres- Since 1975 the Polisario have attacked U.S. wheat. When I asked an American cent and the in Algiers. not only Moroccan fishing boats, but official whether Ghanaian youth were 4. John Mercer, in Spanish Sahara also Spanish, Portuguese, and South upset about this since it was widely re- (London, 1976) and "The Sahrawis of Korean vessels, sometimes holding their ported that the Russians had offered to the Western Sahara," Minority Rights crews for ransom. This danger to its pay all their expenses, he questioned the Group Report, No. 40 (London, 1979) fishing industry has been one of the true extent of Ghanaian interest in the gives the most complete account in reasons for Spain's withdrawal from its Olympics and remarked, "We offered English of the Sahrawi from prehistoric total support of Morocco in the war. them a better deal." Africans from other states joke about how their govern- to contemporary times. All the historical 13. Mercer, Spanish Sahara, p. 226. information and quotations in this and ment's voting in the UN Assembly is the following section are taken from 14. Journal of the American Associa- influenced by the PL 480 program for these two works. tion of Geologists, August 1969. food aid. Other critics, like T. Jackson in Against the Grain: The Dilemma of Food 5. Many writers refer to the wide- 15. Lamalif, Casablanca, April 1976. Aid (OXFAM, 19811, charge that con- spread internecine fighting in Africa just These figures were supplied by the Sec- cessional food sales (like PL 480) are prior to the colonial period and thus retary of Moroccan Planning, Mr. Ben made to Third World countries in order justify colonialism for bringing "peace" Cheikh. to encourage new tastes that will have to African societies. Such a view ignores 16. Rencontre et Dkveloppementl to be met by continued imports, and the disruptive effects of slave trading CCSA, Western Sahara: A People in that these sales have created disincen- and other early European interventions Struggle (Algiers, 19791, p. 40. Accord- tives for local farmers to produce. in Africa. ing to this source the capital was entirely 20. Susan George, Feeding the Few: 6. For a discussion of similar efforts owned by the IN1 (Instituto Nacional de Corporate Control of Food (Institute of made by Portugal to pacify international Industrial, the Spanish state institution Policy Studies, Berkeley, 1979). objections to its colonial policy, see my that controls, among others SEAT (Fiat series "Guinea Bissau," Parts I, II, & 111, automobiles), ENSIDESA (iron metal- 21. June Taylor and Michael Yokell in AUFS Reports, nos. 17,21, & 22,1981. lurgy [sic]: 57% Spanish aluminum), Yellowcake: The lnternational Uranium AESA (shipyards), REPEsa (refineries: Cartel (Oxford, 19801, describe the world 7. Anne Lippert, "The Western 30% Spanish petroleum) BUTANO "war" in the 1970s over uranium prices Sahara: The Theft of a Territory?" (gas), ENESA (pegaso trucks and and control over supplies. The chief unpub. ms., n.d. buses), IBERIA (93rd European airlines), U.S. producerlbuyer is Westinghouse Corporation. 8. Using information from Mercer, etc. Spanish Sahara, I discovered recently 17. Ibid., p. 41. 22. The Multinational Monitor for that one of these scholarship holders is November 1980 and April 1981 discusses today a co-owner of a boutique near 18. The impact on Togo of the fall in a number of issues involved in the London's Convent Garden. phosphate prices was disastrous and attempted formation of a uranium illustrates the typical vulnerability of cartel. 9. lbid., p. 224. Third-World economics in the world 10. Interview with a member of the market system. Having obtained huge Polisario Front in the liberated zones, loans on the strength of anticipated recorded in February 1981. income from phosphate sales to finance

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