Global Policy Forum

By Isambard Wilkinson

Sheikh Ali Said Reguibat brushed the sour camel milk from his pointed beard and flew into a rage. "Betrayal?" he shouted, at a gathering of tribal leaders in Laayoune, the desert-bound capital of Western Sahara. "We are Moroccan and have been independent since the Spanish left. We are not betraying anyone. We have been Moroccan for centuries." His furious reaction to accusations of being a Moroccan government stooge highlighted the continuing volatility of the 26-year struggle over the Western Sahara.

For nearly 30 years the Western Sahara, a vast, phosphate-rich desert area to the south of Morocco, has been racked by one of the world's forgotten conflicts. It has also been the focus of a long-running peace process which came to a head yesterday.

The fighting began in 1975 when Spanish colonial forces withdrew and Moroccan forces occupied it in defiance of United Nations calls for a referendum on its future. For 16 years guerrillas of the Polisario Front fought for independence until the UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991. Since then the world body has spent pounds 300 million trying to organise a plebiscite to settle the question but the process has come to nothing as both sides refuse to agree on eligibility for the poll.

Yesterday the UN Security Council extended the stay of its observer force for three months without choosing a solution to the deadlock. The available options are partitioning the area - rejected by both sides; imposing non-negotiable terms for it to become a semi-autonomous part of Morocco; ending the UN peace-keeping mission, or carrying on trying to hold a referendum.

James Baker, the former US secretary of state, recommended the autonomy option but the Security Council deferred its decision. Morocco's claim rests on its historic empire in the area and the oath of allegiance some tribal heads traditionally swore to the Moroccan king. Abderrahmane Youssoufi, Morocco's prime minister, insisted that they had a strong claim.

"We are developing a land where the Spanish left nothing." The government says that it is improving the zone's industry and infrastructure and that education and amenities are better than in most parts of Morocco.

But in the suburbs of Laayoune, the results of the failed attempt to hold a referendum are visible. A sprawling shanty town has been occupied by people transported from the north by the Moroccan government a decade ago, to become "legitimate participants" in a referendum.

The 20,000 people living there have been assured by the Moroccan government that they will soon be properly housed, and are "on-message". When asked if they voluntarily travelled hundreds of miles to take part in the vote, they reply, "we came to perform our national duty". In another shanty town nearby, local Saharawis have lived in poor conditions for 26 years, and few believe they will see change.

"They only look after you if you say Sahara is Moroccan," said one woman. She was questioned by Moroccan officials after talking to The Daily Telegraph. Many opposed to a Moroccan presence agreed that living conditions and freedom of speech had improved but memories of abductions and state torture persist.

Occasionally demonstrators waving Polisario flags are arrested and beaten. The most visible result of the guerrilla war stands in the desert hundreds of miles from Laayoune. In the 1980s a 1,500-mile wall of sand and stone, thicker and longer than the Great Wall of China, was built by Morocco along the length of the Western Sahara.

It is now the front line, and on the other side is a sliver of territory under the control of Polisario, inhabited only by a small number of nomads. The region's total population is estimated at 350,000, with immigration from Morocco leaving the Saharawis barely a majority. Most of them, 130,000, fled the territory during the war and now live in impoverished conditions across the Algerian border in parched and unforgiving frontier country.

Morocco maintains that many are held against their will. They are, Moroccans say, puppets of Algeria, Morocco's traditional rival. Polisario has been accused by the Red Cross of human rights abuse and still holds more than 1,300 Moroccan prisoners. The UN has called for their release.

For the past year Mr Baker has been trying to build support for his peoposal of semi-autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. But his efforts have not been wholly successful. Mohamed Abdelaziz, the Polisario president, has rejected the "offer of pseudo-autonomy" and threatened to take up arms again.

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