Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Deepening rifts

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 March 2002 Issue No.576
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Deepening rifts
Morocco's King Mohamed VI visited the disputed Western Sahara on Tuesday, a week after Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika toured refugee camps in his country housing "Sahrawis," the residents of the region, and vowed to continue to support their cause.
Although the Moroccan king's visit was the third in recent months, its timing was significant. Shortly before Bouteflika visited Sahrawi refugee camps in Tandouf, western Algeria, King Mohamed had vehemently rejected a United Nations (UN) proposal for the partition of the Western Sahara, under which one part of the territory was to become independent and the other officially annexed by Morocco. The proposal was reportedly suggested by the Algerian president to UN special envoy James Baker during a recent meeting in Houston.
Ben-Saeed Ait Aider, secretary-general of a Moroccan pro-government party, went as far as warning that the Algerian proposal "would only lead to a war between the countries." He also described the Algerian stance as "a crime against the unity of the people of North Africa."
With such tension between Algeria and Morocco, press reports downplayed the possibility of holding the long-delayed summit of the countries of the Maghreb Union. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Algeria in June. Formed in 1991, the Maghreb Union comprises all North African countries with the exception of Egypt.
Morocco and Algeria have long been at odds over Western Sahara, a territory along the Atlantic coast that Morocco annexed after former colonial ruler Spain pulled out in 1975. Algeria regards the annexation as illegal and has been supporting the territory's independence-minded rebels represented in the Polisario Front. A 15-year war with Polisario Front rebels followed Morocco's annexation of the area and hundreds of thousands of Saharawis fled into exile. Some 200,000 Saharawis still live in sprawling desert refugee camps in Algeria.
The UN brokered a cease-fire in 1991 and forged an agreement for a referendum on independence for the Western Sahara territory. However, the UN has been unable to stage the ballot.

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