According to the Financial Times of London, the UN resolution would give territorial "autonomy" to Western Sahara, while allowing the Moroccan government to continue its military occupation, control of foreign policy, and to maintain the "preservation of territorial integrity against secessionist attempts." The resolution's sponsors justify it as a way to "unblock" progress on holding a referendum in Western Sahara on independence. The Moroccan regime had previously agreed to such a vote, but has been stalling on it for the past decade.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria is scheduled to visit U.S. president George Bush this month. The Financial Times reports the visit is partly intended to press the Algerian government to accept the UN resolution, and in turn put pressure on the Polisario Front. The government in Algiers has been one of the main public backers of the Sahrawi liberation struggle, which enjoys deep support among the Algerian people. Over the past quarter century it has provided material and military support to the Polisario Front.

Western Sahara is a nation of approximately 300,000 people in northwestern Africa. From 1884 to 1975 it was a direct colony of Spain. In face of the growing independence struggle, the imperialist government of Spain and the semicolonial regimes of Morocco and Mauritania brokered a deal in 1975. Madrid relinquished direct control of Western Sahara and allowed it to be carved up and occupied by Moroccan and Mauritanian government forces.

Tens of thousands of Sahrawis were driven from their country and into the Sahara desert, where they have lived for the last 26 years in tents in refugee camps on the Algerian side of the border. U.S., French, and Spanish imperialism continue to dominate the nation through their client, King Mohammed VI.

The Sahrawi people have been fighting for their independence for decades. In 1973, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro, or Polisario, was founded; it launched a guerrilla war for independence against Spain. Polisario continued its struggle after the 1975 agreement and drove Mauritanian forces out four years later. The Moroccan regime extended its occupation into the formerly Mauritania-controlled region.  
 
Moroccan regime stalls on referendum
Since 1989 the Polisario Front and the Moroccan regime in Rabat have agreed to a UN-brokered cease-fire. Under this agreement, the Sahrawi people were supposed to vote on a referendum on independence a decade ago. For 12 years Rabat has obstructed the referendum.

There is growing frustration among Sahrawis over the lack of progress, and increasing calls for the Polisario Front to re-launch the liberation war. This issue was at the center of the discussion at the fifth congress of the Union of Youth of Western Sahara (Ujsario), which took place here June 9.

Salem Besir, the head of parliament of the Saharan government-in-exile, explained in early June that the Polisario Front was expecting a new UN proposal. "We've prepared the Sahrawi people for any change in the situation and we have made it clear to the UN that we will not accept any solution outside of full independence for our country.

"If there is no progress, we will re-launch the war for liberation. Not all of our friends in the international community will understand if we go back to war, but we cannot wait for somebody else to come and give us independence and we are not going to live in exile in refugee camps forever."

In response to the latest UN-backed proposal, the Sahrawi government's Information Ministry issued a statement rejecting any continuation of the foreign occupation of their nation. It noted that "[UN secretary general] Kofi Annan's plan prevents the Saharan people from their right to a free self-determination referendum."

There are two main reasons why the Moroccan regime, backed by billions of dollars in economic and military support from their imperialist masters in Washington, Madrid, and Paris, continues its brutal occupation of Western Sahara.

First, near the Sahrawi city of Bu Craa lies one of largest phosphate deposits in the world. Under the 1975 accords, the Spanish government was given a 35 percent stake in the phosphate mines and the remainder was divided between Morocco and Mauritania. These mines continue to provide a handsome profit for the occupiers and for Madrid.

Secondly, the Sahrawi liberation movement offers a dangerous example to other toilers fighting imperialist domination in Africa and the Middle East. The liberation movement has championed the position that the natural resources of the country are the patrimony of the Sahrawi people, not to be taken by imperialist-backed companies to line their own pockets. The money poured into military spending in Morocco is used not only to suppress the Polisario Front but to put down resistance by workers and farmers in Morocco.

On Feb. 27, 1976, after tens of thousands of Sahrawis had been forced to flee their country and set up refugee camps in the desert, the Polisario Front proclaimed the Sah-rawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).  
 
Gains made by liberation movement
In spite of harsh desert conditions and dependence on international aid organizations for most of their basic needs, the Sahrawi people have made significant advances in women's rights, education, and other social rights. Tribal, racial, caste, and sex discrimination, institutionalized under Spanish colonialism, have been outlawed. It is this example by the liberation movement in Western Sahara that the imperialist powers aim to suppress.

Zorgan Larousi, who lives in one of the refugee camps, explained the steps taken by the SADR to advance education. "Before we were forced to flee our homeland, only 5 percent of the population could read and write. Now 90 percent are literate, including all of the young people. The Spanish wanted to keep us uneducated and ignorant. They did not even want us to think past our own area, much less about the world."

Every young person goes to primary school and then to one of the two large boarding schools for secondary education. Many continue their schooling at universities in Algeria, Cuba, or other countries that offer free tuition for Sahrawi students, with a focus on fields that benefit the Sahrawi people--education and medicine. In comparison, in Morocco less than 30 percent of the population can read and write, a situation faced by working people throughout much of the semicolonial and colonial world.

Metu Moustafa, 25, who grew up in the refugee camps, spoke about the affirmative action measures taken in the SADR to expand the role of women in society. "When most of the men were on the front during the war," she said, "the women were primarily responsible for running the camps. The government established the 27th of February women's school. Three hundred women attend every year to study teaching, nursing, management, or weaving."

A number of women serve in the parliament and local councils of the government, something that Moustafa said was unthinkable under colonial domination.

The efforts to advance women's rights are codified in the constitution of the SADR, adopted in 1999, which states, "The state advances the promotion of women and their political, economic, social, and cultural participation in the construction of society and the development of the country."

Universal health care is a right in the camps and liberated zone of Western Sahara. The Polisario Front has carried out an immunization campaign and given priority to training medical personnel, in spite of scarce supplies of medication and basic medical equipment. Between 1975 and 1980, thousands of people died in the refugee camps from malnutrition, famine, and epidemics. Since 1980, epidemics have been eliminated and there have been only a handful of reported cases of malnutrition.

"These are advances we have made in the refugee camps," Moustafa explained. "Women are different people today, more educated and more confident. Morocco's occupation of our country has only forged a stronger national unity. We will never go back to the way things were before. This is why we will never stop fighting for our independence."  
 
 
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