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The Uninvited To The US-Africa Leaders Summit: Western Sahara

The Uninvited To The US-Africa Leaders Summit: Western Sahara

During a 2012 human rights delegation to the Western Sahara, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights reported seeing an “overwhelming presence of security forces and violations of the rights to life, liberty, personal integrity, freedom of expression, assembly, and association.”

In addition to these violations, the Center’s delegation “was followed by secret police, physically prevented from observing an attack on peaceful protesters, verbally abused, and subjected to a widely disseminated disinformation campaign aimed at undermining [its] credibility…”

In this AFKInsider series we are highlighting “The Uninvited,” those leaders that did not receive invites to the upcoming US-Africa Leaders Summit. President of the Polisario Front in Western Sahara, Mohamed Abdelaziz joins leaders from Eritrea, Sudan, Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic on this list.

It was not, however, security forces of the Polisario Front, the group the United Nations has, since 1979, recognized as the legitimate representative of the “people of Western Sahara,” that harassed the group or were a constant presence throughout the delegation.

The security forces the RFK Center witnessed belonged to the territory’s neighbor, Morocco. In order to understand Abdelaziz’s exclusion from the Summit it is vitally necessary to understand the complicated history of the territory, often labeled “Africa’s last Colony.”

Western Sahara’s historical status has seen a variety of actors controlling the territory. According to the UN, from 1884 until the mid-1970’s the territory was a Spanish protectorate. This would be followed by jockeying for control between Mauritania and Morocco, with Mauritania eventually bowing out and Morocco taking sole control in 1979.

Since that time the territory has been contested between the Polisario Front and the Moroccan government. The recognition of the Polisario Front as the legitimate representative of Western Sahara’s people along with the Moroccan government’s control over the territory has made it a mainstay on the UN’s list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Much has been written on rightful ownership and representation in the territory. While the United Nations sees the Polisario Front as the legitimate representative of the people, many analysts feel this status is ill founded.

Nabil Ouchagour, writing for the Atlantic Council’s MENASource blog, writes that “many Moroccans feel slighted by the United Nations’ insistence on treating the Polisario as a legitimate power broker.”An important element in any negotiations because of the historical and legal ties between Moroccans and people of the Western Sahara.

He goes further to claim that “the Polisario has shown little transparency or commitment to democratic principles over the years. Its unelected leaders have not changed and its relations with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) suggest an ongoing threat to regional stability.”

Even such issues with the Polisario do not lead to easy answers. As a counterpoint in the same MENASource piece, Mehrunisa Qayyum points out an important question. “For those that condemn the Polisario Front, it is worth asking: if not Polisario, then who?”

Morocco has systematically censored debate about the future of the territory, both in domestic politics and international media, leading to the harsh but unsurprising treatment of the RFK Center delegation. Such censorship and criminalization of discussion does not lend itself to the creation of other, more viable, options.

The differences between Polisario rule and the Moroccan administered areas are not merely present in the abstract. Professor Anouar Boukhars, an expert on the region, in a report for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes that in a recent visit to the territory “locally elected representatives, tribal leaders, and senior political and security officials gleefully reminded me – just in case I failed to take notice – of the juxtaposed realities on the ground in the Moroccan-administered Western Sahara and in the Polisario-controlled Tindouf [Algeria] camps. The former remains relatively stable and secure while the latter is increasingly becoming infested with militancy, illegality, and drug smuggling.”

There is an important difference between Mohammed Abdelaziz and the other “Uninvited.” While Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe have all ruled their countries for decades with iron fists, crushing dissent and flouting human rights with impunity, Abdelaziz is unable to exert such control over his territory.

The failings of the Polisario are extremely well documented. As the above scholars noted they have been utterly unable to the Algerian refugee camps safe, stable and secure, have not held free and fair elections and have been tremendously opaque in their activities. However, there is an important additional factor in Abdelaziz’s exclusion from the upcoming summit. Old fashioned realpolitik.

While Abdelaziz and the Polisario are recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representatives of the Western Saharan population, Morocco is a major ally to the United States, perhaps the strongest in the region.

As the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham wrote last year, the ties between the two states are among America’s longest standing, dating back to 1777. Additionally, the North African state “has demonstrated not only the willingness but the capacity to shoulder the challenges facing the Maghreb-Sahel, is one way to help advance the US goal of promoting regional security and development in North Africa.”

For this reason there is little doubt that the United States is reticent to upset the Kingdom. While Abdelaziz and the Polisario are no saints, they have been determined by the UN to be the legitimate representative of the territory and neither side can claim a monopoly on thwarting peace.

While most of “the Uninvited” have been declared persona non grata for harsh dictatorship, there is little doubt that international politics play a significant role in the exclusion of Abdelaziz from the most prominent Africa leadership engagement event in American history.

Andrew Friedman is a human rights attorney and freelance consultant who works and writes on legal reform and constitutional law with an emphasis on Africa. He can be reached via email at afriedm2@gmail.com or via twitter @AndrewBFriedman.