Basic HTML Version
DESERT CONFL/CT:
Moroccan soldier holds
advance position on hi/1 in Western Sahara
(previous page). Left to right: Polisario supporters
gather for parade; guerrillas inspect captured
Moroccan equipment; Polisario leaders meet near
Tindouf; a Polisario supporter; Mirage F· 1 aircraft
of Moroccan Air Force at El Aiun, capital of
Western Sahara.
so intensely interested in the out–
come?
More Than an lndependence
Movement
The controversy began to brew in
October, 1975. Remember Moroc–
co's much-publicized Green March
(named after Islam's traditional
color)? More than 100,000 Moroc–
can civilians, armed only with the
Koran, marched south into the Span–
ish Sabara to demonstrate peacefully
their claim to the colony. For centu–
ries the region had been part of the
Moroccan Empire.
Spain-occupier of the territory
for nearly a century-finally gavc in
32
to Moroccan pressure and pulled out
of the region early in 1976. Tbe
Western Sabara was then partitioned
between the bordering countries of
Morocco and Mauritania. Morocco
received tbe nortbern two thirds;
Mauritania tbe soutbern third.
But tbe partition agreement was
not to everyone's liking. Ncighboring
Algeria, whicb has clase ties to the
Soviet Un ion, strenuously objected to
the arrangement. In response, it took
under its wing a Marxist-oriented
Western Sabaran independence
movement known as
Polisario.
Poli–
sario's ranks are composcd of former
soldiers in the Spanish colonial army,
Moroccan malcontents, disgruntled
desert nomads and Algerian sympa–
thizers.
They vicw their chief adversaries,
Morocco and Mauritania, as illegal
occupiers of the Saharan territory.
Bascd in the Algerian desert mining
town of Tindouf, Polisario guerrillas
are now engaged in full-scale guer–
rilla war to attain independencc,
under tbeir control, for tbe Western
Sabara.
Polisario's political arm- the Sa–
baran Arab Democratic Republic–
is a sort of government in exile.
It
is
recognized today by sorne 35 coun–
tries, as well as by tbe Organization
of African Unity (OAU) . Mos t
countries, however, have declined
The
PLAIN TRUTH