Amid Moroccan Investment in Western Sahara, Tensions Simmer

Western Sahara, a Colorado-size piece of land directly below Morocco, has been relatively quiet since the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991 between Morocco, which occupied the land when Spain withdrew from its former colony, and the indigenous Sahrawis, who wanted independence. After the cease-fire, a United Nations peacekeeping mission arrived to set up a referendum for independence. That vote never happened. For the most part, Western Sahara fell off the radar.

The UN force is still there, charged with preparing a referendum. Earlier this year the U.S. attempted to add human rights monitoring to the UN’s mandate, then dropped its efforts in April when Morocco canceled joint military exercises with the U.S. That set off a wave of protests. In early May more than a thousand protesters took to the streets in Laayoune, Western Sahara’s capital, chanting for independence. Although the numbers sound small, the protests were significant: The territory’s population is only 500,000. The protestors were not deterred by the presence of heavy Moroccan security. These demonstrations, coupled with the flap over the UN mandate, “move the chess pieces forward in ways we haven’t seen for years,” says William Lawrence, the North Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group, an NGO that tracks conflict around the world.