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The Struggle for Western Sahara

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Tami Hultman
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Extract

Little that happens in Western Sahara is accepted as an indisputable development by all the parties concerned. It is not simply that differing interpretations are advanced. Rather, the facts themselves are in dispute. One such instance is the case of the Djemaa, the tribal assembly established by Spain to serve as a local consultative link with the colonial administration.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 27 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1976 

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References

Notes

1. “Official Text of the Agreement Among Morocco, Mauritania, and Spain on the Question of Western Sahara,” Le Monde, November 23 and 24,1975.

2. BBC Broadcasts, correspondent Victoria Britain, December 10 and 11,1975.

3. Le Monde, December 18, 1975.

4. Gretton, John, Western Sahara, The Fight for Self-Determination, Anti-Slavery Society (London), 1977, p. 47.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 31, Jeune Afrique, May 16, 1975, p. 40.

6. “Spanish Sahara,” Chapter XIII, Report of the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, Document A/10023/Add.5, United Nations, New York, November 7, 1975, pp. 52, 53.

7. See, for example, “La marcha verde, Kissinger detras,” posible, Madrid, Number 44, November 13-19,1975, cover and pp. 5-6.

8. Various reports, BBC Africa Service, correspondent Victoria Britain (Algiers); correspondent Stephen Hughes (Rabat); Reuters and the Associated Press reports from El Aaiun; December 1976; January-February 1976.

9. UN Document A/10023/Add.5 op. cit., p. 45.

10. For an account of the political and social work of the independence movement in POLISARIO-controlled areas in the last months of Spanish rule see John Gretton, “Spain is losing the Spanish Sahara, but who will win?”. The Times, London, 26 August 1975, p. 23.

11. Interviews by the author with survivors of the Oun Dreiga camp (Hafid Boudjemma, Algerian/Saharan border), June, July 1976; “Summary of the Report of the Swiss Medical Mission in the Sahraoui Refugee Camps in Algeria (April 1976),” translated and distributed by the Commission on Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service, Geneva; “Appeal of the Representatives of the Church in Algeria, Following Their Visit to Sahraoui Refugee Camps,” April 13, 1976, Western Sahara—Refugees, World Council of Churches, Geneva, 1976.

12. See, for example, “Laggerdly World Opinion Decried,” West Africa, July 5, 1976, p. 969.

13. Raoul Weexteen, “Fighters in the Desert,” Le Monde, February 1976, translated in The Struggle for Sahara, MERIP Reports, March 1976, p. 3.

14. See “Sahara Un Ano Después de la ‘Marcha Verde’ “ El Pais, Madrid, 7 November 1976, cover and pp. 6-11; references cited in Note 11. Angel Luis de Calle, Ismael Fuente Lafuente, Felix Bayon.

15. UN Document, op. cit., p. 5.

16. Author’s interviews with POLISARIO leaders, June-July 1976 (Hafid Boudjemma), November 1976 (New York).

17. Robin, Daniel, “La guère du POLISARIO,” Politique-Hebdo, Paris, September 16-22, 1977, p. 21.Google Scholar

18. “Programme d’Action Nationale,” (Long Term Goals), Le Peuple Saharoui en Lutte (POLISARIO publication). May 1975, p. 43. “Sahara: A Talk with POLISARIO,” 77ie Guardian, New York, 24 November 1976, p. 13.

19. Author’s conversations with journalists, Algiers, July 1976.

20. “La R.A.S.D. Se Fixe pour Objectif la Realisation du Socialisme,” El Moudjahid. Algiers, September 8, 1976.

21. “Constitution,” Sahara Libre (POLISARIO newspaper, Algiers), no. 21, October 4, 1976.

22. Zenati, Hassan, “Sahara, La Lutte Continue,” Afrique Asie, Paris, no. 117, September 20-October 3, 1977, p. 21.Google Scholar

23. See Henry Giniger, “Morocco Finding Sahara a Strain,” New York Times, August 16, 1976.

24. F. POLISARIO, “Statement in the Fourth Committee,” United Nations, November 12, 1976. I have avoided a discussion of the political history of Western Sahara as it relates to present claims of sovereignty, because of the complexity of the situation. For a detailed account see John Mercer, Spanish Sahara, George Allen and Unwin (London), 1976-to my knowledge the only book in English devoted to Western Sahara. For the text of the OAU Ministerial Council resolution on Sahara see West Africa, July 12, 1976, p. 1005.

25. Andrews, John, “Polisario left out in the cold,” Manchester Guardian (U.K.), December 5, 1977.Google Scholar

26. Algerian Statement to the Fourth Committee, United Nations, November 12, 1976.

27. Department of Defense statistics.

28. Department of Defense statistics.

29. See “A Limited War in the Sahara?”, West Africa, Lagos, October 4, 1976, p. 1468.

30. See “Mauritania Arms Delivery,” West Africa, October 4, 1976, p. 1468.

31. For discussions of the Sahara’s phosphate potential see “Spanish Sahara, the Conflict over a Phosphate Fortune,” Business Week, May 19, 1975, p. 54; Peter Fraenkel, “Land of Sand and Phosphates,” African Development, London, date unknown, pp. 21, 23; UN Document, op.cit., pp. 42-44.

32. Ibid.

33. See Mercer, op.cit., “Mineral Prospection and Mining,” pp. 184-195.

34. See John Darnton, “Guerrillas Training Mauritania’s Slim Resources,” New York Times, October 24, 1976; Tami Hultman, “An Improbable Guerrilla Band Keeps the Sahara Hot,” Washington Star, August 21, 1974, p. 1.

35. See various issues of Maroc Matin (Rabat) and Le Matin du Sahara (El Aaiun), January, February 1976, and “A Limited War in the Sahara?”, op.cit.

36. “Sahara, La Lutte Continue,” op.cit.