You have reached a virtual picket line

Clicking onto the site of Morocco's most popular blogger, Larbi, today, I discovered that Moroccan bloggers are on strike. The reason is of course the arrest of Fouad Mourtada for opening a mock Facebook account in the name of moulay Rachid, a Moroccan royal. Needless to say, a number of procedures have been broken by the authorities, who are not so much concerned with the "identity theft" that Mr. Mourtada now stands accused of, as they are with squashing a perceived affront to the royal family. Ibn Kafka is also on strike, but fortunately his legal analysis of the case remains online. And don't miss this post over at Eatbees.

Anyway, I don't want to be a scab, but I'm not sure how to put the blog on strike except by posting about it. No Western Sahara strings attached -- since I'm sure neither the Moroccan blogosphere nor Mr. Mourtada himself would appreciate it -- but full solidarity nonetheless. Free Fouad!

Senegal ♥ Morocco

No luck with Malawi, but Senegal's president Abdoulaye Wade knows how to get the Moroccan monarchy all sweaty-palmed with pleasure:

"I have always backed Morocco and its territorial integrity, and our stand has not changed," Senegalese President told the Arabic satellite TV channel "Al Arabiya" on Thursday. [...] "The Sahara is a Moroccan territory and should stay under the Moroccan sovereignty. We have never changed our stand,” he stressed.

This, as faithful readers no doubt recall, to put an end to that.

In related news, there's another gap to plug between Morocco and Senegal: Mauritania, where loyalty to the neutral status quo has looked a little less certain as of late, to Rabat's jittery concern. Think that may be why Tayeb Fassi Fihri and Mohamed Yassine Mansouri went to Nouakchott recently?

[picture: president wade defining morocco's proper size on a map]

RSF Press Freedom Report 2008

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have released their 2008 world report on press freedom. As usual, a sobering read.

The Maghreb countries have individual reports: Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, but Western Sahara remains a footnote to the Moroccan report. Read for yourself.

[picture: this year's maghreb press freedom champ: mauritania]

Souffles: counter-culture in Morocco

Via The Arabist, a very interesting essay. It deals with Moroccan cultural and leftist activism in the 1960s and 1970s, as it formed around the magazine Souffles. Peripherally interesting for Western Sahara buffs, since the leftist group that emerged from this (Ila al-Amam, now al-Nahj al-Dimuqrati) would later take a strong stand for Western Saharan self-determination (and be nearly exterminated for it), but there's a lot more than that to the story, and it deserves to be understood on its own merits.

So read: In the Beginning There was Souffles, by Issandr El Amrani in Bidoun. And if you're interested, a complete online archive of Souffles is available here, and editor-in-chief Abdellatif Laâbi's personal website can be found here.

Two will do

Magharebia, via TMND:

In response to an initiative in Algeria to amend the constitution and allow President Abdelaziz Bouteflika the opportunity to serve a third term in office, opponents of the plan have broken their silence and initiated a petition against the proposal which they deem undemocratic.

The group of opponents – consisting of former members of parliament, activists, academics, professionals and journalists – expressed their rejection of the idea to amend the constitution in a statement published online and in the press, and launched a campaign to collect citizens' signatures of support.

Unfortunately, "former members of parliament, activists, academics, professionals and journalists" are not known to control anything much in Algeria. Present members of parliament don't either, so this is really nothing on the grand scale of things -- if it isn't the beginning of something larger, which remains to be seen.

Some earlier posts on the same subject: 1, 2, 3, and don't miss what Hugh Roberts has to say about Bouteflikaism.

Dressing up the dead

Let's just say it: the UN secretary-general's personal envoy for Western Sahara, Peter van Walsum, looks set to go down in history as the worst UN mediator in the history of the conflict. Not that anyone else has been particularly successful, given that the conflict remains unsolved after 33 years. But van Walsum isn't only failing in his mission: while on the post, he has overseen the systematic dismantling of the framework so carefully constructed by the UN over these decades, on which the ceasefire is hinged. The UN's role and power of initative has deteriorated to virtually none at all, and the peace process itself has been emptied of all content. This should be of concern to both Morocco and Polisario (and Algeria), and to all those who do not wish to see the conflict spin out of UN hands.

[picture: peter van walsum]

If we look back a bit, the UN as an organization had real influence after the 1991 ceasefire, when the whole battle moved into Minurso and the referendum process. Sure, there were all sorts of pressures from the big powers (read US and France) and neither the secretary-general nor Minurso could accomplish much without their approval. But at least the debate took place inside the UN framework, on UN terms, and it was the UN that acted as referee. Erik Jensen's memoir of his years in Minurso is dull stuff for anyone not seriously interested in the issue, but the short summary is this: Morocco and Polisario both behaved like paranoid schizophrenics, obstructing every step of the peace plan, and at least one of them had foreign backing to do it; but despite slow progress, there was progress, and we did get them to make actual deals.

Now, this is no longer the case. The Manhasset negotiations are a joke, not taken seriously by anyone involved. All important developments take place outside of the UN, in bilateral relations between Morocco and France, Morocco and the USA, Algeria and the USA, etcetera; and perhaps on playing fields such as the EU and the African Union. These decisions are then reflected in the compromises crafted in the Security Council, which will occasionally lean to and fro, but invariably tend to support the continued stalemate. The UN's only remaining tools for independent action are (1.) Minurso and (2.) whatever negotiation initiatives the secretary-general and his envoy decide to come up with. Minurso, of course, is not very relevant anymore: it has been stripped of all tasks except that of apolitical ceasefire watchdog. As for creative diplomacy, there's the secretary-general's reports, but they contain absolutely nothing of value. And then there's van Walsum's periodic forays into the region, and his own reports: his chance to make a difference. But how does he use those precious opportunities? Let's hear it from the man himself:

Chahid El Hafed (Refugee Camps), 09/02/2008 (SPS) The personal envoy of the UN secretary-general for the Sahara, Mr. Peter Van Walsum, declared on Saturday in the Saharawi refugee camps, after a meeting with the president of the [Sahrawi] republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, that the "positions of the parties are still very far apart" and that he has "no new plan to exit from this stalemate". [He] added that "it is not meaningful to propose something which will necessarily be rejected by one of the parties"...

That's it, that's all. That's his plan. The parties do not agree, and there's zero likelihood they ever will -- and yet we must not confront either one outright, in the hope of to forcing a change in its position.

There you have it: the quiet admission that the UN has surrendered all influence over the process. The key year was 2006, when the recently appointed van Walsum suggested that the UN should "take a step back" from the process, thereby implicitly dropping 15+ years of painstakingly negotiated agreements, and Annan agreed to recommend this to the Security Council. It has voluntarily reduced its own (already limited) role to waiting for an intervention by the USA or France, or perhaps some drastic political cataclysm in Morocco or Algeria. This can't even be properly qualified as sham peace process, because there's no hidden agenda to it -- there's simply no agenda at all, except to stave off war, keep the Minurso op rolling and the pointless reports and resolutions flowing. Like some strange cult, where only the rituals remain and no one is quite sure why they're doing these complicated ceremonial dances, except they have a vague sensation that the heavens will come crashing down if they don't.

Alright, very colorful -- but what can he do, you may ask? Not a whole lot, for sure. The balance of power is what it is, and there will be no sudden breakthroughs whatever he decides to write in his reports or say to the media. But there are at least some things that he could do, and would do, if he was serious about this mission, and if the UN as a whole was serious about it.

One very simple move would be to openly address the deteriorating human rights situation: recommend openly that Minurso be granted the mandate to station observer teams for human rights in both the refugee camps and the Moroccan-controlled territories. If one or both of the parties decides to refuse this, let them carry the blame; if it is stopped in the Security Council (by France), then let them carry the blame, and keep trying.

Another thing is to recommend some other form of arbitration. Why not recommend that the issue be put back before the International Court? Since both parties claim to have support of the Court's last verdict, in 1975, they should be glad to see that happen; if it turns out they're afraid of a final verdict, let them try to explain that in public.

A third way of putting pressure on the parties would be to challenge their own narratives, by simply taking them up on their own propaganda. For example: recommend the Security Council to order a headcount of all Western Saharans, whether in Tindouf or in the Moroccan-controlled territories or abroad, and make the results public. Or simply ask for the Minurso voter lists to be made public, so everyone can see what way the referendum was going. Or ask for an open corridor between the refugee camps and the Moroccan-held territories, with guaranteed right of return to both sides. Or ask the Security Council to order internationally reviewed opinion polls on all sides of the berm, to see what Sahrawis really want. Or start distributing blame for the slow progress of the confidence-building measures: be frank about who is obstructing what, to shame them into action. The possibilities are limitless, and they all seem to require only one simple thing -- being open and honest about what's going on, and talking creatively about how to find solutions instead of waiting for them to occur deus ex machina.

Hey, now, you might be saying: this is fantasy. There's no way that some of those proposals could pass Security Council scrutiny, and no way that they could even be in his reports. Van Walsum isn't interested in sticking his neck out, he's a 74-year old man just passing time in a comfortable sunset post until he decides to retire; to actually try to crack the Sahara stalemate simply isn't in his job description. And you would be right.

Peter Van Walsum's job is not to mediate, and not to make a difference, and not even to preserve the influence of the UN -- his job is simply to be in the job. It is to issue a report every now and then, to poke and pull the peace process, kick its legs, to make it move a little, twitch a little, so people won't notice that it's been dead for years already, and so they will think that things are still safely in the caring hands of the United Nations.

But Peter, it's starting to smell.

Five good ones right there

Leaving the quarrels of the Western Maghreb aside for a moment, here's a little something for those who are interested in the wider Arab world. As you may or may not have noticed, I'm keeping a modest blog roll way down the sidebar of WSI, mostly for my own convenience. Some are on Morocco/North Africa, but most of them deal more with the Arab world and Middle East in general. In fact, there's a lot of good reads on that list -- so let's briefly introduce a small selection, say five, in the hope of getting them another well-earned reader or two:

• `Aqoul --- A great group blog on Middle East and North African politics and finance, and unlike most others with appropriate space given to the Maghreb. Characterized by foul language, brutal conduct, unexpected angles and great insights.

• The Arabist --- Well-written Egypt-based commentary on the Arab world, with regular updates. Now even better for posting highly useful link lists every once in a while.

• The Moor Next Door --- Nouri's musings on Arab and US politics. Best part is the many quotes, clippings and intelligent mini-essays on Arab history and philosophy, especially early Arab nationalists like Aflaq, Zurayq or Antonious. So if you're into that stuff, great blog.

• Abu Muqawama --- A group blog on counter-insurgency techniques may not sound too exciting, but in fact it is. The focus is on the Middle East in general, but US-occupied hotspots in particular, and the posting speed is ferocious.

• Brian's Study Breaks --- Thoughtful commentary from Brian Ulrich (who also posts on American Footprints), who seems to spend about equal time at home in Jerusalem and on the road in the Arab world. On matters as diverse as Israel/Palestine, USA, the Gulf, Iran, Central Asia, and ... Babylon Five.
  

Now click them all and learn to love them. Up next: it's tiny but it's there, the Western Sahara blogosphere.

Malawi to exchange ambassadors with SADR

Malawi has decided to reestablish relations with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (and China!), after schmoozing with president Abdelaziz at the Addis Abeba summit of the African Union. According to ARSO, Malawi first established relations in 1994 -- after the belated overthrow of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda* -- and then "froze" them in 2001, because they thought they should wait for the referendum. And now they're tired of waiting.

Along with the renewed relations, there will also be an upgrading of the old ties to ambassadorial level, and much merrymaking in the Sahrawi and Algerian press. However, if we are to locate one important influence on this particular decision, don't look to Algiers: it's South Africa. Since finally recognizing the SADR in 2004 -- also fed up with waiting for the referendum -- South Africa under the ANC has rapidly moved to become the Sahrawi Republic's second-most important ally, pushing like crazy for the issue in the African Union (and not only the ANC, other parties are equally militant about it). Being the superpower of southern Africa, by virtue of size, economy and political prestige, Pretoria is perfectly placed to bring neighbouring countries in line with its pan-Africanist and anticolonial foreign policy principles; and so, while the international climate has been chilly for Polisario these last years, the wind is definitely blowing its way on the African continent.

-- -- --

*) Malawi's president-for-life from independence in 1960 -- as well as prime minister, occasional holder of all twelve cabinet posts, officially the country's "national hero and conqueror", commander-in-chief, and, not to forget, Great Lion of Malawi. The late Dr. Banda -- he died in 1997 -- was perhaps the only African leader to seriously compete with the Big Three (Qadhafi, Emperor Bokassa I and Idi Amin) for the title of Africa's most bizarre political personality. He did so by, among other things, employing beautiful young ladies to dance around him when he held public speeches, with his face painted on their clothes, and by outlawing hippies.

Get thee to a nunnery, farewell

Yet another shift in Libyan strategy could be at hand. According to the BBC, the Brother Leader is fed up with Africa playing hard to get:

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to turn his back on Africa if the continent's leaders again reject his proposals for closer unity.

(Full and marvellous speech here.) This comes on the heels of a series of Qadhafi declarations, last year, that Libya has "turned its back on the Arabs". That's how estranged this old stalwart of Arab nationalism has become from his fellow Arab nations, after they time and again failed to lend proper support to his grand anticolonial schemes, and his multitude of union projects crashed and burned one after the other: with Syria and Egypt in 1971; only Egypt in 1972; Tunisia in 1972 and 1974; Syria in 1980; Morocco in 1984; and all the whole Maghreb region in 1989. He finally parted company with pan-Arabism, or at least active promotion of it, in the late 1980s, after deciding that it was time to mend fences with the West, and realizing to his distress that he was the only Arab leader left to take the idea seriously. That was when he turned his attention to Africa, hoping for a warmer reception there.

[picture: eli eli lama sabachtani]

The ideas stayed much the same, even if the playing field changed: if Arab unity hadn't worked, African unity would. So he pushed for the 2002 transformation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) into the more close-knit African Union (AU), liberally sprinkling cash across the continent to bring politicians over to his side. Since a couple of years, he has been asking for immediate transformation of the AU into the United States of Africa. Not only could this entity strike a lethal blow to imperialism by adopting the abbreviation "USA", it should also have a joint continental government including ministers of defense and foreign affairs, and all the other important posts. Presumably there would even be room for a pan-African head of state -- but who? Certainly it should be someone dedicated to African unity, a bold political pioneer, a towering figure of African leadership; perhaps someone equipped with funny hats, a slurry accent and a penchant for bombing airliners.

Unfortunately, few African nations have lent more than verbal support to this idea, and even that has tended to be of the muttering and smirking kind; one AU summit after the other has dodged his proposals. The dear Colonel is clearly stung by the rejection, and has now issued a powerful "or else" -- he says that the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is considering to pull out of the continent's politics altogether, if Africans won't come together as of right now. That's right, Africa: shape up or you'll see no more support for armed rebel movements, no more meddling in others' internal affairs, no more hallucinatory rambles during AU summits, and no more random alienating of important allies.

Should this threat somehow fail to have the intended effect on his fellow African statesmen, Qadhafi already knows where to set his sights next. The official Jamahiriyya News Agency, JANA, has quoted him explaining his options:

- If we invest 5 billion or 10 billion in the Mediterranean Sea, we will be the most influential country in the Mediterranean Sea, the Arab [world] or in Europe.

So regional domination is still the plan, it seems, even if he might need to revise his cost analysis. The question is merely what region to dominate. Unmentioned, but certainly among the more likely alternatives, is the one area that our darling Colonel hasn't seriously tried to federate yet -- the Maghreb, with a dormant union project already in place, and with supporting plans for Mediterranean integration being pushed hard by his friends in Europe.

Beware, North Africans, and take his word for it: there is no obstacle and no African or Arab negativism that cannot be overcome by Muammar al-Qadhafi's unstoppable optimism, billions and billions in oil money, and perhaps the odd explosive charge. As a recipe for Libyan great power status, it's bound to succeed eventually -- and you bet he's going to keep trying.

[thanks justin]

Two new reports: UNSG & HRW

Two new reports are out on Western Sahara. One is from the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and mostly a formality: a brief progress report on the Manhasset negotiations, the gist of which is that there was no progress. Key quotes:

• "...although the parties dynamically interacted with each other, there was hardly any exchange that could be characterized as negotiations."
• "With regard to the next steps in the process, the parties agreed to convene from 11 to 13 March 2008 at the Greentree Estate, New York, for a fourth round of talks."
  

Yeah, fourth time will be the charm. The total bankruptcy of the UN process has been more succinctly summed-up elsewhere, but if you would still like to read the report, it's available in any language you'd like here.

The other report, however, is far more interesting. It's the 2008 World Report of Human Rights Watch: more precisely its chapter on Morocco, where they (without blushing) include Western Sahara. There are quite a few mentions of the Saharan issue. Like:

Police violently dispersed demonstrations in various cities in May by pro-independence Sahrawi students, and courts later sentenced some of them to prison terms on trumped-up charges of engaging in violence.

Repression of public protests was fiercer in the Western Sahara than elsewhere. Police regularly used force to disperse peaceful sit-ins in favor of self-determination, and often used excessive force in responding to incidents when demonstrators lay stones across streets or threw rocks or, very occasionally, threw Molotov cocktails.

Authorities continue to restrict foreign travel for some Sahrawi activists, although such measures have decreased in recent years. Authorities have refused to grant legal recognition to any Sahrawi human rights organization dedicated to exposing Moroccan abuses, and prevented one such group, the Coalition of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders, from holding its constitutive assembly in al-Ayoun on October 7.

Read it here.