Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:29:39 +0200
Polisario Threatens its Way to Congress: There’s Something Wrong with this
Picture
U.S. Role in the World
by <http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/author/calvindark/> Calvin Dark | on
June 13th, 2013 |
<http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2013/06/12/polisario-threatens-its-way-to-con
gress-theres-something-wrong-with-this-picture/#comments> 0 comments
A few weeks ago, the U.N. Security Council
<http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2099%282013%29>
adopted a resolution calling on Morocco and the Polisario Front to “continue
negotiations without preconditions and in good faith […] with a view to
achieving a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution” to
end the Western Sahara conflict.” (The Polisario, a Cold War era separatist
group, has challenged Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara in
southern Morocco for nearly 40 years.) In 2007, Morocco proposed a
compromise solution, and the Security Council reiterated in the resolution
that it welcomed “serious and credible Moroccan efforts to move the process
forward towards resolution.” To date, the Polisario has refused to even
discuss and debate the compromise proposal.
The Polisario did, however, make a proposal of its own as the Security
Council debated the resolution. Mohammed Abdelaziz, the leader of the
Polisario,
<http://www.spsrasd.info/en/content/upcoming-negotiations-polisario-front-mo
rocco-president-mohamed-abdelaziz-expresses-cautious> threatened that if the
talks continued to “fail” in his eyes, pursuing his goals
<http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/05/11/Polisario-chief-warn
s-of-armed-struggle-.html> through violence and armed conflict “would be
almost inevitable.”
These repeated threats by the Polisario have serious implications for US
security interests in North Africa. The Polisario runs tightly controlled
refugee camps in southern Algeria that have become a targeted crossroads of
trafficking and refuge for terrorist-linked groups in the Sahel and West
Africa. (Last year,
<http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/features/2012/07/20/feature-01>
European aid workers were kidnapped from inside the Polisario camps and
released after a $20 million ransom was paid to an al-Qaeda splinter group
in northern Mali.) The U.S. and its international partners must not tolerate
bullying and threats by authoritarian leaders like Abdelaziz who come
disingenuously to the negotiating table packing.
So, the last thing the US should do is appease those who threaten us with
violence in the pursuit of their political agendas. Unfortunately, that’s
exactly what Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and Representative Betty McCollum
(D-MN) did last week when they welcomed Polisario leader Mohammed Abdelaziz
to Capitol Hill,
<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=508683962520307&set=a.1538660546687
68.35700.153386471383393&type=1&theater> calling it an “honor” to receive
him and even posed for photos.
There are so many things wrong with this picture.
First of all, Abdelaziz does not legitimately represent the interests of the
Sahrawi people. For nearly 40 years, Abdelaziz has been the unelected,
unopposed (forbidden by the “constitution” that he authored) authoritarian
ruler of the Polisario’s government-in-exile in southern Algeria and its
refugee camps where tens of thousands of Sahrawis are being held against
their will. Sen. Inhofe’s and Rep. McCollum’s welcoming of Abdelaziz sends
the wrong message that the U.S. supports such anti-democratic rule.
Secondly, as she stood alongside Abdelaziz, Rep. McCollum pledged to
“continue to work to ensure the U.S. is doing everything possible to protect
their [Sahrawis] democratic and human rights.” The U.S. position on the
Western Sahara conflict, through the Bush, Clinton and Obama
Administrations, along with bipartisan majorities of the U.S. House and
Senate, is to resolve the dispute along the lines of Morocco’s proposed
compromise. Former Secretary Clinton
<http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/02/184667.htm> called the Moroccan
proposal “serious, realistic, and credible, and that it represents a
potential approach that could satisfy the aspirations of the people in the
Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity.” Rep.
McCollum’s very public endorsement of the Polisario – the party to the
conflict which has refused to even consider this compromise – directly
counters US efforts to resolve the conflict and protect the human rights of
the Sahrawis.
Lastly, that warm, official welcome in the halls of Congress – memorialized
in that official photo – sends a chilling message to the thousands of
Sahrawi refugees – who can’t leave the camps to come to Washington to plead
their case because Abdelaziz won’t let them – that they are indeed powerless
and defenseless against human rights abuses. It emboldens Abdelaziz’s
running partners, protégées, mentees and wannabes to believe that “agreeing”
to negotiations might get you to the U.N., but threats to violence and war
buy you direct access to Congress. Furthermore, it weakens U.S. credibility
with our major international allies – none of whom recognize the Polisario
or its pseudo-government SADR – who see us as cowering to belligerent
threats by a Cold War era quasi-dictator.
Regardless of party or policy position, Members of Congress must wield the
influence that emanates from their high office carefully. They must be
smarter about the hands they shake and the photos they take – because public
endorsements of foes of peace send the wrong picture to the world.
Polisario Leader Mohammed Abdelaziz meets with Rep. Betty McCollum (6/6/13)
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