JUSTICE was promised to the people of Western Sahara by the international community after they waged a heroic struggle against colonial oppression by Spain and illegal occupation by Morocco. The United Nations, after a protracted warfare and negotiations, had said that a referendum on the future of Western Sahara would be held. The Saharawis have been patiently waiting for the promised referendum to be held as they continue suffering in their refugee camps. But in a move that caught most observers by surprise, the UN has proposed that the plans for the referendum are being indefinitely postponed. The UN secretary general Kofi Annan voiced doubts about the possibility of holding the referendum.

Annan has recommended in the last week of June that the Saharawis should forget about freedom and instead be part and parcel of the Kingdom of Morocco, the country which has been illegally occupying most of Western Sahara. To add insult to injury, the UN secretary general wants the Saharawis to accept the Moroccan flag and operate under the Moroccan constitution for a period of four years. After Morocco annexed most of Western Sahara, the International Court of Justice had ruled the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara as illegal and said that the Saharawis were entitled to independence.

To the Saharawis, the recent UN turn-around has come as a bolt from the blue. According to the UN authorities, the Saharawis will be allowed to function in an "autonomous" manner and "may" be given a choice to decide after four years on whether they stay with the Kingdom of Morocco or opt for independence. It is obvious that the veto power to scuttle the Saharawis’ bid for independence will remain with the Moroccan king.

The Saharawis are very angry with the sudden turn-around by the UN. They had fought the Moroccan forces to a standstill after the colonial power, Spain, withdrew in 1976. With Spanish connivance, Morocco then sent in troops to capture the productive two-thirds of Western Sahara, leaving Mauritania mostly an unpopulated desert. Though Western Sahara is mainly a desert, it still has one of the biggest deposits of phosphates. The total reserves of phosphates are estimated at around 10 billion tonnes. Besides, the waters along its long coastline are rich in marine resources.

The Polisario Front, the guerrilla organisation that spearheaded the liberation struggle, had in a very short time ejected the Mauritanians from the territory they had occupied. Mauritania later on renounced all claims to Western Sahara and recognised it as an independent country. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) admitted the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), as Western Sahara is officially known, as a full-fledged member into its fold. Since 1979, the OAU has been active in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. An overwhelming majority of its members want Moroccan occupation to end so that the last vestiges of colonialism in the continent are eradicated. More than 70 countries worldwide have recognised the SADR as a legitimate government.

In recent years, given the changed global and regional scenario, some countries have distanced themselves from the legitimate cause of the Saharawis. Financial incentives allegedly swayed countries like Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic into derecognising the SADR. It came as a surprise especially to many African countries, which had experienced the painful decolonisation process, when India joined the rank of countries like Burkina Faso, and without any warning derecogised the SADR. This one move has done more damage to India’s credibility among African countries than the general insensitivity with which the present government has dealt with the African continent.

Morocco has been quite successful in influencing the UN secretary generals since the time of Peres de Cuellar in the mid-eighties. It is therefore no surprise that top UN officials have at times played dubious roles on the Western Sahara issue; during his term in office de Cuellar had managed to see that the issue was put on the back burner. After retirement he served on the board of directors in a company owned by the former king of Morocco for a handsome honorarium. His successor, Butros Butros Ghali, also had a pronounced pro-Moroccan tilt.

After the UN Security Council decided to go in for a referendum, Ghali appointed a Pakistani diplomat, Shahzada Yakub Khan, as his personal envoy to Western Sahara. Khan was always willing to lend a helpful hand to the Moroccan efforts to derail the settlement process. Things started to look positive after Kofi Annan took over the top UN post. Of particular significance for the peace process was the appointment of James Baker, the former US secretary of state under George Bush from 1988-1992, as the secretary general’s personal envoy.

Baker’s international stature, coupled with his apparent eagerness to find a just solution to the problem of Western Sahara, initially offered hope to the long suffering Saharawis. But Washington seems to be still indebted to Rabat for the invaluable help it had rendered during the cold war. It was taken for granted that a fair and free referendum would have resulted in the victory of the Saharawi people. But, far from being even-handed or fair, Baker has recommended a course of action that blatantly favours Morocco.

Morocco has reasons to be happy with the new development. Till the ceasefire was signed in 1991, Morocco was reportedly spending around one million dollars a day to keep its large military contingent in the desert. A very sophisticated defensive wall was built to keep the Polisario guerrillas at bay. When the UN brokered a truce between Morocco and the Polisario Front in 1991, there was an assurance that a referendum to ascertain the wishes of the Saharawis will be held in the shortest time possible. On April 29, 1991, through its resolution 690 (1991), the UN Security Council decided to establish the United Nations Mission for Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in accordance with the secretary general’s report.

The plan explicitly provided for a transition period during which the secretary general’s special representative would have sole and exclusive responsibility over all matters relating to the referendum in which the people of Western Sahara "would choose between independence and integration with Morocco."

According to the UN, the transition period was to begin with "the signing of the ceasefire agreement and come to an end after the results of the referendum." Despite persistent stonewalling from the Moroccan side, MINURSO was making slow but steady progress in identifying those eligible to vote in the referendum.

Initially, the UN had agreed to a list of 86,000 voters, who had figured in the Spanish census list. When the international community was waiting for the referendum to take place, the Moroccans demanded at the eleventh hour that an additional 130,000 people be added to the voters list. The UN had earlier rejected this claim, but the Moroccans made the UN reconsider its dubious claim shortly afterwards. Most of these people were those settled by the Moroccan authorities in Saharawi territory. Around 2,00,000 Moroccans have been resettled in Western Sahara along with 1,00,000 Moroccan troops. Instead of the punishing the Moroccans for this defiance, the UN has now virtually handed the territory over on a platter to the new Moroccan king.

The Polisario Front has outrightly rejected the new proposals. The Polisario has been threatening to relaunch the guerrilla struggle for quite some time. A full-scale war may not be imminent but the Saharawis are a people who have nothing to lose by fighting for their homeland. Most of them are anyway living as refugees or under the yoke of the Moroccan occupation forces. "The entire homeland or martyrdom" has long been their rallying cry.