Spanish census excludes Polisario leaders from Sahara referendum lists, Spanish expert
Morocco-Spain, Politics, 2/26/2000

Polisario leaders themselves would be excluded from the self-determination referendum the United Nations is trying to hold in the Sahara, if the 1974 Spanish census of Sahrawi population is adopted as a reference for drawing voters lists, a Spanish historian said.

Antonio Segura, author of several books on the Sahara, stressed that it is only legitimate that all Sahrawis take part in the UN-projected referendum and the consultation should be held after a census of all persons of Sahrawi origin.

Other experts, who attended a conference here on "Sahrawi national identity: reality or myth," said Spanish colonial authorities endeavored during the last years of their occupation of the Sahara to create an entity and destroy the typical tribal composition in a bid to perpetuate their control over the territory.

Spanish sociologists and historians said that Morocco was a pluri-national country where the figure of the king dominated politics and symbolized unity. The king was further the unifying element of all Morocco's populations from the Gibraltar strait to southern Senegal.

Angela Fernadez, a sociologist and advisor at the Murcia local education department, stated that before European colonization, nomads guarded the Sahara trade roads between Morocco, Europe and Africa and recognized the moral and spiritual authority of the king. For the expert, Spain consequently tried to break the Sahara traditional tribal structures. She went on that out of total ignorance of this historical reality, Spaniards endeavored to create a new identity model.

She also referred to various documents and archives to assert that the Polisario, which is now claiming the independence of the territory, is not the legitimate representative of the local population but it is counting on foreign support to claim this legitimacy in the Tindouf camps (southwestern Algeria).

For another historian, no historical study traces the Sahrawi national identity which was totally created by the Spanish colonial authorities to set up an entity that would remain attached to them and have a loyal micro-state.

The historian further stated that since Morocco's independence in 1956, the Spanish occupiers continued to promote the idea that Moroccans and Sahrawis are different identities, after which Algeria played a major role in kindling the Sahara conflict to turn it into one of dominion in the Maghreb region.

The conference is the second of the kind held by Lopez Barnabe, head of the arab and islamic studies at the university of Madrid.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan papers criticize UN policy in sahara as pro-secessionists   (2/22/2000)
  Spain promoted separatists' so-called national feeling for colonial purposes   (2/21/2000)
  UN chief recommends extension of UN Sahara mission term, calls special envoy to resume mediation   (2/21/2000)

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