La Nouvelle Republique: Former Algerian defense minister denies army role in blocking settlement to sahara issue
Algeria-Morocco, Politics, 3/14/2003

Former Algerian defense minister, retired general Khaled Nezzar, denied the army's role in blocking "a political settlement" to the Sahara issue.

In an interview with Algerian paper "La Nouvelle Republique," General Nezzar dismissed as "totally wrong" allegations that the Algerian army blocks a political settlement of the Sahara issue, underscoring "the sacrifices and hospitality of the great Moroccan people during the critical years."

After he stressed that it was not the army that prevented politicians from reaching an honorable way out of the deadlock, he called for a "rapid and peaceful settlement," noting that it is inevitable anyway.

Nezzar, who served as defense minister from 1990 to 1993, went on that politicians who have failed to devise a breakthrough for 30 years should not look for scapegoats, underlining that "a bold policy is always a painful one."

To the journalist who recalled Nezzar's previous bewildering statement to a Moroccan paper that "Algeria does not need a state at its borders," the former Algerian official held politicians responsible for the present quagmire in which the peoples of the region are plunged and misled by their politicians.

He further commented that the Sahara conflict is part of "a clash made unavoidable by a bad decolonization" and that "prejudices and mean considerations have turned into an obsession," the aim being to exhaust energies and prevent that efforts go to fields that are more profitable to people. For him, the scene of operations, which was often depicted as a conflict opposing Algerians and Moroccans, via the Sahrawis, has for long hidden far older, larger, more complex and more strategic disputes."

Some who were astonished at Algeria's apparent incoherent attitudes advocating unification while supporting partitioning and disunion, would say that Algeria, that emerged strong from a protracted liberation war, a generous ideology and after benefiting from the solidarity of its neighbors has, all of a sudden, become forgetful, ungrateful, cynical and selfish and contradicting the Maghreban unity principle it has been preaching, since they saw in the help Algeria is extending to the Sahrawis the best way to prevent Maghreban union.

He further explained that "those who drew the (Moroccan-Algerian) borders" "are forcing us to be in the same side and to be ourselves."

"It is time we reconsidered ourselves and our way of addressing our environment," at a time the Arab states is facing a crisis of which no one knows the outcome and at a time a devastating earthquake is shaking all the foundations and the certitudes, he urged.

Consequently, he stressed, let's draw our own conclusions and since the sword of Damocles has not yet fallen let's get closer and get ready to face it.

Previous Stories:
  Algerian Al Bilad: Former Algerian defense minister's stand on Sahara issue premise for reasonable breakthrough   (3/13/2003)
  La Gazette du Maroc: former Algerian defense minister opposes sahrawi state creation   (3/11/2003)
  Polisario camp's survivor recounts detention plight   (3/5/2003)

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