Assabah: Negotiation with Polisario would lead to Africa's Balkanization, Minister
Morocco-Regional, Politics, 8/20/2004

"Any negotiation with Polisario would lead to the balkanisation of Africa," asserted Moroccan Foreign Minister, Mohamed Benaissa, in an interview published Thursday by "Assabah" daily.

"Morocco cannot undertake an action likely to encourage secessionist movements in Africa, since Polisario is not the only secessionist movement" in the continent, said the minister, recalling the existence of other separatist groups in Africa such as Casamance movement in Senegal and other separatist movements in Sudan.

The Polisario, backed by Algeria, has been at loggerheads with Morocco for nearly 30 years. This separatist group is claiming the independence of the Moroccan Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by the kingdom in 1975.

"Any meeting with whatsoever separatist movement would mean a recognition of the separation," insisted Benaissa.

Evoking Morocco's withdrawal of the former Organization of the African Union (OAU), currently known as the African Union (AU), the Moroccan official said Morocco has never been absent from the African scene.

Morocco withdrew from OAU in 1984 in protest of its recognition of the Polisario.

"Morocco's withdrawal was the result of its refusal to be within an organization which recognizes an entity that does not have the basic elements of a state," he explained.

This entity, which is member of the African Union, is not recognized by the third of AU-member countries, nor by any European, Asian or Arab country (except its host country, Algeria), he pointed out.

Benaissa believes that OAU's admission of the Polisario is an action that would have serious consequences if Africa does not tackle this situation as soon as possible.

Concerning Morocco's African vocation, Benaissa said King Mohammed VI's five-nation African tour last June highlighted this vocation as well as Morocco's avant-garde role in the continent.

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