OAU ministerial council debates status of self-proclaimed Sahrawi republic
Morocco-OAU, Politics, 3/24/1999

The 69th session of the ministerial council of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) currently underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is debating the status of the self-proclaimed "Sahrawi republic," as was decided by the OAU summit last June in Burkina Faso.

The African foreign ministers decided to submit to the OAU summit scheduled next July in Algiers a report on the debates and an advisory opinion of a legal advisor of the OAU.

The ministerial council which discussed for more than three hours the conflicts raging on in the continent devoted most of the time to the question of whether to expel or not the so-called "Sahrawi republic" (SADR), a delegate who attended the in-camera debates told MAP correspondent.

The "SADR" item was not included in the initial agenda of the ministerial session, although the 34th OAU summit had decided to refer to the ministerial council the exclusion of the so-called "SADR" from the pan-African organization.

The item was included in the agenda at the insistence of Senegalese Foreign Minister Jacques Baudin and the Gabonese delegate to the session.

Baudin stated the item had surely been dropped "by mistake" and "inadvertency" and called the OAU secretary general to abide by the decision of the African heads of state and to formally include the item on the agenda.

The admission of the SADR within the OAU in 1984, which sparked the walk-out of founding member Morocco, was debated at the 34th OAU summit. But the debate divided the conference into three blocs: the first requesting the SADR exclusion, the second backing its maintaining and a silent majority, it has been decided, in a bid to break the deadlock and avoid a crisis in the OAU, to entrust the foreign ministers council with debating the issue.

During Tuesday's debate, the Senegalese foreign minister insisted that the OAU is contradicting itself by granting membership to the SADR while adhering to the U.N settlement plan providing for the holding of a referendum in the Sahara.

"The SADR itself claims the organization of the referendum to know whether it exists while we have admitted it in our organization as an independent and sovereign state," the Senegalese official said, recalling that the OAU itself backs the holding of the referendum.

Jacques Baudin equally requested that the conditions in which the SADR was admitted be re-examined, as this step violates Article IV of the organization's charter which limits membership to independent and sovereign African states.

The legal advisor and some delegates who are opposed to the expulsion of the SADR argue that the OAU charter does not stipulate the expulsion or suspension of a member state.

The Gabonese delegate, whose country has been elected to the chairmanship of the current ministerial session, said in this respect "let's imagine that the referendum is unfavorable to the SADR. We will then be compelled to reconsider our stand within the OAU, even if the charter does not provide for expulsion nor suspension."

The Senegalese foreign minister stated that a juridical explanation be submitted to the heads of state along with the juridical advisor's opinion and the report on the debates. The juridical explanation would ask the following question: "Is it possible that 'a state' which is involved in a referendum process be already considered as 'a state', according to the legal meaning of the term?"

The Senegalese delegate also criticized the OAU secretary general, Salim Ahmed Salim, for his biased position on the Sahara issue, while Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf who felt that some of Baudin's remarks were directed against Algeria praised the qualities and objectivity of the OAU secretary general.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco's diplomacy was not active enough to explain Morocco's position on Sahara, minister says   (3/10/1999)
  Morocco refuses to join any African meeting   (2/20/1999)
  Morocco has not requested to return to pan-African body   (2/4/1999)

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