Liberte: Algeria was behind creation of Sahara issue, Youssoufi
Algeria was behind the creation of the Sahara issue, Moroccan Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi told an Algerian daily on Wednesday.
The Moroccan Premier, who was interviewed by Algerian daily "Liberte," said the United Nations reached the conclusion that the referendum in the Sahara could not be held.
The referendum, announced by the late King Hassan II, was "badly prepared in the beginning, as the former Organization of African Unity (OAU, now replaced by the African Union/AU) had admitted the so-called Sahrawi republic in its ranks before the holding of the consultation, said Youssoufi.
The Prime Minister described the OAU's decision as illegal, amoral, disloyal and incomprehensible.
Touching on the reasons of the failure of the referendum, Youssoufi cited the census of the Sahrawi population as well as the problems posed by the Polisario separatists. "The Polisario never accepted to complete the lists (of would-be voters in the referendum)," he said.
The United Nations, after having grown aware of the impossibility to hold the referendum, proposed a political solution, brokered by former US secretary of state, James Baker, who acts as personal envoy of the U.N secretary general for the Sahara, Youssoufi said, adding the solution proposes an autonomy entitling the population to manage their own affairs under Moroccan sovereignty.
Youssoufi criticized Algeria for opposing the political solution, and clinging to the outdated referendum plan that proved impossible to hold.
Algeria proposed a fourth solution, i.e. the partition of the Sahara, a proposal, he said, that is in contradiction with all the statements made by Algeria for so many years.
The Prime Minister recalled that the Sahara was liberated (from Spanish occupation) by the Moroccan liberation army in 1957-58. "However, the French (who were occupying the northern parts of Morocco) chased us from the Sahara after an alliance with the Spanish," he said. "It was crucial for France that the region be not an area of free movement for the Moroccan and Algerian patriots," he said.
Youssoufi underlined that the Algerian involvement in the Sahara hampers the normalization of relations between Algiers and Rabat. "This is a fact. Put yourself in Morocco's shoes," he said, adding "if you, Algerians, hear all day long Morocco saying that Algeria's Rguibat region should be independent and that we take some inhabitants of this region to Agadir (Morocco), give them camps and a flag, what would you say? Would you find this accommodating? Would you pardon the Moroccans? Would you have honeymoon relations with the Moroccans?"