United Nations, Algiers: The United Nations welcomed the pullout of Moroccan security forces from the tense border strip in southern Western Sahara and is calling on the Polisario Front independence movement to also withdraw its fighters.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Morocco’s King Mohammad VI and a Polisario representative late last week.
The UN chief called on both parties on Saturday “to unconditionally withdraw all armed elements from the border strip” and “exercise maximum restraint.”
Dujarric said Guterres would like to see “a general easing of the tensions.” Polisario separatists dismissed as “window dressing” Morocco’s announcement of the pullback.
The foreign ministry in Rabat said on Sunday that Morocco will “proceed from today with a unilateral withdrawal from the (Guerguerat) zone,” in what it said was a decision taken by King Mohammad VI at the request of UN chief Antonio Guterres. It gave no details on the pullback.
The Polisario in a statement said it supported the UN secretary general’s call “to respect the spirit and the letter of the ceasefire in force since 1991”, reiterating its demands for a referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi people.
It accused Morocco of “blocking a settlement, rejecting negotiations” and UN mediation efforts.
Tensions flared in 2016 after the Polisario set up a new military post in Guerguerat near the Mauritanian border, a stone’s throw from Moroccan soldiers.
The move came after Morocco last August started building a tarmac road in the area south of the buffer zone separating the two sides.
Morocco and the Polisario fought for control of the Western Sahara from 1974 to 1991, with Rabat taking over the desert territory before a UN-brokered ceasefire in the former Spanish colony.
Rabat considers the Western Sahara an integral part of Morocco and proposes autonomy for the resource-rich territory under its sovereignty.
Spain and France, who shared colonial power in pre-independence Morocco, and the United States have welcomed Rabat’s announcement of a Guerguerat pullback. Madrid and Paris called on the Polisario to follow suit.
Morocco said it started building the tarmacked road, located inside a buffer zone under the 1991 ceasefire, to combat smuggling, and the Polisario has responded by sending in patrols and building a new base.
Polisario, in its statement, made no mention of a reciprocal pullback, while pro-Sahrawi websites have posted videos of gunmen in Polisario 4x4 vehicles cruising on the road.
Newspapers in Rabat say only a four-kilometre stretch of the road has been asphalted because Polisario incursions since December have interrupted work.
For the separatists, the work aims to alter the status quo, while Rabat insists on the flow of road traffic for trade between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa.
Several lorries have been intercepted and truck drivers subjected to insults and stone-throwing in past months, according to Moroccan newspapers.
