Polisario Front threatens violence against Morocco

Head of Morocco's separatist Polisario Front, Mohammed Abdelaziz, threatened on Tuesday to carry armed attacks against the Moroccan government, months after the withdrawal of confidence from the UN envoy to the Western Sahara, Christopher Ross. Mohammed Abdelaziz said ending Ross's role "froze the path of negotiations", calling it a "serious step to undermine the efforts of just and lasting peace with the Front". "The Moroccan government has constantly worked to block [peace] efforts by explicitly rejecting the principle of the referendum which is the core of the solution," said Abdelaziz. The dispute has run since 1976 when Morocco took over the mineral-rich former Spanish colony and annexed it. In 1991, a truce between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front - fighting for the independence of the Western Sahara - opened the way for UN-brokered talks on a referendum for self-determination. An expert on Sahrawi and Moroccan issues, analyst Abdel-Fattah Alfathi said : "There are several strong indicators that the Polisario Front is preparing for military operations against Morocco, believing it raises the effectiveness of their case [for sovereignty of the Western Sahara] against Morocco." He stated that the Front believed war would be in their favour, allowing them to declare the Western Sahara as an independent state. Fathi added: "The Front has currently attracted a number of human rights activists at the international level as well as a significant number of separatists in the southern provinces." Morocco in May rejected Christopher Ross as a special envoy of the UN Secretary-General in the Western Sahara conflict, accusing him of being a Polisario Front sympathiser. UN chief Ban Ki-moon in turn said he supported his envoy. Much of Morocco's ire with Ross, who was once the US ambassador to Syria, appears to stem from his last report to Ban in April, in which he called for greater powers for the UN peacekeeping force of about 230 military personnel, known as MINURSO, including gathering information on human rights. The UN is supposed to be helping the Western Saharans prepare for an often-postponed vote on self-determination. The report said Moroccan interference has undermined the peacekeeping force's appearance of independence and prevented people from freely contacting them. The report also raised the possibility of Moroccan eavesdropping, saying there were "indications that the confidentiality of communications between MINURSO headquarters and New York was, at least on occasion, compromised." The future of the Western Sahara is an extremely sensitive issue for Morocco and seen as a case of national sovereignty. It is very difficult to express opinions contrary to those of the state.