Revista de Estudios Internacionales Mediterráneos (Dec 2010)
La cuestión del Sáhara Occidental como factor de impulso del proceso de descentralización marroquí
Abstract
This paper focuses on the administrative decentralization processes that have taken place in Morocco in recent decades in relation to the evolution of the Moroccan policy towards the Western Sahara issue, trying to achieve the international recognition of its sovereignty over this territory.The proposed regionalization of the country is part of the Moroccan political agenda since the early eighties when Hassan II agreed a "controlled" self-determination referendum at the OAU summit in Nairobi, as part of a solution to the issue of the Western Sahara, trying to achieve the international ratification of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory. The advances in this process are delayed until the empowerment in1997 of a region law when the process of identification of voters for the referemdum supported by the UN was blocked. The regional decoupage integrated in the same region territories of Western Sahara, Smara, with other areas of southern Morocco (Guelmin, Tan Tan ...) populated by tribes that Morocco was trying to be considered as Sahrawis by the UN Commission working on the identification process.The dismissal of Interior Minister Driss Basri after Mohammed VI ascend the throne in 1999 will be followed by the abandonment of the idea that a "controlled census" was the best way to achieve the Moroccan sovereignty over the territory. This shift has to be considered as a drift apart from the defense of "confirmatory referendum" and an increasingly support of a "third way" through an autonomy plan for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereign State. Morocco opts for a regional solution after the failure of the Baker Plan I and II, excluding the possibility of holding a referendum. In this context the issue of regionalization returns to the national political agenda. The creation of an Advisory Council for the Regionalization (CCR) was announced in 2008 and 2009 by Mohammed VI and became true in January 2010.The commitment of the council is to present in December 2010 a report not only regarding the status for the Western Sahara but also for other regions like the Northern regions, who seeks to prove their linguistic and cultural particularities.
