Sahrawi Republic encyclopedia topics

History

Following the Spanish evacuation of Spanish Sahara, Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania signed the Madrid Accords, leading to both Morocco and Mauritania moving in to annex it. Neither state gained international recognition and war ensued with the independence-seeking Polisario Front, claiming to represent the Sahrawi people. The creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was announced in Bir Lehlou in Western Sahara on February 27, 1976, as the Polisario declared the need for a new entity to fill what they considered a political void left by the departing Spanish colonizers. Bir Lehlou remained in Polisario-held territory under the 1991 cease-fire (see Settlement Plan) and has remained the government in exile's symbolic capital of the exiled republic, while Polisario continues to claim the Moroccan held city of El Aaiún, as the capital of a would-be independent Western Sahara. Day-to-day business is, however, conducted in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, which house most of the Sahrawi exile community.

Government structure

The highest office of the republic is the President of Western Sahara, now Mohammed Abdelaziz, who appoints the Prime Minister of Western Sahara, now Abdelkader Taleb Oumar. The SADR's government structure consists of a Council of Ministers (a cabinet led by the Prime Minister), a judicial branch (with judges appointed by the President) and the parliamentary Sahrawi National Council (SNC, present speaker is Mahfoud Ali Beiba). Since its inception in 1976, the various constitutional revisions has transformed the republic from an ad hoc managerial structure, into something approaching an actual governing apparatus. From the late 1980s the parliament began to take steps to institute a division of powers and disentangle the republic's structures from those of the Polisario party, although without clear effect to date.

Its various ministries are responsible for a variety of services and functions. The judiciary, complete with trial courts, appeals courts and a supreme court, operates in the same areas. As a government-in-exile, many branches of government do not fully function, and has affected the constitutional roles of the institutions. Institutions parallel to government structures also have arisen within the Polisario Front, which is fused with the SADR's governing apparatus, and with operational competences overlapping between these party and governmental institutions and offices.

The SNC is presently weak in its legislative role, having been instituted as a mainly consultative and consensus-building institution, but it has strengthened its theoretical legislative and controlling powers during later constitutional revisions. Among other things, it has added a ban on the death penalty to the constitution, and brought down the government in 1999 through a vote of no-confidence.

Current ministers

Prime Minister: Abdelkader Taleb Oumar
Minister of Occupied Territories and Emigration: El Khalil Sidi M'Hamed
Minister of the Interior: Bellahi Sid
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Mohamed Salem Ould Salek
Minister of Cooperation: Salek Baba Hacena
Minister of Public Health: Sid'Ahmed Tayeb
Minister of Population and Reconstruction of the Liberated Territories: Salek Babih
Minister of Economic Development: Nema Saaid Joumani
Minister of Materials: Sid' Ahmed Batal
Minister of National Defense: Mohamed Lamine Bouhali
Minister of Education: Mariem Salek H'mada
Minister of Information: Mohamed El Mami Tamek
Minister of Commerce: Selama Mohamed Youssef
Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs: Abdelkader Hamada Selma
Minister of Culture: Khadija Hamdi
Minister of Transportation: Babiya Chiia
Minister Counsellor of the Presidency for Europe: Mohamed Sidati
Minister Counsellor of the Presidency for the Asian Countries: Malainine Sadik
Minister Counsellor of the Presidency for the Arab Countries: Ahmedou Soueilim
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Latin America: El Haj Ahmed
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Africa: Mohamed Yeslem Beyssat
Secretary of State for Youth and Sports: Mohamed Mouloud Mohamed Fadel
Secretary of State for Hydraulics and the Environment: Abda Cheij
Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Employment: Ahmed Vall Mohamed Yahdih
Secretary of State for Social Assistance and Women's Emancipation: Mahfouda Mohamed Rahal
Director of Protocol: Habiboullah Mohamed Kori
Secretary-General of the Presidency: Daf Mohamed Fadel
Secretary-General of the Government: Moulay Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed

Legislative branch

Area of authority

The SADR acts as a government administration in the Sahrawi refugee camps located in the Tindouf Province of western Algeria. It is headquartered in Camp Rabouni, south of Tindouf, although some official events have taken place on Western Saharan territory in the provisional capital of Bir Lehlou and Tifariti, both in Polisario controlled territories. Effective independence is unclear with Polisario and Algerian authorities claiming Algerian authorities respect the autonomy of the government in exile, and stay outside the Sahrawi refugee camps. This however is disputed by former members of Polisario and questioned by outside observers. Several foreign aid agencies, including the UNHCR, are continually active in the camps.

Constitution and characteristics

A new 1999 Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic took a form similar to parliamentary constitutions of many European states, but with some paragraphs suspended until the achievement of "full independence". Among key points, the head of state is constitutionally the Secretary General of the Polisario Front during what is referred to as the "pre-independence phase," with provision in the constitution that on independence, Polisario is supposed to be dismantled or separated completely from the government structure. Provisions are detailed for a transitory phase beginning with independence, in which the present SADR is supposed to act as Western Sahara's government, ending with a constitutional reform and eventual establishment of a state along the lines specified in the constitution.

The broad guidelines laid down for an eventual Western Saharan state in the constitution include eventual multi-party democracy with a market economy. The constitution also defines Sahrawis as a Muslim, African and Arab people, and the Arabic language as the official and main language of the SADR, as well as declaring a commitment to the principles of human rights, and to the concept of a Greater Maghreb, as a regional variant of Pan-Arabism.

International recognition and membership

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is currently recognized as a sovereign representative of Western Sahara by forty-three states, mostly African and other governments in the developing world. Twenty-two states have withdrawn their former recognition, and twelve have "frozen" their diplomatic relations with the republic pending the outcome of the UN referendum. Sahrawi embassies exist in thirteen states. On the other hand, Moroccan territorial integrity, apparently meaning including Western Sahara, is explicitly recognized by the Arab League

and by twenty-five states.

Although it has no representation at the United Nations, the republic has been a full member of the African Union (AU, formerly the Organization of African Unity, OAU) since 1984. Morocco withdrew from the OAU in protest and remains the only African nation not within the AU since South Africa's admittance in 1994. The SADR is also a member of the Asian-African Strategic Partnership formed at the 2005 Asian-African Conference., over Moroccan objections to SADR participation.

In 2006, the SADR participated in a conference of the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of the Latin American and the Caribbean (COPPAL).

The SADR is not a member of the Arab League, nor of the Arab Maghreb Union, both of which include Morocco as a full member.

A Western Sahara Authority?

In the As of peace plan, the UN-endorsed Baker Plan, created by James Baker, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's personal envoy to Western Sahara, the SADR would have been replaced with a five-year transitional Western Sahara Authority (WSA), a non-sovereign autonomous region supervised by Morocco, to be followed by a referendum on independence. However, as Morocco has declined to participate, the plan appears dead.

In April 2007 the government of Morocco suggested that a self-governing entity, through the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), should govern the territory with some degree of autonomy for Western Sahara. The project was presented to the United Nations Security Council in mid-April 2007. A stalemate over the Moroccan proposal led the UN in an April 2007 "Report of the UN Secretary-General" to ask the parties to enter into direct and unconditional negotiations to reach a mutually accepted political solution. Report of the Secretary-General on the situation concerning Western Sahara (13 April 2007)(ped). UN Security Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. )

National holidays

Date	Name	Original event / Notes
February 27	Independence Day
May 10	Foundation of the Polisario Front
May 20	May 20 Revolution
June 5	Day of the Disappeared
June 9	Day of the Martyrs
June 17	Zemla Intifada
October 12	Day of National Unity