The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية ; Spanish: República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (RASD)) is a government in exile founded by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976. It currently controls about 20% of its claimed territory, the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara; Morocco controls and administers the majority of the territory as its Southern Provinces. Referring to the Moroccan provinces as 'Occupied Territory,' Polisario as the SADR claims control over a zone largely bordering Mauritania, described by Polisario as "the Free Zone," although characterized by Morocco as a buffer zone.
History (main article: History of Western Sahara)
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 indigenous people. The creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was announced in Bir Lehlouin Western Sahara on February 27, 1976, as the Polisario declared theneed for a new entity to fill what they considered a political voidleft 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[citation needed] 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 (acabinet led by the Prime Minister), a judicial branch (with judgesappointed 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 theconstitutional roles of the institutions. Institutions parallel togovernment structures also have arisen within the Polisario Front,which is fused with the SADR's governing apparatus, and withoperational competences overlapping between these party andgovernmental institutions and offices.
The SNC is presently weak in its legislative role, having been instituted as a mainly consultative and consensus-buildinginstitution, but it has strengthened its theoretical legislative andcontrolling powers during later constitutional revisions. Among otherthings, 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.
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 isunclear with Polisario and Algerian authorities claiming Algerianauthorities 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 (main article: Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic)
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 general secretary of the Polisarioduring what is referred to as the "pre-independence phase," withprovision in the constitution that on independence, Polisario issupposed to be dismantled or separated completely from the governmentstructure. Provisions are detailed for a transitory phase beginningwith independence, in which the present SADR is supposed to act asWestern Sahara's government, ending with a constitutional reform andeventual establishment of a state along the lines specified in theconstitution.
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 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 third worldgovernments. Twenty-two states have withdrawn their former recognition,and twelve have "frozen" their diplomatic relations with the republicpending the outcome of the UN referendum. Sahrawi embassies exist in thirteen states.On the other hand, Moroccan territorial integrity, apparently meaningincluding Western Sahara, is explicitly recognized by the Arab League [1] [2] 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 most recent UN-endorsed peace plan, created by James Baker, 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 forWestern Sahara. The project was presented to the United NationsSecurity Council in mid-April 2007. A stalemate over the Moroccanproposal led the UN in an April 2007 "Report of the UNSecretary-General" to ask the parties to enter into direct andunconditional negotiations to reach a mutually accepted politicalsolution.Report of the Secretary-General on the situation concerning Western Sahara (13 April 2007)(ped). UN Security Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.)
