Morocco announced Friday that it has launched a military operation in the Guerguerat buffer zone on Western Sahara’s border with Mauritania to secure the flow of goods and people through the road. In a statement, Morocco also…
Read more from the source : Yemen Press Agency
Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, Guerguerat,
The Minister provided specific examples throughout his presentation of actions being undertaken by the new government to deal with these challenges and the changing political environment in Morocco.
4. Q & A
Q: (Jon Alterman) Given Adl al Ihsan’s opposition to the monarchy, what is the future for Islamic politics in Morocco—greater diversity or cooperation?
A: Both are happening at the same time. The key challenge for all Islamist parties is to link Islam and democracy. Islamists have to decide whether or not to be part of the political party system.
Q: (Karim Mezran, the Atlantic Council) How will decentralization lead to solving the Western Sahara crisis?
A: The constitution provides for regionalization is all matters: budget, administration, social and cultural policies. Regionalization provides a means for the transition from the current situation to autonomy.
Q: Three questions on women’s rights
A: The basic protection and rights of women are already enshrined in the moudawa. The constitution calls for full equality and that is part of our national agenda, adopted by parliament. A national watchdog has been proposed to protect women’s rights by monitoring what is going on and if targets are being achieved. Gave details of what steps are being taken.
Q: (Haim Malka, CSIS) How to manage expectations?
A: People want concrete results. Transparency is the key. In conflict areas, government is encouraging open dialog with all stakeholders. Expect that passing of budget by mid-April will enable government to accelerate efforts to reduce poverty, expand healthcare coverage, and promote other economic and social development projects.
5. Observation
40 representatives from various NGOs, including Eric Goldstein from HRW, and think tanks participated in the program. The Minister spoke eloquently, thoughtfully, and credibly about the challenges facing the government as it works to implement the new constitution. He gave multiple examples of what the government has proposed, which strengthened his case. He was strongly behind the autonomy solution for the Western Sahara and the role of the King in providing indispensible leadership and continuity. He directly answered the questions on the future of Islamists and democracy and the prospects for women and minorities and provided many examples of what can be done to implement the various sections of the constitution. He is definitely a formidable resource. It is imperative that we track what is going on in parliament in the coming months to have credible talking points on Morocco’s reform agenda.
Hosted by CSIS
Participant:
H.E. Mustapha Khalfi, Minister of Communication, Morocco
Jon Alterman, Director of the Middle East Center
2. Overview
While revolutionary change has brought Islamists to rule in several Middle Eastern countries, it was evolutionary change that brought Islamists into government in Morocco after more than a decade in opposition. The country’s own future trajectory and its inspirational power for other religious opposition movements in the Middle East remain the subjects of considerable debate. Minister Khalfi discussed why Morocco’s third way – between revolution and retaining the status quo, resulted from unique conditions in the kingdom.
3. Summary
Minister Khalfi noted that Morocco’s response to the Arab Spring was a result of reforms that had been instituted over the past six years, and others going back even further, to Youssefi’s time as prime minister. There were two views anchoring perceptions of the King’s reform agenda in response to the February 20th movement: from skeptical to positive. The period between Feb 20th and the election of Nov 25th was a competition between these views. The election results showed that Moroccans want a serious and credible democracy. Although the new constitution is not ideal and won’t radically reshape the political system, it provides many opportunities in its implementation that reflect the King’s speech of Mar 9th in which he talked about equality, justice, accountability, and other values to be incorporated into the new constitution.
The Minister elaborated by defining three factors which explain Morocco as an exception: the monarchy’s leadership role that enhances credibility and stability; the existence of political parties, including the opposition, which gave them experience in building coalitions; and the role of civil society, which, in fact, often promotes issues before the political parties accept them as part of their agendas.
He listed four challenges facing the new government. First of all, implementing the constitution including power-sharing, expansion of freedoms and liberty, regionalization – the key to solving the Western Sahara problem, and good governance, including reforming the judiciary, accountability, and transparency—the key to building citizen trust. Passing new legislation for the local elections to be held in the fall is the next challenge. It is necessary to succeed in reconciling people with politics, i.e. make them believe that the process works for them. Goal is to facilitate the emergence of new local elites who will work with the youth. The third challenge is the need to resolve social and economic problems, especially poverty, which in some areas is twice the national average. Related to this is dealing with the impact of the European financial crisis which affects tourism and exports. All of this impacts the overwhelming need to create hundreds of thousands of jobs to both absorb existing unemployed and the 150,000 annual new entrants to the job market. The GOM has established a public-private partnership to address this challenge and to build an educational system that prepares people for the job market. Finally,Minister Khalfi mentioned the growing positive environment for closer regional cooperation, which would also lead to resolving the Western Sahara crisis.
Tripoli: At least 74 migrants died in a “devastating” shipwreck on Thursday off the Libyan coast, the United Nations said, the latest in a spate of migrant vessel sinkings in the central Mediterranean. This year has seen a resurgence of boats in the central Mediterranean, a well-trodden but often…
Read more from the source : Macronews.info
Tags : Libya, migration, UN,
Sept. 29, 2011
Dec. 10, 2011
Chronology:
Documented incidents and reports linking members of the Polisario Front with AQIM, trafficking, and other illicit activities in the region.
March 12, 2012
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace publishes a paper underscoring the “disturbing reality” that growing numbers of disenchanted Polisario youth and fighters are being recruited by AQIM and a “vast network” of regional drug traffickers. The paper cites the Oct.23 kidnappings as confirmation that, “the deteriorating social and political conditions in the camps in Tindouf represent a tinderbox waiting to explode.” It also notes that AQIM-Polisario member links pose “a major security threat to the Maghreb and the Sahel.”xvi
Feb. 21, 2012
Experts testify to a United Nations Security Council special session that drug cartels and smugglers now traffic almost $1 billion in cocaine a year from Latin America into Africa’s Sahel. They add that traffickers are forming alliances with AQIM and other militants, in a region that has seen an influx of Libyan weapons. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned leaders: “inaction could be catastrophic.”xvii
Feb. 2, 2012
ICTS releases a study reporting that the Polisario-run camps near Tindouf, Algeria have become “a recruiting ground for terrorists, traffickers, and other criminal enterprises.” The study recommends that Western aid to the camps “prioritize permanent resettlement” for the refugees to confront this new reality. Noting expanding AQIM links with Polisario members, South American drug cartels, Boko Haram, and al-Shabaab, as well as AQIM’s access to the influx of Libyan weapons in the Sahel, the study cites a 500% rise in terrorist attacks in the region since 9/11. It argues that AQIM is seeking to extend an “arc of instability” across Africa to exploit turbulence from the Arab Spring and destabilize the region. xviii
Jan. 11, 2012
Algerian and Mauritanian security agencies reportedly break up major drug trafficking and money laundering rings. Officials say the rings are believed to be linked with groups such as al-Qaeda, which is working with the Polisario to traffic arms and drugs from Mauritania to northern neighbors. Mali reportedly also steps up efforts against AQIM and what is believed its latest offshoot, “Al Qaida in Polisario Camps,” said to have abducted two French nationals Nov. 2011.xix
Jan. 3, 2012
Security expert Dr. J. Peter Pham, Atlantic Council, reports that economic and political reforms in Africa are “threatened by the spread of violent extremism” and “increasing links” between AQIM and other militants in the Sahel, recently “buoyed by the flow of arms and fighters” from Libya. “More ominously, AQIM has increased its linkages with the Polisario,” evident in AQIM’s Oct. 23 kidnappings near Tindouf, which were “aided by Polisario sympathizers” inside the Polisario’s camps. The camps offer “a ready pool of potential recruits” from “large numbers of idle young fighters.”xx
Dec. 27, 2011
Mali reportedly distances itself from the Polisario, accusing it of kidnapping, drug trafficking, and suspected collusion with a Sahrawi branch of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. A source close to the government says Mali is “angry” with the Polisario, and Malian officials say the Oct. 23 kidnapping was done in collusion with the ‘Sahrawi link’ of AQIM.xxi
Dec. 24, 2011
Mali refuses entry to “eight young Sahrawis” coming from Niger. “They had no papers. There are laws to be respected in Mali especially when it comes to dubious propaganda,” said Malian police.xxii
Dec. 17, 2011
Mali warns the Polisario, “our country is not the Wild West where they can come to kill and kidnap people.” Bamako will “no longer accept the violation of its territorial integrity by the Polisario Front,” says a Malian Minister. A local official adds, “everybody here knows who AQIM’s accomplices are, they even assisted in abducting the Europeans in Tindouf. His name is Omar al Sahraoui, but neither Mali, nor Algeria, nor the Polisario are doing anything to capture him.” In 2010, al Sahraoui, reportedly a Polisario veteran, was sentenced to 12 years in Mauritania for kidnapping Spanish aid workers for AQIM, according to Mauritanian court papers. He was later released in a trade for the aid workers. xxiii
Page Break
Dec. 15, 2011
Members of the Polisario launch an armed incursion into northern Mali, killing one and abducting three others, ostensibly looking for the kidnappers of three Western aid workers taken Oct. 23 from the Polisario-run camps near Tindouf, Algeria.xxiv
In recent days, the UN has been involved in multiple initiatives to avoid an escalation of the situation in Western Sahara’s Buffer Strip in the Guerguerat area, the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said in a statement issued on Friday…
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Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, UN, Antonio Guterres,
Evidence continues to grow that members of the Polisario Front have been engaged in drug and arms smuggling in the Sahel, gun battles and incursions in Mali, kidnappings and collaboration with AQIM, and as mercenaries for Qaddafi in Libya. Given escalating security concerns in the region, rather than subsidize the camps, which are becoming a recruiting ground for terrorists and traffickers, US assistance should be redirected to promote durable solutions prioritizing refugee resettlement, thus removing the security threat emanating from the camps and improving the humanitarian situation of the refugees.
A memo sent to you on February 17th regarding a proposal to address the double taxation question with regard to social security taxes between our two countries. Included in this analysis is a list of countries that have totalization agreements with the US and the ones Morocco has with other countries. There is a growing list of US companies that view this issue as an impediment to their decision to send US employees to Morocco to work on projects in Morocco. Do you have any interest to pursue this further with US companies and if so, could you give us an idea of whether there is an interest in Morocco to pursue an agreement with the US? There are several US companies waiting to make corporate joint venture decisions with Moroccan companies and any signal I could pass on from you would be appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration of this request and sorry I forgot to bring it up last week when we were together.