As almost 200,000 refugees wait in the blinding sun and unforgiving heat of the Sahara desert, waiting to return to their families and their homeland, their future is not being self-determined, as was promised by the UN in 1991, but is being determined by forces thousands of miles away. For over twenty-five-years, the people of the Western Sahara, the Saharawis, have been living divided, in exile or under Moroccan occupation: In the refugee camps outside of Tindouf, Algeria, or in the Western Sahara itself.

A referendum process for self-determination to decide the fate of the Western Sahara independence or full integration with Morocco has recently been put on hold in favor of an agreement proposed by Morocco and pushed by Kofi Annan's Personal Envoy for the Western Sahara, the illustrious James Baker III.

In official circles and the mainstream press, the breakdown in the ten-year-old referendum process has been blamed on the unbending wills of the two parties involved: the Moroccan Monarchy and the Polisario, the political leadership of the exiled Saharawi nation. A winner-take-all referendum is evidently not practical in the Western Sahara, even though it worked fine in East Timor. (The similarities between East Timor and the Western Sahara begin at the time of the invasion, 1975, continue on through the relation between the conquering leadership and the US including US arms used in the invasions of these decolonizing territories, on down through the total lack of US media attention.)

The true reason for the failure of the referendum process which could be held tomorrow, according to UN officials is the refusal of Kofi Annan, the United States and other Western nations, like France, to let their obedient, long-time ally, Morocco, lose its precious annex, complete with rich phosphate deposits, some of the best fishing grounds in the world, and the possibility of oil and natural gas.

The United Nations Mission for a Referendum in the Western Sahara (MINURSO) has suffered several embarrassing resignations, including former MINURSO Deputy Chairman of the Identification Commission, former Ambassador Frank Rudy, who stated in February 2000, "There will not be a referendum for the Western Sahara until Morocco permits it." He went on to say, "Morocco's strategy is quite simply to delay a referendum that they know they can not win until the United Nations throws its hands up in frustration. And sad to say, they are getting away with it."

The UN has thrown its hands up. Human Rights Watch concluded: Morocco "has obstructed and compromised the fairness of the referendum process."

The twenty-five-year-old history of injustice in the Western Sahara started when Morocco invaded the colony known as the Spanish Sahara.

Forcing its political will and spitting in the face of the International Court of Justice which had ruled in favor of the principle of self determination, finding that the Western Sahara had never historically been a part of the Moroccan Kingdom, Morocco prevented a planned referendum before Spain could carry it out. Morocco was aided in the UN by, primarily, the US and France, despite a condemnation from the Security Council and not one single recognition, even today, of Morocco's claim to the Western Sahara. (Today, over fifty countries and the Organization for African Unity recognize the Western Sahara, or the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as an independent country.)

At the secret Madrid Accords Morocco and Mauritania, which also laid claim to the Western Sahara, divided the country, giving the phosphate rich northern two-thirds to Morocco. A war between Morocco, Mauritania, and the Polisario Front quickly erupted.

The Polisario quickly defeated Mauritania and would have arguably retaken their stolen lands if not for generous military aid from France and the US, including French flown air-strikes and US Green Berets sent to Moroccan controlled Western Sahara for "counter-insurgency training" by Reagan.

This military aid was coupled with a large International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to prop up the weak, militarized Moroccan economy in 1980. The Polisario, aided by Algeria and armed with Soviet weapons though Libya, fought one of the most successful guerrilla campaigns in history against incredible odds.

The desert war raged until the current UN orchestrated cease-fire took hold in 1991 with the promise of a referendum in the near future. That referendum has failed to take place. The great majority of qualified voters come from the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria and from the Saharawis left in the Western Sahara. Morocco has its own population of voters it would like to include, and repeatedly challenges their disqualification, delaying the vote.

Carlos Wilson of the US-Western Sahara Foundation was privately told by a senior UN official that, "the referendum could take place this afternoon." The problem being that such a referendum would mean an independent Western Sahara.

The "compromise" or "Framework Agreement," a limited autonomy agreement proposed by Morocco in June outlines a plan that would, in the words of the Algerian government, legitimize Morocco's annexation of the Western Sahara. The plan's proponents point out that it calls for referendum on the "final status" of the Western Sahara in five years.

However the Framework Agreement was criticized in the June 30 Economist because it raises serious doubts as to whether a free and fair referendum on the final status of the Western Sahara would ever take place.

In a letter to the Economist, Baker responded: "Let me answer the question posed at the start of your piece: Has the UN's new plan for Western Sahara dropped self-determination? The answer is an unqualified no."

Yet the Western Sahara Campaign UK raised doubts as to whether the referendum will be free and fair: "Any vote to decide the final status of Western Sahara would, under the proposals, include hundreds of thousands of Moroccan settlers currently occupying Western Sahara rather than the 86,386 Saharawi voters recognized under the existing UN Settlement Plan as eligible to vote." Morocco's new tactic, like their old tactic, is to have as many Moroccans vote as possible, since it is assured that Saharawis would vote overwhelmingly for independence.

Now Baker is scheming to help Morocco legitimize its referendum strategy while blurring the issue in the media.

To get more information or get involved in the Saharawi cause, contact Carlos Wilson with the US-Western Sahara foundation. U.S.-Western Sahara Foundation 858-458-9191 email: csahrawi@aol.com; and visit www.wsahara.net and www.arso.org for information and news. For further reading there are Tony Hodges' Western Sahara: Roots of a Desert War and Leo Kamil's Fueling the Fire: US Policy and the Western Sahara Conflict; The Human Rights Watch report on the MINURSO is available on the web at www.hrw.org.