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 Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic |  Spain |
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Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic–Spain relations are thecurrent and historical relations between theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (also known asWestern Sahara) and theKingdom of Spain.
Spanish merchants began arriving to present day Western Sahara as early as the late 1400s.[1] During theScramble for Africa Spain began occupying land in Western Sahara which was then granted to Spain by theBerlin Conference which allowed Spain to occupy territory fromRas Nouadhibou (Cape Blanc) toCape Bojador.[citation needed] In 1884, Emilio Bonelli, head of the Spanish Society of Africanists and Colonists (Sociedad Española de Africanistas y Colonistas) traveled toRío de Oro and signed treaties with the coastal peoples.[1] Since then, Spain claimed the coastal portions of the territory and tried to claim more inland territory, however, they were hindered by French claims inMauritania and by partisan belonging toMa al-'Aynayn. By 1934, Spain occupied the Western Sahara towns ofSmara andLa Güera and occupied the two territories of Río de Oro andSaguia el-Hamra.[1]
In 1956,Morocco obtained independence fromFrance and immediately laid claim to the territories of Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra in 1957.[1] After Morocco claimed the land, Spanish troops succeeded in repelling Moroccan military incursions into the territories. In 1958, Spain united the territories of Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra into one and named it "Spanish Sahara". For several decades, Spain's control of the territory became very difficult, especially with Mauritania obtaining its independence in 1960 and claiming Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara) for itself and the fact that phosphate deposits were discovered atBucraa.[1]
In 1970, a political group was established, calling itself thePolisario Front and made up of mainly nativeSahrawi people. In 1974, Spain agreed to hold a referendum on self-determination for Spanish Sahara as originally mandated by theUnited Nations in 1966, however, the United Nations asked Spain to defer to theInternational Court of Justice to see if Morocco and Mauritania had claim to the land. In 1974,“The Court's conclusion was that the materials and information presented to materials and information presented to it did not establish any tie of territorial it did not establish any tie of territorial sovereignty between the territory of sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity."[2]
In 1975, Spain agreed to partition part of the territory to Morocco and to Mauritania after it was agreed at theMadrid Accords, however, international protest erupted as it went against the right forSelf-determination and the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 (Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples). In November 1975, while GeneralissimoFrancisco Franco was in his last illness, over 350,000 Moroccans and 20,000 Moroccan troops held the "Green March" into Spanish Sahara to force Spain to hand over the disputed territory. After Spanish withdrawal from Western Sahara, theWestern Sahara War began. In 1976 the Polisario Front declared a government-in-exile and named their country the "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic" (SADR).[1][3]
Since 1975, official governmental relations between Spain and the exiled-government inAlgeria of the Polisario Front are nearly non-existent. Since 1997, there have been severalUnited Nations resolutions concerning Western Sahara. In April 1991, the United Nations adoptedUnited Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). In 2003, Spain, as a non-permanent member of theUnited Nations Security Council voted in favor forUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 1463 andUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 1495 to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
For several years, Secretary General of the Polisario Front andPresident of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,Mohamed Abdelaziz, paid numerous visits to Spain advocating for SADR independence. In 1992, Mohamed Abdelaziz met with Spanish Prime MinisterFelipe González. President Abdelaziz also met with Prime MinisterJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in November 2004.[4] In March 2017, Spanish Foreign MinisterAlfonso Dastis affirmed Spain's support to a solution for the Sahrawi people.[5]
Although there are no official relations between Spain and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic; the Spanish government, through theSpanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, donates monetary and humanitarian assistance toSahrawi refugee camps based inTindouf Province of Algeria.[6][7] In 2010, the Spanish aid agency donated US$12 million to theWorld Food Program in the camps and 200,000 Euros for flood relief which affected the camps in 2015.[8][9] Humanitarian and development projects are provided also by Asociación Amal Esperanza, Cádiz,[10] and others humanitarian NGO.
In Spain, many organizations for support of Sahrawi cause were established. There areAsociación Amigos del Pueblo Saharaui-Alcobendas,[11]Asociación Granadina de Amistad con la RASD,[12]Asociaciones de Amigos del Sahara de Valladolid,Cantabria por el Sáhara,[13] Um-Draiga,[14]Amigos del Sahara Libre,[15] Sadicum,[16]CEAS-Sahara,[17]Solidariedade Galega co o Pobo Saharaui,[18] Bir Lehlu,[19]Federació ACAPS,[20] YALAH,[21]Federación Provincial de Cádiz de Asociaciones Solidarias con el Sahara,[22] and many others. They inform civil society about the problems of the Sahrawi people, they organise a variety of activities, including petitions and Sahrawi support demonstrations.
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