The information contained in this report is from a generally reliable source, although it has not been corroborated by third party sources.
(1)
According to a leading member of a Sahrawi NGO in Algiers, Polisario’s activity over the coming months will focus on one central goal: having defence of the human rights of Sahrawis living under Moroccan administration included in MINURSO’s mandate. This objective, which Polisario’s leaders have been pushing for several months (Mohamed Abdelaziz has already written to the UN Secretary General on the subject), has been given an additional boost by the visit to the Sahara by UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez and the Robert Kennedy Center’s recent mission to the Sahara and the Tindouf camps. The impasse that the negotiation process has reached and the difficulties caused by the Moroccan veto against the Secretary General’s Special Envoy Christoper Ross have together broken down the reticence of certain members of the Polisario leadership such as Bechir Mustapha Sayed with regard to the tactic of focussing all the movement’s efforts on the human rights campaign alone. While agreeing that the human rights question should not be neglected, Bechir Mustapha Sayed had been arguing in favour of a policy of regionalising the Sahrawi question that would have meant pushing to put the Sahara conflict on the agenda of inter-Maghreb relations. This option was ruled out, however, because it stands in opposition to Algerian policy, which is predicated on keeping the Sahara question separate from Algeria’s bilateral relations with other Maghreb countries, in particular Morocco – Algiers’ line being that the conflict is between Polisario and Morocco, not between Morocco and Algeria.
(2)
On Sept. 22, SADR President and Polisario General Secretary Mohamed Abdelaziz reshuffled personnel at the President’s office and SADR/Polisario representations abroad. According to an Algiers-based Sahrawi journalist, two appointments are particularly significant. The first is the removal of Mouloud Saïd from the position of Polisario representative in the United States, a position he has held for 30 years, and his appointment as Minister-Delegate for Asia. According to the source, this is a sign that Mohamed Abdelaziz intends to appoint one of his close associates to head the mission in the United States – the name should be announced before the end of the month. The second is the appointment of Malainin Sadiq as Minister-Advisor to the Presidency. The source describes Sadiq as a « pure product of the Algerian DRS », having served as coordinator with the security services in Algiers for years before being made an ambassador and, now, special advisor to Mohamed Abdelaziz with ministerial rank. In his new capacity, Sadiq will be in charge of security and coordination with the Algerian security forces, and was chosen for this sensitive role because of his longstanding closeness to Mohamed Abdelaziz, says the source. At least one figure within the Polisario hierarchy will be feeling let down after this reshuffle, the source adds: Mohamed Yeslem Baissat, who remains Polisario’s representative for Europe but without the formal rank of ambassador, whereas he had been hoping for a ministerial position.
