Prospects for Namibian independence

Abstract

The last six months have seen significant developments in negotiations to bring about a resolution of the long war in the Western Sahara (see my article 'Morocco and the Western Sahara' in ROAPE no.38, 1987). The formal acceptance at the end of August last year by both the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front of UN proposals for a cease fire and a subsequent referendum in the Western Sahara on the future status of the territory was followed by an intensificaiton of diplomatic activity and by increasing pressure on both parties of the conflict to move towards an agreed basis for a settlement. In January 1989, for the first time, King Hassan of Morocco talked with a Polisario Front delegation and both sides declared afterwards that important progress had been made. In the next issue of ROAPE, we shall provide a detailed and up to date Briefing on these recent developments which could herald an end to a war that has lasted nearly 15 years and ask, what are the prospects for a 'just and lasting settlement' in the Western Sahara.