The political scientist recalled, in an analysis she developed for the "Sahara Debate", a citizen-run show broadcast on social media, that Algeria conceals its involvement under a fictional “observer” status to the regional dispute, whereas it has never ceased to act against Morocco’s territorial integrity, by presenting itself alternatively as “a concerned party” or as “an important actor.”
In the Colombian analyst’s point of view, Algeria’s refusal to allow a census of the populations of the Tindouf camps is an essential element of its involvement in the regional dispute on the Moroccan Sahara.
Thanks to the uncertainty maintained by Algeria over the real number of the people living in the camps, Algeria officials and “polisario” members are able to embezzle systematically humanitarian aid intended for the civilian populations, a situation that has been established by the reports of the UN High-Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Program, and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), she said.
According to Riveros, who has visited the region several times, Algeria’s manoeuvers will not undermine the solid frame of reference put in place by the international community to achieve a definitive solution to the regional dispute on the Moroccan Sahara, a key element of which is the exclusivity of the UN framework for dealing with this issue.
She thus recalled that the countries of the African Union rallied around international legality by adopting Decision 693, which circumscribes the pan African organization’s action to supporting the political process on the Moroccan Sahara led under the exclusive aegis of the UN.
Riveros felt that Algeria’s manoeuvers will not halt the irreversible dynamic of the Moroccanity of the Sahara, recalling that 165 states do not recognize the fictional “republic” created from scratch by Algeria, and that 44 states withdrew their recognition since 2000.
She underlined that a dozen African countries have decided to open consular representations in the region, thus acknowledging its emergence as a major economic hub that holds opportunities for African workers and investors from all horizons.
The expert noted on this occasion the atmosphere of freedom that prevails in the Moroccan Sahara which she described as a space of democracy and freedom, where citizens fully enjoy their political, economic, and social rights, of which the 2011 Constitution guarantees respect and protection.
The expert underlined that the population of the Moroccan Sahara participates through democratically elected representatives to the elaboration and the implementation of the socioeconomic development policies carried out in the region within the framework of the New Model for the Development of the Southern Provinces launched by His Majesty the King in 2015.
In 2015, the Southern Provinces had recorded the highest turnout rate among all Moroccan regions during the first regional elections even held in Morocco.
The representativeness of the Moroccan Sahara’s local officials has been recognized by the European Union in the context of the renewal of the Agricultural and the Fisheries Agreements between Morocco and the EU.
The European Commission had then consulted with the local officials of the Moroccan Sahara to establish that the extraction of natural resources in the region is done with the consent and to the benefit of the population of the Moroccan Sahara.
In the same vein, the Chairwoman of the Committee of Twenty-Four of the United Nations invited two local officials from the Southern Provinces to participate to the Regional Seminar held in May 2019 in Grenada, and the Committee’s main session held in New York in June 2019.
Pursuing her analysis of the situation in the Moroccan Sahara, Riveros highlighted the flourishing of local civil society thanks to the freedoms guaranteed by the 2011 Constitution.
The Colombian political scientist then contrasted this atmosphere of quiet and freedom with the situation prevailing in the camps of Tindouf, in southwest Algeria, where an armed movement perpetrates systematic human rights violations with the complicity and the benevolence of host country.
Indeed, Algeria devoluted to “polisario” sovereignty over part of its territory, in complete illegality with respect to international humanitarian law, especially the 1951 Refugee Convention, thus leaving the fate of the civilian population sequestrated in the Tindouf camps to an armed militia.
The UN Human Rights Committee had condemned this situation in its Concluding Observations regarding Algeria’s fourth periodic report on its implementation of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights, expressing its “concerns over the de facto devolution of authority to “polisario”, especially jurisdictional authority”
In the lawless zone that the Tindouf camps are, the mounting contestation of the representativeness of “polisario” is met with systematic repression mentored by Algeria and rolled out by the armed group. This leads Riveros to conclude that “polisario is totalitarianism”.
Riveros underlined that the abnormal situation that prevails in the Tindouf camps is only one aspect among others of Algeria’s status as a main party to the regional dispute on the Moroccan Sahara.
Riveros was participating in the Sahara Debate citizen-run show, which is intended as a democratic, open platform for serene, dispassionate analysis on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara.