ROME: A year ago, unusually heavy rain storms destroyed half of the camps in Algeria where some 90,000 refugees from the disputed territory of Western Sahara have been eking out a miserable existence for more than 30 years. I have been involved in North African affairs for 40 years, and for most of that time, the problem of Western Sahara has envenomed relations among its neighbors and immiserated the Saharan population.
Thankfully, Morocco's young king, Mohammed VI, has devised a proposal for granting autonomous status to this region, and it behooves all members of the United Nations Security Council to support it.
Here is a rare instance, in the post-9/11 world, in which a little encouragement could pay large dividends, fostering not only a final resolution for the region's refugees but also creating a stable North African peace for the first time in decades — a peace that would serve as a bulwark against Islamic extremism.
Western Sahara, a desert land on the Atlantic bordered by Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco, has deep roots in Moroccan history. It is here that the 11th- century Moroccans who founded the Andalusian empire, which stretched from Mauritania deep into Spain, originated. Spain colonized the territory in 1884, then abandoned it in 1976. At that time, thousands of unarmed Moroccans streamed into Western Sahara and effectively reclaimed it for their homeland.
But neighboring Algeria helped create and then lent armed support to a guerrilla group, the Polisario, that resisted Moroccan rule. The group's putative aim is independence for Western Sahara, but it is worth noting that Algeria would gain a great deal by dominating an area with phosphate reserves and an Atlantic coastline.
For many years, there was fierce fighting, from which tens of thousands of families fled and eventually came under the care of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Though the violence concluded with a UN- brokered cease-fire in 1991, the inhabitants of Western Sahara remain caught in the unresolved conflict. Almost a quarter of the 400,000 Saharans, or Sahrawis, are living under deplorable conditions in Algeria, generally unable to leave the refugee camps, communicate with the outside world or maintain their traditional nomadic way of life.
While Morocco exercises control over the greater part of the Western Sahara and has an "open door" policy towards the refugees, the Polisario has made it virtually impossible for those Sahrawis living in the camps in southern Algeria to return.
Holding on to the refugees is their strategy for "governing" these people, who exist solely on international assistance. Younger ones have never known life outside these bleak tented camps.
Enter Mohammed VI. Since assuming the throne seven years ago, the Moroccan king has brought about vital domestic reforms, including elevating and protecting the status of women, as well as establishing an independent commission to face up to Morocco's human rights record.
In an effort to advance the Western Sahara issue, the king studied contemporary models of territorial conflict resolution to see which solutions proved viable and durable in similar situations around the world. He created an advisory council to gather the views of the population, both present Moroccans, and Sahrawis.
The result? After a year-long national discussion, Morocco is to propose, at the United Nations in April, a plan to establish the Western Sahara as an autonomous region under Moroccan sovereignty. That would provide effective self-determination for the Sahrawis, allowing for local decision-making and control over economic, social, linguistic and cultural issues. Successful autonomy regions like this exist elsewhere. The Trentino-Alto Adige region in Italy and the autonomous region of Madeira in Portugal are examples, as are Catalonia and the Basque Provinces in Spain. The creation of these quasi-states has frequently unlocked longstanding disputes.
Mohammed VI is seeking a solution to the Western Sahara dispute based on common ground rather than conflict. His act of leadership is in everyone's interest. It is no secret that the young people in these horrible camps are being preyed upon for recruitment by Al Qaeda and other local terrorist groups. Indeed, Algeria's most murderous terrorist group recently renamed itself Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb.
This is why it is vital that the Security Council accept Morocco's proposal for an autonomous region and not be pushed into a debate for full Western Saharan independence, which is in any case unattainable in the foreseeable future. A weak independent state would rapidly morph into a terrorist-controlled state.
This is also why the United States must be forthright in its support for the Moroccan proposal. It would be aiding a modernizing, moderate Islamic country, and a strategic ally. More urgently, it would be helping Western Sahara's people to regain their lost liberties and their right to peaceful existence.
Frederick Vreeland, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East and South Asia affairs, was the U.S. ambassador to Morocco from 1992 to 1993.
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