For several days in November 1975, one of the most shameful political episodes in Spanish history took place. On 14 November of that year, the so-called “Madrid Tripartite Agreements” were signed in the Zarzuela Palace, a declaration of principles that included Spain’s withdrawal from Western Sahara in less than a year and by which Spain ceded the administration of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, without taking into account the opinion of the Sahrawi people. In addition to several economic agreements that recognised fishing rights in Saharan waters for 800 Spanish vessels, Spain sold the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, without taking into account the opinion of the Saharawi people. Similarly, Spain sold 65% of the phosphate company, Fos Bucrá, to Morocco. This text entailed the unilateral cession of the territory, ignoring UN guidelines.
Sadly, the consequences of this agreement still linger today, with the Sahrawi population scattered among the refugee camps in Tindouf in Algeria, in the Moroccan-occupied areas and in the diaspora in various countries around the world. These arrangements are illegal under international law.
Western Sahara was Spain’s 53rd province and, like the other countries around it, was entitled to a decolonisation process and an independent state. However, the Francoist regime of the time, with these agreements, gave in to Moroccan pressure and handed over the Sahara to Hassan II.
The relationship of the Spanish authorities with the Sahrawis always repeated the same pattern: fine words but, in the end, obeisance to Morocco, as was demonstrated on 2 November 1975, when Juan Carlos de Borbón, then acting head of state – Franco was on his deathbed – travelled to El Aaiún and addressed the colony’s military commanders in the officers’ casino: “Spain will honour its commitments. We wish to protect the legitimate rights of the Sahrawi population”. Three days later, he warned the US of Franco’s plans in the Sahara, no small help for a power that had given the green light to Morocco’s invasion of the Sahara.
The process that eventually triggered the signing of these agreements began in 1974, when Morocco asked the Hague Tribunal for a verdict on its sovereignty rights over the colonial territory of the Sahara and Spain was already conducting a population census among the tribes as a preliminary to holding the referendum. On 16 October 1975 the International Court in The Hague ruled that the Saharawi tribes’ links with Morocco and Mauritania did not derive any rights over the territory. Morocco, in a “curious” interpretation, understood that the verdict supported its claims, and on 6 November 1975, taking advantage of Franco’s death throes, launched the so-called “Green March” in which some 350,000 people crossed the border from Morocco. A few days earlier Morocco had already entered the territory, devastating the Sahrawi population. The International Court of Justice in The Hague condemned the claims of Mauritania and Morocco at the time.
Against this backdrop, on 14 November 1975, Spain ended up signing the illegal Madrid Accords with Morocco and Mauritania.
On 27 February 1976, Spain withdrew its troops from the territory of Western Sahara. The SADR, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, was formed and the Polisario Front declared war on Morocco and Mauritania, which divided up the territory.
On numerous occasions, the various Spanish governments have tried to evade their current responsibility in the Western Sahara conflict under the cover of these agreements. However, according to the UN and international law, Spain continues to be the de jure administering power of this territory, but instead of acting as such, it has positioned itself in favour of the invader, favouring Morocco’s annexationist pretensions.
Spain has promoted initiatives for the signing of preferential agreements between the EU and Morocco that include the territory of Western Sahara (fishing, agricultural, mineral extraction, etc.).
It has sold military material to Morocco, material that has been amply demonstrated to have been used for the repression and genocide carried out by the Alaouite kingdom on the Sahrawi population.
None of the different Spanish governments has openly denounced this situation of genocide and violation of human rights, nor has it denounced the occupation by Morocco, using on most occasions a false double language with which it tries to please all parties.
Bearing in mind that the referendum on self-determination is the only legal and fair solution to the decolonisation process, a process to which Morocco had formally committed itself with the signing of the 1991 Peace Plan, and that Spain continues to be the de jure administering power of the territory, it is the Spanish government’s obligation to take, once and for all, the appropriate measures to hold the referendum. Thus fulfilling the historical debt it owes to what was once Spain’s 53rd province.
