Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara Third ... - Scarecrow Press

INTRODUCTION • li
Nouakchott remained largely rhetorical. This situation, however, did
not last much beyond the early 1970s, as the criticism aimed at Spain
from the United Nations and elsewhere in the developing world did not
relent, and—even more importantly—more and more educated Saharawis
were embracing the anticolonial cause. These students and
other youths, who had earlier formed a loosely constituted group that
styled itself the “Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of the Sahara,”
went even further on May 10, 1973, when they founded the
Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el-Hamra y Río de Oro,
known as the Polisario Front, with the objective (at first implied but
later made explicit) of securing full independence for the desert colony.
To drive this point home, they immediately set about mounting smallscale
armed attacks on Spanish forces in the territory, to little real military
effect but with significant practical and political consequences, as
would soon be made clear.
The rising tide of international attention to the colonial status of
Western Sahara, the 1974 coup d’état in Portugal that was to presage
Lisbon’s final pullout from its own empire in Africa and elsewhere, and
the increased level of Polisario activity within the colony itself, finally
induced Spain to alter its course. Late in 1973, the Franco régime decided
to devolve a certain amount of real authority to the Djemaa, a
hitherto purely consultative body made up of conservative tribal
choiukh who were willing to colloborate with the Spanish and which
had been established back in 1967. Wider internal autonomy (and perhaps
even independence) would come later, on Spanish terms to be sure,
and to this end a pro-Spanish political grouping, the Partido de la Unión
Nacional Saharaui (PUNS), was established as a competitor (albeit an
ineffective one, as matters turned out) to the ever-increasing popularity
of the Polisario Front. Mere internal autonomy under Spanish authority
was not acceptable to Polisario, though, and giving ground to the Saharawi
nationalist organization, Spain announced on August 21, 1974,
that it was accepting the longstanding calls from the UN and Polisario
to hold a referendum in the territory during the first half of 1975. Confronted
with this, and mindful of their own claims to Western Sahara,
Morocco and Mauritania swung into action to prevent the possible
emergence of an independent Saharawi-run state in North Africa. The
two countries successfully induced Spain to postpone the referendum
while the controversy was shunted to the International Court of Justice