ASC-075287668-2887-01

CREATING MALI 41tical party, the Nahda al-Wattaniyya al-Mauritaniyya, Parti pour la RenaissanceMauritanienne (Mauritanian Renaissance Party), which played a crucial role inthe conflict. Various Tamasheq and Bidân leaders in Soudan Français activelysupported either the French or the Moroccan and Mauritanian claims, or all atthe same time. Their support for these ‘foreign’ claims made them highlysuspect in the eyes of the Malian nationalists. After independence they wereregarded as enemies of the Malian state and ‘vassals’ to the ‘French neo-imperialistcause’.The OCRSThe OCRS was an attempt to keep the Sahara French, despite the imminentindependence of the Maghrebin and West African colonies. Although theFrench efforts to remain in control over the Sahara became more intense afterthe discovery of hydrocarbons in the Algerian Sahara and the start of theAlgerian war of independence in November 1954, the idea of a French Saharapredated these events. The first idea to unify the Sahara into one territory datesfrom 1951, when Emile Belime, the former director of the Office du Niger inSoudan Français, proposed to nationalise the Sahara. Belime headed a studycommittee for the creation of a French Sahara, which published its findings in1952, and in that same year Senators Pierre Cornet and Pierre July proposed toregroup the Sahara into one autonomous Région under a High Commissioner ofthe Republic or into a Département. Their propositions were voted down in theNational Assembly, but the idea remained alive and in 1953 Senator Paul Alduyinvited the Government to promote the rational organisation of the economy inthe Sahara. 47 In 1956, the idea resurfaced with more urgency. In February 1956,oil was struck in Algeria, near the Libyan border, in the northernmost part of theTamasheq world. 48 Five months later, the largest oil well in Algeria until presentstarted spouting its riches at Hassi Messaoud, while natural gas waspumped up at Hassi R’mel. At Colomb-Béchar, coal was mined. Various metalsand other minerals were discovered in the Hoggar Mountains of Southern Algeria,and phosphor and iron ore were located in Mauritania. In a contemporarystudy on the creation of the OCRS, Jean-Louis Quermonne, professor of law inGrenoble remarked with some glee:4748Based on: Keita, N. 2005. 3; Annexe au proces-verbal de la séance de l’AssembléeNationale du 9 mars 1956. ANSOM – 1affpol/2321/3; Jean-Louis Quermonne,L’Organisation Commune des Régions Sahariennes selon la loi du 10 janvier 1957.AMSAT – Dossier 35 – OCRS 1957-1962.Dillinger, G. 2002.