Editorial
Can the African Union become the voice for the voiceless?
The principle of state sovereignty has been an integral part of international relations since the end of the Second World War and this principle guarantees smaller nations, that big and powerful nations will not invade them, or worst annex them. Hence, the annexation of Crimea by Russia is a violation has been widely condemned as a violation of international law.
However, Russia is not the only country that is currently occupying a region of another country. Morocco, has since 1975 occupied over half of Western Sahara. Thus, the sanctions now impossed on Russia by the west – namely the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) must also be impossed on Morocco for its occupation of some 80 percent of Western Saharan territory.
One of the objectives of the United Nations was to prepare the territories of the world under European colonial rule for independence. Libya was the first on the African continent to go through the UN process and achieved its independence in 1951. By the late 1960s, France and Britain had relinquished most of their colonies in Africa. However, the other European colonial powers, Spain and Portugal refused to do so, which in turn led to brutal wars of liberation across some parts of the continent.
Despite the artificial boundaries imposed on African communities as a result of colonialism, African leaders through the Organization of African Unity (OAU), – the precursor to the the African Union (AU), agreed that after independence, the boundaries of the various African states would remain as they were during colonialism. Hence, no country should annex another or its provinces regardless of history of ethnic affiliation. It was an attempt to prevent border wars between African countries. As a result, the OAU rejected Somalia’s attempt to acquire parts of Kenya and Ethiopia where its ethnic kin and kith reside.
Long and brutal wars of independence in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, a coup in Portugal, and the death of Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco led to the declarations of independence by the peoples of the Portuguese and Spanish colonies. However, Morocco quickly occupied Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony to its south. It was condemned by African leaders, who acknowledged Western Sahara’s independence and accepted its membership into the OAU. However, Morocco claimed Western Sahara to be historically part of Morocco and left the OAU in protest of the organizations’ recognition of Western Sahara’s sovereignty.
Today, as the EU and United States protest the Russian annexation of Crimea, Morocco continues to occupy the Western Sahara denying the Sahrawian people their right to self-determination.
Attempts by the UN to organize a referendum to determine whether the Sahrawian people would unite with Morocco or gain independence has been postponed due in most part to Morocco’s opposition. And yet the U.S. and the EU have not impossed any sanctions on Morocco. In fact, the U.S. and the EU have ignored the human rights violations committed by Moroccan forces in Western Sahara and have refused to acknowledge Western Sahara’s sovereignty despite the African Union and over eighty states’ recognition of Western Sahara’s sovereignty.
