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Morocco and Western Sahara, privatising job searches
by Tony Cross
Article published on the 2009-07-24 Latest update 2009-07-29 10:18 TU
Morocco's King Mohammed VI (R) with Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi
( Photo: Reuters )
How much oil is there off Western Sahara? A reader takes issue with our coverage of the tenth anniversary of Morocco's Mohammed VI accession to the throne. Other readers think it's a bad idea to privatise job-search facilities and thank us for our work on the website.
“Thank You for revealing to us that the Western Sahara territory is oil-rich! You are better informed than us,” writes Halim Mahmoud of Casablanca, in what one suspects is sarcastic mode.
“Which international oil searching company made this important discovery and for what reason they don't start to exploit it?” he asks. “You think that they put huge amount of money in exploration and when they find some oil they just don't pump it out?!”
“Oil-rich” does seem to have been an exaggeration and the phrase has been taken out of the article on the tenth anniversary of Moroccan King Mohammed VI's ascension to the throne.
But it also seems that both the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front, who contest control of the territory, hope that reserves will be found.
The UN has considered the area occupied territory since 1975 and Polisario control 20 per cent of the territory under the name of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. A UN-backed ceasefire is in operation and a referendum is supposed to be held but there is along-running dispute as to who should vote.
As always in such disputes, resources are an important bone of contention, with Morocco earning money from phosphates and fishing in the disputed area. Rabat seems to hope to add oil to that list.
Discovery of oil off neighbouring Mauritania early this century led oil companies, governments and guerrillas to turn their attention to the sea off Western Sahara. The US Geological Survey noted reserves and 181 field activities.
In 2001 Morocco parcelled out the area to France’s TotalFinalElf and the Texan company Kerr-McGee.
The Polisario granted licences to six British oil companies and Australia’s Fusion. UN legal advice seems to say that anyone can grant the right to look for oil but its exploitation must benefit the people of the region.
“Who has the right to declare oil operations to be beneficial to Sahrawis?” asks Toby Shelley in his book Endgame in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa’s Last Colony? “Is it Polisario or the government in Rabat or the local government installed by Rabat, or could it be a tier of government introduced under an autonomy arrangement put in place either by the international community or by Morocco acting unilaterally?”
A dispute that looks likely to run and run.
Our story on France’s employment offices subcontracting to the private sector excited the interest of “Mark Twain” (one suspects a pseudonym, it it isn’t one, I’m sorry) of Florida.
“Very wrong copy cat to USA,” he writes, saying that the unemployed aren’t finding jobs there. “Look our unemployment rate today!”
And long-time fan Amin Najmi, of Fes in Morocco, finds the website “really wonderful”.
“I visit it everyday to listen to your programmes and learn French,” he says. “It’s very interesting, full of information about France and the latest news.
“RFI is greater than the word ‘thank you’ but my heart from its bottom always sings ‘I love you RFI’.”
Amin, it’s a pleasure to be of service!
