The green march
Contents
1 –Définition
2 – Background
3 – The green march
4 – The Moroccan arguments for
sovereignty
Définition
The Green March was a
strategic mass
demonstration in
November 1975 ,
coordinated by the
Moroccan government , to
force Spain to hand over
the disputed , autonomous
semi- metropolitan Spanish
Province to Sahara to
Morocco .
Background
Morocco , to the north of the Spanish Sahara ,
had long clamed that the territory was
historically an integral part of Morocco.
Mauritania to the south agued similarly that the
territory was in fact in Mauritanian. Since 1973,
a Sahrawi guerilla war led by Polisario front
had challenged Spanish control , and in
October 1975 Spain had quietly begun
negotiations for a handover of the power with
leaders of the rebel movement ,
Both in El Aaiùn , and with foreign minister
Pedro Cortina y Mauri meeting El Ouali in
Algiers .
Morocco intented to vindicate its claims by
demanding a verdict from the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) , which was issued on
Oct. 16 , 1975 . The ICJ stated that there were
historical legal ties of allegiance between some,
but only some Sahrawi tribes and the Sultan of
Morocco , as well as ties including some rights
relating to the land between Mauritania and
other Sahrawi tribes . However , the ICJ stated
also that there were no ties of territorial
sovereignty between the territory and Morocco ,
or Mauritanie, at the time of Spanish
colonization; and that these contacts were not
extensive enough to support either country’s
demand for annexassions of the Spanish
Sahara . Instead , the court argued , the
indigenous population (the Sahrawis) were the
owners of the land , and thus possessed the
right of self-determination . This meant that
regardless of which political solution was found
to the question of sovereignty (intergration with
Spain , Morocco , Mauritania , partition , or
independence ) ,
It had to be explicitly approved by the people of
the territory . Complicating matters , a UN visiting
mission had concludes on October 15 , the day
before the ICJ verdict was released , that Sahrawi
support for independence was overwhelming .
Howere , the reference to previous MoroccanSahrawi ties of allegience was presented by our
king Hassan II as a vindication of this position ,
with no public mention of the court’s futher rulling
on self-determination . ( Seven years later , her
formally agreed to a referendum before the
Organisation of African Unity . Within hours of the
ICJ verdict release , he announced the organizing
of a green march to Spanish Sahara , to reunite it
with the Motherland .
In order to prepare the terrain and to riposte to
any potential counter-invasion from Algeria or
in order to invade militarily the land and kill or
deport the Sahrawi population , the Moroccan
Army entered the northeast of the region on
October 31, where it met with hard resistance
from the Polisario , by then a two-year-old
independence movement .
The Green March
The Green March was a well-publicized
popular march of enourmous proportions .On
November 6 1975 apporoximately 350,000
unarmed Moroccans converged on the city of
Tarfaya in southern Morocco flags , U.S.A
flages Saudi Arabia flages and Jordan flages ;
banners calling for the return of the Moroccan
Sahara, photographs of the King and Qur’an ;
the color green for the march’s name was
intented as a symbol of Islam . As the
marchers reached the border ,
The Spanish Armed Forces were ordered not
to fire to avoid bloodshed . The Spanish
troops also cleared some previously mined
zones .
The Moroccan arguments for
sovereignty
According to Morocco, the exercise of sovereignty by
the Moroccan state was characterized by official
pledges of allegiance to the sultan. The Moroccan
government was of the opinion that this allegiance
existed during several centuries before the
Spanish occupation and that it was a legal and
political tie. The sultan Hassan I, for example, had
carried out two expeditions in 1886 in order to put an
end to foreign incursions in this territory and to
officially invest several caids and cadis. In its
presentation to the ICJ, the Moroccan side also
mentioned the levy of taxes as a further instance of
the exercise of sovereignty.
The exercise of this sovereignty had also
appeared, according to the Moroccan
government, at other levels, such as the
appointment of local officials (governors and
military officers), and the definition of the
missions which were assigned to them.
The Moroccan government further pointed to
several treaties between it and other states,
such as withSpain in 1861, the United States
of America in 1786, and 1836 and with Great
Britain in 1856
The exercise of this sovereignty had also
appeared, according to the Moroccan
government, at other levels, such as the
appointment of local officials (governors and
military officers), and the definition of the
missions which were assigned to them.[6]
The Moroccan government further pointed
to several treaties between it and other
states, such as withSpain in 1861,
the United States of America in 1786, and
1836 and with Great Britain in 1856 [7] [2]
The court, however, found that "neither the
internal nor the international acts relied upon
by Morocco indicate the existence at the
relevant period of either the existence or the
international recognition of legal ties of
territorial sovereignty between Western
Sahara and the Moroccan State. Even
taking account of the specific structure of
that State, they do not show that Morocco
displayed any effective and exclusive State
activity in Western Sahara."