Trouble between Algeria and Morocco is not related to the Western Sahara territory alone. The feud is at least 42 years old when in the immediate aftermath of Algeria's accession to independence, border disagreements irrupted. On October 15, 1963 the two were about to start an armed conflict that observers called "the war of the sands," threatening to transform the entire Maghreb into another period of instability, after the bloody wars of independence. The conflict began exactly one month after Algeria selected its very first president, Ahmed Ben Bella.
Clashes occurred in various points along the Algeria-Morocco border, from the southern Oued Dra and Hassi Beida, and it took the mediation of the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie when he was head of the African Unity organization in Bamako on November 2, 1963 to avoid a full-scale war.
Since then, Morocco and Algeria became enemy brothers and their relations never recovered, although both refrained from using their armies to settle scores. There were, however, missed opportunities and false hopes over the years. And even before all Maghreb countries recovered their independence, hope of a unified region was the in the minds of militants and politicians, many of who will come to power in later periods. On April 27, 1958 the conference of North African nationalist parties took place in Tangiers with the participation of the Istiqlal party of Morocco, the Neo-Destour of Tunisia and the FLN of Algeria, during which the future political leaders of the three countries insisted on a vision of unification. But it took 11 years after Algeria's independence in 1962 for Morocco and Algeria to agree on their common border.
But that was not enough as the two remained suspicious of each other, accusing one other of plotting to destabilize the region. Even the former powerful interior minister Driss Basri has recently spoken with a Spanish newspaper of operations led by Moroccan intelligence within Algeria. Media sources revealed that as recently as October 2003 an attack on the Morocco-Algeria border resulted in the death of one Algerian soldier. The attack was the work of a shadowy organization called Front de Libration de l'Algrie Marocaine (Liberation Front of the Moroccan Algeria), an organization led by Mohamed Alouah who has been lobbying for the annexation of 38% of the Algerian territory. Alouah has been summoned by the Moroccan justice to explain himself. Then Algeria was accused of being behind the terrorist attack against tourists in the Hasni Hotel in Marrakech.
Since the accession to throne of King Mohammed in 1999 and the arrival in power of President Bouteflika who traces his origins back to Morocco, both countries have been sending signals of good will and positive intentions and have increased high-level contacts to sort out their common problems. In April 2001, the Moroccan interior minister Ahmed Midouni traveled to Algiers, and his Algerian counterpart Yazid Zerhouni reciprocated, followed by the February 2003 visit to Rabat of the Algerian foreign affairs minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem. His Moroccan peer Mohamed Benaissa also went to Algiers in June 2003 and May 2004.
The decision to scrap visa formalities bodes well for both Algeria and Morocco, although their bilateral problems will not be fully resolved until there is a final resolution to the Western Sahara conflict. For Algeria, the removal of the visa requirement will enable many of its nationals of Moroccan origin to visit their relatives without any obstacles. Algerians will also be able to use Casablanca as their transit hub on their way to North America where Royal Air Maroc maintains a presence. This will avoid them the pain of applying and obtaining transit visas from countries like the United Kingdom.
For Morocco the implications are also financial. As Tunisia has been benefiting from the de-facto isolation of the Algerians by not requiring a visa, hence attracting a sizeable number of Algerian tourists, Morocco will be looking to attract Algerian tourists now that the conditions for their entry is lifted. So far only about 21,000 Algerians per year have been visiting Morocco.
However, the news this weekend has received a lukewarm reception from Algiers. According to foreign affairs analysts, Rabat may have taken a shortcut when Algiers is looking for a comprehensive solution for all of their problems, including the Western Sahara. The two countries have recently established a joint commission to address their differences and propose ways to solve them. And as such, Algiers wonders why Morocco has taken a unilateral decision while both parties agreed on a specific bilateral process. Another thorny issue is the problem of the properties owned by Algerians living in Morocco but were expropriated by the Moroccan government following the 1994 terror attack. There is also a group of Algerians allegedly jailed in Moroccan prisons. Algeria says a "manhunt" took place in 1994 and many of its citizens are "held without tangible proof that they have committed crimes."
© The North Africa Journal 2004
