Western Sahara's Tug of War

The National Clergy Council has thrown its support in the past behind keeping Terri Schiavo on life support and boycotting Target stores for not allowing Salvation Army bell-ringers on their property.

Now the Washington, D.C.- based advocacy group for "moral order" is using its pulpit to call attention to the plight of inhabitants of war-torn Western Sahara.

The U.S. group of church leaders and others organized a multi-city campaign this month to raise public awareness of the inhumane treatment of residents of the disputed region in northwestern Africa.

At a luncheon at Sarasota's Ritz-Carlton last week attended by nearly 100 people, including several clergy members from Southwest Florida, the religious group provided a forum for several Moroccans to share their personal stories of suffering.

The Moroccans said children taken from their families in the Western Sahara are being sent to Cuba to be indoctrinated into communism and to work as slave labor in sugar cane and tobacco fields for years without any contact from their loved ones. And although more than 400 prisoners of war held in Algeria for as long as 30 years finally gained their freedom last fall, thousands more live as refugees, many of them in camps in the Algerian desert.

The Western Sahara region, formerly known as the Spanish Sahara, has been caught in a political tug-of-war since Spain relinquished its control of the territory in 1975.

Although Morocco laid claim to the mineral-rich coastal area after Spain's withdrawal, rebels in the region, who had coalesced into the Polisario Front, fought for independence. While the United States has backed the Moroccan government, the Polisario Front found support from militants in Algeria, Libya and Cuba.

A power struggle over the region continues despite a United Nations-brokered cease-fire in 1991 that sought to settle the dispute between Morocco and the Polisario through elections that have yet to be held because of disputes over who is eligible to vote.

As many as 200,000 people are still refugees.

The United States recognizes Morocco's "administrative control" of Western Sahara but "has not endorsed Morocco's claim of sovereignty," according to a Department of State white paper.

The National Clergy Council warned church leaders that relief aid sent to the region has often been misappropriated and never reached the suffering nomadic tribes known as Sahrawi, who have become pawns in the land dispute.

The council called upon supporters to write letters to John V. Hanford III, the Department of State's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and to lawmakers asking them to "ensure justice and freedom for the Sahrawi people."

The religious group also is relying on prayer and hopes to spread its message about displaced and mistreated Moroccans through a DVD.

The Washington, D.C.- based Moroccan American Center for Policy, which is funded by the Moroccan government, participated in the public-awareness campaign paid for by the National Clergy Council through a private grant. The Moroccan government also hired the Washington, D.C., public relations firm that handled publicity for the campaign.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI called upon Western Sahara leaders late last week to support his autonomy plan for the desert region so long as it remained part of Morocco.

Moroccan diplomats have said they will present a plan to the United Nations next month that would allow the Sahrawis to run their own affairs while remaining under Moroccan rule. The rebels have rejected the idea, saying a referendum must be held first.

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Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.