Malawi withdraws recognition of Saharawi Republic

Malawi decided on Tuesday to withdraw its recognition of the "Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic" (SADR), which the Polisario Front separatists proclaimed as an independent state in 1976, in Algeria.

The Malawi Foreign Affairs minister Joyce Banda announced the decision at the end of talks with her Moroccan counterpart Taib Fassi Fehri in Rabat.

"In the light of the recent developments of the Western Sahara issue at the United Nations, Malawi decided to withdraw its recognition of the SADR and end all relations with it," she declared.

Malawi means by this decision "to encourage the UN-backed ongoing negotiation process in order to achieve a durable political solution to this 33-year old regional conflict," the Malawi official said.

Since UN-backed Manhasset negotiations (near New York) on Western Sahara began in June 2007, forty African and Latin-American countries have decided to withdraw or freeze their recognition of the SADR.

According to the Moroccan authorities, this decision is a "great diplomatic victory".

Rabat withdrew from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1984 to protest against the admission of the SADR.

Since April 2007, Morocco proposed a Western Sahara autonomy plan to find a solution to this dispute which started since the end of 1975, when the Spanish colonizers withdrew from the territory which went under Moroccan authority since then.

The Algeria-backed Polisario Front demands a self-determination referendum considered to be "inapplicable" by Rabat.

Morocco is consolidated right now in its autonomy proposal whereas the Manhasset negotiations are "at a standstill".

The date of the fifth round of these direct negotiations between Morocco and Polisario Front is yet to be determined. Algeria and Mauritania also take part in the negotiations as observers.

The fourth round of these talks, held in March, left the door open to the protagonists to set the date of their next negotiations.