THE POLISARIO FRONT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00353R000100270001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 14, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 3, 1976
• Content Type: MEMO

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OCI No. 0486/76
April 3, 1976
The Algerian-backed Polisario Front (Popular Front for
the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro) has become
a significant guerrilla force capable of mounting harassing
operations in southern Morocco and northern Mauritania, as
well as Western (former Spanish) Sahara. Estimates of the
number of Polisario guerrillas range from 1,000 to more
than 5,000; we estimate the figure to be between 2,000 and
3,000. A number of these partisans were recruited from
indigenous nomad troops and territorial police that were
disbanded when Spain left its former territory.
The Front depends heavily on Algeria for arms,
training, supplies, and financial support; some Algerian
military personnel are accompanying the guerrillas in
combat operations. A substantial increase in guerrilla
operations could occur only as part of an Algerian move
to up the ante in its dispute with Morocco over the Sahara.
Prior to mid-1974, when King Hassan intensified his efforts
to acquire the Sahara, the Front got most of its arms
from Libya, which continues to provide some weapons and
financial support through Algeria.
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The guerrillas, although no match for Moroccan and
Mauritanian forces in conventional fighting, continue to
carry out sabotage and hit-and-run attacks over a wide area.
In addition to small arms, the guerrillas have used mortars,
machine guns, grenade launchers, and occasionally SA-7
surface-to-air-missiles in skirmishes with Moroccan and
Mauritanian forces. So long as the Front has Algerian
backing, it can continue a war of attrition indefinitely.
Morocco can contain, but not eliminate, Polisario harassment.
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The bulk of Polisario partisans are Reguibat tribes-
men, one of the most powerful of the Saharan peoples.
They traditionally have followed a nomadic lifestyle,
ranging with their camels across wide expanses of southern
Morocco, Algeria, Sahara, and Mauritania. They are known
for their ferocity, pride, and ability with firearms and
have dominated the eastern part of the territory for a
considerable period of time. The Reguibat--possibly
including some of the present Polisario leadership--were
prominently involved in anti-Spanish demonstrations in
the territorial capital of El Aaiun in 1970.
The Front first came to notice as an active insurgent
group in May 1973, when it attacked a Spanish frontier
post along the Moroccan-Saharan border. The organization
appears to be the successor of an earlier Saharan political
movement that opposed Spanish control of the territory.
Sporadic Polisario incidents against isolated Spanish
outposts in the interior continued throughout 1974 and
1975. Following the tripartite agreement signed in Madrid
last November, providing for a phased turnover of the
territory to Morocco and Mauritania, Spanish forces
gradually withdrew to a 70-mile defense perimeter around
El Aaiun. The guerrillas moved into the resulting vacuum,
operating throughout much of northeastern and southern
Sahara. As first Moroccan, and later Mauritanian, troops
moved into the territory, Polisario guerrillas directed
their attacks against these forces. Until late January,
when Morocco began extensive sweep operations against the
guerrillas, the Front held several towns. The Polisario
has since been forced to abandon virtually all of its
fixed strongpoints in the Sahara, but the Front continues
to wage guerrilla warfare in the more remote desert regions
of the interior.
Most Polisario militants are Reguibats and other
indigenous Saharans, and some of the Front's known leaders,
including Secretary General Mustafa Siyed el Ouali, re-
portedly were Saharan students who attended law school in
Morocco. There are probably a significant number of
Mauritanians as well. The most prominent Mauritanian is
Baba Miske, a former diplomat, who frequently appears as a
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Polisario spokesman. Many Saharan tribes probably have
more in common with the Mauritanians than the Moroccans.
The Hassaniya Arabic spoken in 'much of the area is nearly
identical to that spoken in Mauritania and quite different
from the Maghrebi Arabic spoken in Morocco.
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Recently, the Polisario Front seems to have been
concentrating on strengthening its shaky political
credentials while continuing guerrilla operations against
Moroccan and Mauritanian forces. Its provisional Saharan
National Council, established last fall, proclaimed the
formation of the "Saharan Democratic Arab Republic" on
February 27. The announcement was clearly intended to
counter the Moroccan-dominated Saharan territorial
assembly's unanimous endorsement the day before of a
motion to integrate the Sahara into Morocco and Mauritania.
In further attempts to gain diplomatic support and delay
international recognition of de facto control of the
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territory by Morocco and Mauritania, the Front has also
announced an eight-man "government" and promulgated a
"provisional constitution."
The Polisario controls little territory and has in
effect set up a government-in-exile. Algerian and
Polisario efforts to obtain recognition of the new Saharan
"state" have been less successful than Algiers expected.
Rabat's decision on March 7 to sever diplomatic relations
with Algiers served as a clear warning to states that
value their relations with Morocco not to recognize the
new state. Thus far only Algeria, eight other African
states, and North Korea have extended diplomatic recognition.
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