MOROCCO CHECKS REVOLT WITH 1,500-MILE EARTH WALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200850007-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: August 16, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200850007-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE 5...--
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
16 August 1985
Morocco checks revolt with
1,500-mile earth wall
By Jonathan Broiler
Chicago Tribune
MAHBAS, Morocco-From the
air, Morocco's "Great Wall"
against the Polisario guerrillas
runs like a thin, brown welt across
the vast gray emptiness of the
Sahara, fading into the mirages
that shimmer on the horizon.
It runs for more than 1,500 miles,
from the Algerian border in the
northeast, snaking south, then west
along the Mauritanian frontier
toward the Atlantic Ocean through
desert so desolate and hot that
cameras won't work, crows won't
fly and stones are scorched black
from the sun.
There, amid the Sahara's sandy
void, the '9-foot-high earthen ram-
part bristles with space-age an-
tipersonnel radar, seismic sensors,
artillery, mines and mechanized
infantry units.
And for the first time in a dec-
ade, Western military experts say,
the wall is turning the tide of the
war against the Polisario Front in
Morocco's favor.
"There is no precedent in history
for this wall," said Brig. Gen.
Abdelaziz Bennani, commander of
Morocco's southern front and the
main architect of the wall strate-
gy.
On a 136-degree day this week, a
few Western correspondents were
given a rare tour of the defense
line, which consists of hundreds of
strong points spaced at. about 2-
mile intervals along the elevated
sand embankment. Each: strong
point protects its neighbor with
overlapping fire while small mech-
anized units have been deployed
nearby to intercept any Polisario
guerrillas who manage to reach
the wall.
'.Therein lies the beauty of it
all," Bennani said. "With few
means, we are maintaining suffi-
cient strength all along the wall.
. It obliges the Polisario to en-
gage our forces on our terms.
When they try it, they will get
something they never bargained
for."
The last time the Polisario sol-
diers reportedly tried to breach the
wall in strength was last October,
when Moroccan troops proved the
general's point with deadly effi-
ciency.
An armored column tripped off
sensors and radar alarms as it
approached the wall, then was
caught in a cross-fire that left
scores of guerrillas dead and more
than two dozen vehicles destroyed
or captured.
Since then, the Moroccan com-
mand says, th~ guerrillas have
kept their distance, harassing the
wall occasionally with shellf'ir'e,
then quickly retreating before Mo-
roccan radar traces their position.
"We can precisely detect a man,
a vehicle, even a dog up to a
distance of 50; kilometers [30
miles]," said Col. Abid Tria, a
commander along the wall.
Only a year ago, the Polisario
guerrillas claimed control over
two-thirds of the former Spanish
Sahara, which Morocco annexed in
1975:
When Morocco completes the
western sector of the wall to the
Atlantic in about 10 days, Western
military experts say the guerrillas
will hold less than one-third of the
former Spanish colony.
Morocco based its annexation on
the historical ties beteween Moroc-
co [end the region's Sahrawi tribes.
The Polisario Front opposes any
foreign rule. It has fought first the
.Spanish and now the Moroccans
for an independent Sahrawi state.
More than 60 countries support the
Polisario claim.
With its use of U.S. and French
state-of-the-art electronic surveil-
lance equipment, the wall has at-
tracted the attention of both U.S.
and Soviet military experts as one
of the few successful applications
of technology against guerrilla in-
surgencies.
Moroccan authorities would not
disclose the cost of constructing
the wall, but Western military ex-
perts estimate it at $10 million.
The wall itself has been moving
forward steadily since construction
began in 1980. Some sections now
are more than 600 miles farther
south than the original ramparts.
Moroccan commanders say they
are advancing the wall lest they be
outflanked by the growing Pol-
isario sophistication in weapons
and training, supplied by Algeria.
Algeria and King Hassan U's
Morocco have been enemies ever
since the Algerian revolution
began preaching against Arab
monarchies. Morocco is a close
friend of,ihe U.S., which has pro-
vided $143 million in economic and
military aid each year since 1980.
Unlike most other guerrilla or-
b"
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200850007-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200850007-3
f 11Nddt
Cti O TADune tip
ganizations, which depend on light
weapons, sabotage and the support
of local people, the Polisario Front
has been fighting more of a con-
ventional war with normal
weapons along Morocco's borders.
"The nature of the rebellion has
changed," Bennani said. "Before it
was a matter of insurgents on foot
and in Jeeps. Now it's a matter of
insurgents using tanks and SAM-6
missiles. The wall has been adap-
ted to the new situation."
Polisario guerrillas used a SAM-
6 missile in October, 1981, to shoot
down a Moroccan C-130 military
transport plane along the Algerian
border.
According to the latest Moroccan
intelligence reports. the estimated
5 isario rs have about
v made tan ks and
BMP armored personnel carriers
"Stalin organ" rocket-
launchers, nine mm. e
races 160 mm. mortars an
a -6 missile atte rotectin
training cams south in
eastern Algeria near the Moroccan
border.
The intelligence estimates said
t weaponry was supplied
Algeria
In addition to the Tindouf bases-
intelligence has placed the 3
of er main concentration
forces south of he Mau-
ritanian town o len and at
tr, 90 miles eeastt south
Sahara port city of Dakhla.
Morocco scored a big di lomatic
cou last August when it formed a
alincal union with LAbya-until
then one of main sario
arms su ers. Since n, oroc-
can intelligence confirms that
a has cut off arms
ments to the guerrillas, ea
them to y dependent on Algeriii
for su . Al
Moroccans saw the union t.
as a brilliant stroke to defang the
Libyans and the Polisario, and it
worked," said a Western diplomai.;
in an interview. -.1
Polisario officials based in Al-
giers discount Morocco's claims of-
a successful wall strategy. They
say relentless, assaults on the ram- .
parts have left thousands of Mo-roccan soldiers dead.
But Western military experts in
Rabat, Morocco's capital, view
such claims as highly exaggerated.
They note that the construction of
every new section of the wall has
pushed Polisario forces farther : '
back into the desert.
Though Moroccan forces oc-:.
casionally pursue Polisario guerril-
las into neutral but weak Mauri-
tania, King Hassan has given his
troops strict orders not to test the
principle of hot pursuit into Alge-
ria, whose armed forces outnum-
ber those of Morocco's by at least
3-to-i.
"Our defense consists of driving
the Polisario back' to their own
bases," Bennani said. "We don't
want war to engulf North Africa.
We want to stop a war, not start
one.,,
One of the wall's main benefits
has been a reduction of tension
and economic uncertainty in south
ern Morocco. In the port city of
La-youn, until last year a frequent..
target for Polisario attacks, a new
Club Med opened this week
featuring scuba-diving and over-
night trips with Jeeps into the
desert.
"Everyone knows Club )beds are
crazy places, but I don't think they
would make one here unless they
were sure that wall was keeping
the Polisario out," Bennani said.
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200850007-3