Another plan hatched by the Polisario collapsed. The rejection by the Panama Maritime Court of the action brought by the Polisario against the owner of the ship, Ultra Innovation, which was sailing to Canada, carrying a shipment of phosphate from Morocco, killed in the bud the new strategy undertaken by the separatist movement at the instigation of Algeria.
After its claims of human rights violations in Western Sahara found no echo, the Polisario, remotely guided by the high-ranking officers of the Algerian military intelligence services, opted for a new strategy, namely opening a new front against Morocco by branding the so-called looting of the natural resources of the Sahara.
The stratagem concocted in Algiers consisted in legal harassment against ships carrying goods, particularly phosphates, sailing from the Sahara. But like previous stratagems, the new maneuver failed.
The new blow was dealt to the Polisario by the Panama maritime court, which dismissed the case filed by the separatist movement. The Panamanian court said that there was no evidence showing that the Polisario is the owner of the phosphate cargo from the Phosboucraa mines in the Sahara, in southern Morocco.
The Panamanian court, whose decision could set a precedent, considers that a national court is not the competent jurisdiction to rule on an international political affair. The decision reveals above all the maneuver of the Polisario and Algeria, which seek a diversion after the resolution on the Sahara adopted by the UN Security Council last April.
The UN body had called for the resumption of the political process with realism and a spirit of compromise, while taking into account the progress made since 2006, a progress resulting essentially from the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco.
