Morocco has announced it will present an autonomy plan for Western Sahara to the United Nations next month in hopes of ending the three-decade conflict. The plan would give the occupied territory a parliament, a chief of state, cabinet and judiciary, said Khalihenna Ould Errachid, King Mohamed VI's chief adviser on the territory. "We can stay at an impasse, or seek a middle way that leaves neither winners nor losers —and that's autonomy," he said. A Western Sahara parliament could create laws as long as they do not violate Morocco's national law, while regional courts would fall under the Moroccan legal system, he said, adding that Morocco would retain control of foreign relations, defense, finance and border control. Western Sahara would also keep Morocco's flag, currency and stamps. King Mohamed VI would continue to be recognized as the highest religious authority in the land. But the Polisario Front resistance movement, which has observed a ceasefire since 1991, insists on a referendum on independence. The UN has officially endorsed this solution, but it has languished for years, while Morocco's occupation is becoming normalized. Last year, the European Union signed a fishing deal with Morocco allowing European fleets acess to Western Sahara's waters. (AP, March 2 via Africast)

On Feb. 27, the Polisario Front's special mine action team destroyed 3,321 anti-personnel mines in Tifariti, Western Sahara. This was the Polisario Front’s second stockpile destruction since it signed the "Deed of Commitment for Adherence to a Total Ban on Antipersonnel Mines" in November 2005. High-level Polisario officials, including Secretary General Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (as recognized by the African Union and many States), attended the ceremony. Geneva Call, the Saharawi Campaign to Ban Landmines (SCBL) and Landmine Action UK inspected the destruction site before and after the operation. International delegates and media representatives also witnessed the event, among them Major General Kurt Mosgaard, Force Commander of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

An Algerian army captain was killed Feb. 28 and another officer seriously injured in an attack near the village of Ain Rich, outside the city of Djelfa. Officials said the Mohadjrine Falange, a wing of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) was responsible. The army is carrying out a sweep of the area. In simultaenous coordinated night raids Feb. 27, several police checkpoints in the Kabylia region and near the coastal city of Boumerdes were attacked by gunmen with AK-47s. No casualties were reported. (AP, Feb. 28; DPA, March 1)

Dear WW4 REPORT Readers:

We hate to extend our winter fund drive into the first month of spring, but we really do have to at least make our first thousand before we call it off. We are $200 short. The only reason we ask for this money is because we need it to stay alive.

1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, a defender of Guatemala's Maya people during the genocide of the late 1970s and '80s, will run in the nation's September presidential election with the Juntos por Guatemala (Together for Guatemala) party and Winaq, a new coalition of indigenous leaders. If elected, she will be Latin America's first indigenous woman head-of-state.

Jorge Huenchullan, a Mapuche leader detained Feb. 17 in a violent police operation in Temucuicui, Chile, was transfered to Algol prison after a court in Collipulli declared him a fugitive from justice. The court cited an outstanding arrest order against Huenchullan for an alleged attack on Jaime Andrade, former director of the National Indigenous Development Corporation. He was also accused theft of property from local landowner Rene Urban, whose lands are protected by police forces. Another two activists were detained with Huenchullan—Cristian Calhueque Millanao, 25, and Alex San Martin Huaiquillan, 19, both accused of illegal possession of firearms. They remain free, but are barred from leaving the region and must register with the police every 30 days. (Prensa Latina, Feb. 19. via GALDU)

Ecuador's Economy Minister Ricardo Patiño announced Feb. 28 that the previous day's congressional vote to reduce debt service assignments in the $9.8 billion national budget by $283.4 million has spurred the government's debt restructuring plans. Patiño said an auditing commission will be named to identify "illegitimate debt" that the government will not pay. "Congress has put at my disposal the option of a debt restructuring to reduce debt payments, and we will certainly consider it," Patiño told reporters in Quito. Said Lisa Schineller of Standard and Poor's in New York: "This is an example of the contentious nature in which external debt is viewed in Ecuador, where there is a weak credit culture." The foreign debt of Ecuador, South America's fifth-largest oil producer, totaled $10.21 billion in December. (Reuters, Feb. 28)

Our February issue featured the story "Presidents in the Dock: An End to Africa's Reign of Impunity?" by Michael Fleshman, a reprint from the UN publication Africa Journal. Our February Exit Poll was: "Why are Africa's ex-dictators Charles Taylor (Liberia) and Hissène Habré (Chad) facing the dock, while Guatemala's equally genocidal ex-tyrant José Efraín Rios Montt is free to run for that country's congress? Extra Credit: How is it possible that Taylor and Habré face the dock, while the Darfur genocide continues and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir remains in power, raking in petro-dollars and aspiring to lead the African Union? Extra Extra Credit: Would it merely be juvenile to even bring up George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George H.W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, etc.? And, oh yeah, Vladimir Putin?" We received two responses: