Source: THE MILITARY JUNTA AND THE MOROCCO-ALGERIA BORDER
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Washington / Morocco Board News- Algeria is aware that a border closure with the neighboring Morocco is no longer a wise choice in the light of the earthshaking metamorphose that swept the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and led to the fall of ozymandias like potentates in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, respectively.
It is nearly 18 years now that the Moroccan-Algerian borders are closed when Rabat decided to impose entry visas on Algerians in the aftermath of bomb attacks on the Atlas Asni Hotel in the enchanting city of Marrakech; then followed by the unexpected deportation of thousands of Algerian residents and tourists as Moroccan authorities suspected Algeria of having a hand in the incident.
The borders closure has only fueled up cross-border smuggling across the Moroccan Algerian frontier between the juxtaposing towns of Oujda and Oran; hundreds of smugglers cross every day the borders illegally to flood Oujda, only a ten-minute drive from the border, with Algerian cheap hydrocarbons, cigarettes, narcotics and contraband goods. Foreign trade key performance indicators between the two countries have been badly affected; textiles & clothing SMEs (Small & Medium-sized enterprises) were flourishing in the eastern regions of Morocco to provide Algeria markets with high-quality clothes at a bargain price. In the 1990’s, mountains of vegetables, fruit and livestock products were made at the disposal of brotherly Algerians in Oujda markets.
It’s no wonder that Mr. Bouguerra Soltani, leader of the Algerian moderate Islamist party “Movement of Society for Peace” gave a bulldozing importance in the party’s electoral campaigns to opening the borders with Morocco should his political party win the coming legislative elections. All Algerian political leaders, even the cagiest ones, are confident that opening the closed borders is an ineluctable solution to foster the region’s security and kick the aggrandizing Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) terror pockets out of north Africa.
Dr. Saâdeddine El Othmani, the first Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister to set foot in Sidi M’Hamed district-based El Mouradia presidential palace in nine years, paid his first overseas official visit to Alger to deliver an unmistakable message to Algeria’s leadership; Morocco looks high and low for a serious solution to the long diplomatic impasse with the neighboring Algeria. But the bullheaded foreign policy adopted by the “Algerian foreign affairs ministry” always aborts Moroccan attempts to reunite the two peoples. Alas, neither foreign affairs secretary nor prime minister are empowered enough to open the borders with Morocco. The real diplomacy decision-makers in Algeria are not Abdelaziz Belkhadem or Mourad Medelci; it is rather the military institution.
Trigger-happy senior military officers in the People’s National Army (PNA) headquarters’ roomy offices care much about how to use their surplus weapons helter-skelter than proactively champion an artlessly peace process with the neighboring countries, namely Morocco, or the most vehement foe in their eyes. Generals’ involvement in internal and external dossiers is no longer a top secret defense (TSD) issue in Algeria. Several retired and fired military officers let the TSD affairs all hang out in their life-or-death books and autobiographies.
Lt. Habib Souaidai’s “Dirty War”, Lyes Laribi’s “Generals Owned Algeria” and Col. Mohamed Samraoui’s “Bloodshed Years” are books, among others, that unshrouded the most enshrouded shocking facts about the Algerian military institutions. Moroccan-Algerian borders might be reopened overnight should Algeria’s military generals have a strong volition to retain a sustainable security in the region through sincere coordination with Rabat not just economically and financially but also through developing joint strategic security action plans to fight AQDIM in North Africa.
Dr. Ibrahim Abdel Hamid Ibrahim, former Algeria’s prime minister, stated in his interview to the London-based Quds International News Agency that Algeria would probably have avoided the outbreak of the Sand War (October 1963) with Morocco, but that required qualified leaders in Alger, a leader from the laypeople and for the people; someone who would say “No” to the warmongers grave mistakes and unforgivable blunders.
Opening the borders with Morocco without removing the military’s overt and covert interference in the Algerian political scene will be nothing but an abstruse diplomatic step to throw dust in the eyes of the international community and calm down the pro-reform marches swarming all Algerian provinces and prefectures demanding the Military institution to concede more powers to the parliament and prime minister.
