Word: moroccos
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Secure behind a 750-mile-long desert wall of sand and rock, the armed forces of King Hassan II of Morocco have gained the upper hand in their almost nine-year struggle with the Marxist guerrillas of the Polisario Front for control of the 103,000-sq.-mi. Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. Last week, however, Morocco suffered a major diplomatic defeat. During a four-day summit in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, a majority of the 50 states in the Organization of African Unity agreed for the first time to seat the Polisario Front as a full...
Last month he formed a loose union with conservative, pro-U.S. Morocco...
Under the agreement, which Morocco may have helped to broker, the French will remove some 3,000 men, 800 vehicles and 40 aircraft, which have been buttressing the government of President Hissène Habré; the Libyans will pull out their 5,000 men from northern Chad, where they have been backing the rebel forces of Habré's onetime ally and ousted predecessor, Goukouni Oueddei. Libya and France greeted with relief their anticipated departure from the costly stalemate. But the Chadians, mired in a seesaw 19-year-old civil war, were anything but jubilant. Stung...
That, however, may not be enough. More than half of Morocco's 23.6 million people depend on agriculture for a living, and the country has been devastated by a four-year drought. The guerrilla war in the Sahara continues to cost at least $ 1 million a day. Two-fifths of the population is below poverty line, according to World Bank figures, and thousands live in makeshift huts in the increasingly swollen cities. Meanwhile, Hassan maintains a regal lifestyle. This week, for instance, he is host to a lavish celebration of a daughter's wedding...
Nowadays, Morocco's 170,000-man army has no Minister of Defense or Chief of Staff to challenge Hassan, and only one active general. Ultimately, the King intends to pass the throne on to his son, Crown Prince Sidi Mohammed, now a 21-year-old student. Morocco's economic troubles show no signs of subsiding. But Hassan, like King Henry, has proved so resilient that even cynical Western observers are tempted to see him as his most devout followers do: as the 35th descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, blessed with divine protection. -By Pico Iyer. Reported by Philip...