Khalihenna Ould Errachid

Khalihenna Ould Errachid (Arabic: خلي هنا ولد الرشيد‎, name also transliterated from Arabic as Khalihenna Wald Al Rasheed and other variations) is the Sahrawi chairman of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), a Moroccan government body active in the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara.

Khalihenna Ould Errachid
President of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs
(CORCAS)
Assumed office
since March 25th, 2006
MonarchMohammed VI
Mayor of the city of Laayoune (Morocco)
In office
6 June 1983 – 20 June 2009
MonarchHassan II/Mohammed VI
Member of Parliament of the city of Laayoune (Morocco)
In office
5 June 1977 – 30 September 2002
MonarchHassan II/Mohammed VI
Minister in charge of Saharan Affairs
In office
30 September 1986 – 11 August 1992
MonarchHassan II
Prime MinisterAzzedine Laraki
Minister in charge of Saharan Provinces Development
In office
11 April 1985 – 30 September 1986
MonarchHassan II
Prime MinisterMohammed Karim Lamrani
Minister in charge of Saharan Affairs
In office
30 November 1983 – 11 April 1985
MonarchHassan II
Prime MinisterMohammed Karim Lamrani
Minister in charge of Saharan Affairs
In office
05 November 1981 – 05 October 1983
MonarchHassan II
Prime MinisterMohammed Maati Bouabid
Minister in charge of Saharan Affairs
In office
27 March 1979 – 05 October 1981
MonarchHassan II
Prime MinisterMohammed Maati Bouabid
Minister in charge of Saharan Affairs
In office
10 October 1977 – 27 March 1979
MonarchHassan II
Prime MinisterAhmed Osman
Minister in charge of Saharan Affairs
In office
10 March 1977 – 10 October 1977
MonarchHassan II
Prime MinisterAhmed Osman
Direct Collaborator of His Majesty King Hassan II
In office
23 May 1975 – 31 December 1976
MonarchHassan II
Founder of the Sahrawi National Union Party (PUNS)
In office
07 April 1974 – 22 May 1975
MonarchHassan II
Personal details
Born1951
Laayoune, Spanish Sahara
OccupationPolitician

Under Spain

A member of an influential family in the Reguibat tribe, Khalihenna Ould Errachid was appointed by the Spanish government to head the Sahrawi National Union Party (PUNS) in 1974.[1] The PUNS, which had been created with the approval of the Spanish authorities, was the only legal political party in Spanish Sahara (also in the whole Spain, except the ruling Falange movement) in the 1974-75 period, had been created to counter the territorial claims from neighbours Morocco and Mauritania, as well as the indigenous independence movement headed by the Polisario Front, created in 1973. It initially advocated autonomy for the territory under continued Spanish colonial rule, but, as the Spanish position evolved, the party and its leader, Khalihenna Ould Errachid, started demanding independence "in association" with Spain, proclaiming themselves completely opposed to Moroccan and Mauritanian designs on the territory.

In April 1975, during a press conference in Paris, Ould Errachid stated:

"If there weren't phosphates, nobody would vindicate the territory. What Morocco seeks is not the Sahrawi welfare, but the exploitation of phosphates. We want independence, and the circumstance is given that in the future state of Western Sahara there are phosphates deposits."

— Khalihenna Ould Errachid. París, April 21, 1975.[2][3]

Under Morocco

Under Hassan II

During the United Nations visiting mission to Spanish Sahara in May–June 1975, and before the Madrid Agreement, Khalihenna Ould Errachid fled from El Aaiún to Las Palmas, and then take another plane to Morocco. Few days after, on May 19, Khalihenna Ould Errachid declared his allegiance to the King of Morocco in Fez.[4] Several sources claimed that he left Western Sahara with between 160,000 and 6,000,000 pesetas from the PUNS cash office.[5][6] Under King Hassan II, he was appointed in 1977 as Minister of Saharan Affairs, and later as mayor (President of the Municipal Council) of El-Aaiun from 1983 until 2006, when he was succeeded by his brother, Moulay Hamdi Ould Errachid.

He was viewed as very close to the King's right-hand man, the minister of interior Driss Basri, who held responsibility for the Saharan territories, where Polisario waged a guerrilla war against Morocco until the 1991 cease-fire (still in effect, pending final resolution of the conflict). Following the death of Hassan in 1999, and the dismissal of Basri by the new king Muhammad VI a few years later, Khelli Henna's political career seemed to be over.transl.

Under Mohammed VI

In 2006, King Mohammed VI created the CORCAS to promote autonomy as an alternative to the referendum that was agreed by both parts in the Settlement Plan. As head of the royal organ, Khalihenna Ould Errachid made a public comeback, and has featured prominently in Moroccan diplomacy. He is seen by the Moroccan government as an independent Sahrawi leader opposed to the Polisario Front independence movement, and its longtime leader Mohamed Abdelaziz.

Khalihenna Ould Errachid considers the Polisario Front as an obstacle to a peaceful solution due to what he saw as deep dependency on Algeria. The Polisario refuses to deal with him .

In 2008, the Casablanca-based newspaper "Al Yarida Al Ula" publisher the transcription of 2005 Rachid's declaration to the Equity and Reconciliation Commission:

"Some Moroccan army officers have made what might be called war crimes against prisoners outside the scope of the war ... Many civilians were launched into space from helicopters or buried alive simply for being Sahrawis."

— Khalihenna Ould Errachid.[7][8]

.

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See also

Further reading
  • Hodges, Tony (1983), Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill Books (ISBN 0-88208-152-7)
  • Pazzanita, Anthony G. and Hodges, Tony (1994), Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Scarecrow Press (ISBN 0-8108-2661-5)

References
  1. Bárbulo, Tomás (2002). La historia prohibida del Sáhara Español. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino / Colección Imago Mundi vol. 21. p. 175. ISBN 978-84-233-3446-9.
  2. "Si allí no hubiese fosfatos, nadie reinvindicaría el Sáhara" (in Spanish). El Eco de Canarias. 1975-04-23. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2010-09-17..
  3. "Si no hubiera fosfatos, nadie habría reinvindicado el Sáhara" (in Spanish). ABC Sevilla. 1975-04-23. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
  4. "Hassan II recibe al líder fugitivo del PUNS" (in Spanish). EFE. 1975-05-19. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2010-10-08.
  5. David M. Alvarado Roales (7 December 2012). "Los cismas tras la autonomía saharaui" (in Spanish). Igadi.org (Avui). Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  6. "Sahara: el PUNS se desmorona" (in Spanish). March.es (Informaciones). 20 May 1975. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  7. Ali Lmrabet. Un responsable marroquí reconoce crímenes de guerra en el Sahara. El Mundo, June 17, 2008
  8. Un responsable marroquí reconoce crímenes de guerra en el Sahara (in Spanish)
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