Baba and other four Polisario fighters have been hosted by Morocco. The
North African kingdom has offered safe haven and incentives for the
defectors and turned some of them into lobbyists for Rabat's policy in
Western Sahara.
Polisario controls about 20 percent of Western Sahara — with an area of
266,000 square kilometers — and has threatened to fight Morocco for the
remainder. Polisario, with its administrative center in Tindouf, has been
supported by neighboring Algeria.
Moroccan diplomats said more than 100 Polisario members and their
relatives have recently fled the Polisario-controlled refugee camps in
Tindouf. Many of them described a brutal dictatorship by Polisario, which
has prevented the reunification of Sahrawi families.
The defectors were said to have included senior Polisario members. One
of them was identified as Ahmed Ould Sweilem, a former adviser to Polisario
commander Mohammed Abdul Aziz. Some of the defectors have become lobbyists
in the West for Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
"Sahrawis support and defend the autonomy plan," former Polisario leader
Ahmed Ould Souilem said. "This represents the only solution to the current
deadlock and is a win-win approach that will enable Sahrawis to manage their
local affairs under Moroccan sovereignty."
Morocco was also said to have been supporting a new opposition group to
Polisario in Tindouf. The group, Reform and Justice Movement, vowed to
report on corruption within Polisario and called for freedom of expression
and movement for those in refugee camps in Western Sahara.
"We are calling attention to the dangerous shift that led Polisario
leaders to the current political and diplomatic deadlock, owing to a lack of
clarity as well as a blind alliance with those with geopolitical interests
in the region that are detrimental to our people, who have been suffering
for over a third of a century," the opposition movement said on April 9.
Polisario has launched a crackdown against would-be defectors. The
diplomats said those believed to be planning to flee Tindouf were charged
with "communicating with the enemy."