Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XXIV, North Africa

402. Telegram From the Embassy in Morocco to the Department of State¹

4691.

Rabat, June 18, 1982, 0915Z

SUBJECT

• Berm in Western Sahara Completed—Or Is It?

1. (LOU) With the announcement that the “berm” (the earthen wall which GOM has been building in southern Morocco and the Sahara) was completed between Boucraa and Boujdor on June 12, Hassan II sent a laudatory letter to General Ahmed Dlimi, Commander of Moroccan forces in southern Morocco and the Sahara.² “We are happy”, the King said, “to see that our officers and valiant soldiers have completed this work over the past months with exemplary courage and resolution.”

2. (LOU) With the reported completion of this section of the berm, the Moroccans claim that the Tan-Tan—Boujdour “axis” is now fully protected from Polisario incursions. The area involved is therefore reportedly open to unhindered movement of people and goods.

3. (C) Comment: The efficacy of the system of berms protecting the “useful Sahara” has surprised once skeptical Western observers. GOM, however, has not publicly addressed the inconsistency between protecting the relatively small section of the Sahara which it deems “useful” and the recent statement by FonMin Boucetta that Morocco “will not give up one inch” of the Sahara. Furthermore, we understand that in spite of the public announcements cited above, the Boucraa-Boujdor section of the berm is not yet complete: 15 kilometers of earthworks for which completion has been claimed are not yet in place; and no mines, radar, barbed wire, or observation posts have yet been constructed along the entire segment. End comment.

Reed

1. Source: Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D820319–0786. Confidential. Sent for information to Algiers, Casablanca, Nouakchott, and Paris.
2. In a May 14 memorandum, the CIA reported: “The seven-year old ground war over the Western Sahara is virtually at a standstill. The tides of military fortune do not shift as freely as they once did because Morocco’s recently completed defense perimeter—an earthen wall called a ‘berm’—has imposed a new and more static military strategy” that the Agency contended would make a conclusive battlefield victory “elusive.” (Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Country File, Africa, Morocco 04/18/1982–04/20/1983)