Surreal Scene at the Moroccan-Algerian Border
Mohammad El-Ashab Al-Hayat - 28/03/08//
Not much will change whether the borders between Algeria and Morocco are reopened or not. The neighboring countries did not have normal relations before the sealing of the land borders in the summer of 1994, and this will not improve much if the situation were to return to normal.
All that can be done is to yield to the wishes of the inhabitants of the border strip, who have ties of kinship and social relations with each other. Although the benefits of border economy may bring prosperity and cement coexistence, the Algerians are attentive, according to official reports, to the fact that reopening the border with Morocco will ensure an influx of inhabitants and stimulate tourism, with the balance of trade tipping in Morocco's favor. The fact is that the wager of their Moroccan neighbors, to stand up to smugglers and illegal immigrants, has stopped at the border strip, at the barrier prohibiting any step forward into the other direction.
Who said that relations between neighboring states follow the rhythm of commercial gain? Aside from mutual benefit, when customs barriers disappear, allowing for the influx of human capital and the interplay of cultural ties, they will produce mutual trust between populations which will reach beyond the restraints of political disputes. What is firmly established is that the border issues, which were supposed to be the focus of economic and commercial cooperation, as well as political coordination between the two neighboring countries, have formed a "center of gravity" with the constant crises surrounding them. The border demarcation and friendship convention signed in 1972 between Morocco and Algeria was unable to avert the complications of political disputes. However, victory, at the regional and international level, is no longer measured by scoring points against the opponent, but rather by the ability to adapt to the transformations of the age, such as the shortening of distances, the abolition of borders and the globalization of interests. All this talk of historic relations and shared destiny becomes meaningless when an Algerian citizen is forced to cross thousands of kilometers by plane and by land to maintain family relations with relatives living a few meters away behind the border. In turn, the Moroccan citizen must cross the same distance to reach the nearest location to Colonel Lutfi's village, forgotten at the border.
Such a scene seems quite surreal, and is rendered even more ambiguous by Morocco's leaders giving in to feelings that remind us that there exists a politically crippled, fading institution called the Arab Maghreb Union, despite the fact that its recommendations and resolutions are unable to convince the border police that Moroccan citizens are moving freely in a nonexistent space. The point is not to revoke or impose the visa system, as administrative procedures become meaningless when the border is sealed off. The dreams of establishing a common market for the Maghreb, of achieving economic complementarity and of unifying commercial laws and educational systems may become vexing when one wakes up to a reality of division, fragmentation and endless quarrels.
Sealing the borders between Algeria and Morocco had at the time been an understandable reaction to the decision to impose the visa system on citizens of Algerian origin. However, reactions are not political in themselves. It was plausible that the mere cancellation of the visa system would have led to reopening the border, the reason for its sealing having disappeared. However, the issue of the visa remained the stumbling block. The least that could have been expected is that reopening the border would have ensured a smooth start to a dialogue over more complex issues. Previous experience has shown that the two neighboring countries renewed diplomatic ties even at the height of the Western Sahara conflict. For dialogue does not take place when rupture is in effect. Whatever the extent of the disputes, it does not justify a return to the logic of rupture.
The Arab Maghreb Union was established in parallel with the détente in relations between Rabat and Algiers. And then it collapsed in light of the widening chasm between the positions of the two countries. Paradoxically, the views diverged on the issue of the Maghreb construction between those who seek an Arab Maghreb for the people and those who seek an Arab Maghreb for corporations. Today, these views meet as such a construction foundered at both its popular and official level. However, the price of conflicting views is paid by populations who are separated by borders and barriers. It is not in the interest of the whole region to add to the indications of lack of trust, as political disputes, whatever their nature, can be settled through dialogue. However, it would be most dangerous if this were to reflect on the relations that exist between populations, carving deep divides and scarring the face of history.
Whether the border is reopened, or whether it remains sealed for yet another generation of Moroccans and Algerians is not a problem as long as the region has grown accustomed to adapting to its own crises. One fears that the sealed border will become the rule, whose exception is the unhindered flow of human and material resources. For there is another history that is being written with the ink of lost opportunities. It is time to correct it with the ink of brotherhood, friendship and understanding.
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