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| History of Western Sahara |
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| Background |
| History of Morocco (Colonial wars) Spanish Sahara · Spanish Morocco Moroccan Army of Liberation Harakat Tahrir · Sahrawi National Union Party Madrid Accords |
| Disputed regions |
| Saguia el-Hamra · Río de Oro Southern Provinces · Free Zone · |
| Politics |
| Legal status of Western Sahara · Politics of Morocco / of the SADR Polisario Front (former members) Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs |
| Rebellions |
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Pre-1975: post 1975: Western Sahara conflict (Western Sahara War · Independence Intifada) |
| Conflict issues |
| Refugee camps · Wall · Human rights in Western Sahara |
| Sahara peace process |
| Resolution 1495 · Resolution 1754 · Visiting mission · Referendum mission · ICJ Advisory Opinion · Settlement Plan · Houston Agreement · Baker Plan · Manhasset negotiations · Moroccan Initiative |
The Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (Arabic: المجلس الملكي الاستشاري للشؤون الصحراوية) or Corcas, from the French abbreviation of Conseil royal consultatif pour les affaires sahariennes, is an advisory committee to the Moroccan government on the Western Sahara. It was originally devised by King Hassan II in the 1970s , but allowed to lapse. It was re-established by his son, Mohammed VI in early 2006, after a new autonomy plan was devised to replace the United Nations' Baker Plan. The autonomy plan is opposed by the Polisario Front, which demands that the United Nations resolutions calling for a referendum be implemented.
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The CORCAS is intended as a consultative body for proposals related to what Morocco calls its Southern Provinces, but also to defend the kingdom's annexation of Western Sahara in the media and abroad. The Council is also intended to facilitate dialogue with the Sahrawi in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria.
The 141 members of CORCAS are Moroccan and Sahrawi political and traditional (tribal) notables (sheikhs), elected representatives for women and youth groups and civic society officials. The members are appointed by the Moroccan government and support the Moroccan claims on Western Sahara. Of these members 14 (10%) are women . Notably, the father of Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz is a member of the CORCAS.
Its chairman, Khelli Henna Ould Rachid, is a former leader of the PUNS, a now-defunct political party operated by the Spanish colonial government to rally support for its rule in the Spanish Sahara in the 1970s. After the departure of the Spanish in 1975, which caused the dissolution of the PUNS, he became a defender of Morocco's annexation of the former colony, and a figurehead for the Moroccan government's rule in the Western Sahara.
There are nine vice-presidents: Khedad Moussaoui, Hassan Derham, Abdelaziz Abba, Omar Bouida, Ali Salem Chekaf, Othmane Ila, Hassana Cherif, Brika Zerouali and Kaltoum Khyate.
CORCAS set up five commissions, envisaged by its statutes,[1]
The CORCAS leadership travels extensively and is regularly featured in the Moroccan press. Its chairman, Khellihenna Ould Errachid, regularly attends meetings in foreign forums, such as the UN, where the Sahara question is discussed. Among others, the CORCAS president has met with the President of the People's Republic of China president, the former French foreign minister, and various other international officials .
The chairman of Corcas as well as the Secretary General, Dr Maouelainin Ben Khalihenna Maouelainin, are the spokesman of the Moroccan delegation in Manhassett talks under the supervision of the personal envoy of the Secretary General of the UN.
In 2008, the head of CORCAS & former leader of the PUNS Khellihenna Ould Rachid declared:
In an interview with the independent Moroccan weekly magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire, CORCAS member El Houcine Baïda a former victim of human rights abuses by the Polisario, and head of PASVERTI Association of Sahrawi victims of repression in the Tindouf Camps, as chairman of the Human Rights Commission within CORCAS, complained about the lack of tackling human rights issues, and about the way CORCAS president Khellihenna runs the Council. In his opinion, the country's actions in the Western Sahara were alienating Sahrawis, and thus could push more youth towards separatism. He further claimed that most of the organization's members were allowed no knowledge of the government's autonomy plan - that they were supposedly responsible for drafting - and that CORCAS chairman Khellihenna Ould Errachid runs the council's affairs despotically, like "a new Franco".[3]