The King's Bizarre Crusade

From the Strait of Gibraltar to the edge of the Sahara, 620 miles away, all Morocco last week seemed to be on one giant national picnic. In towns and villages, men and women sang and danced to the din of drums and the ear-splitting piping of flutes; excited children ran through the streets and watched their parents and relatives board trains and buses for the south. King Hassan II's bizarre crusade to "liberate" the Spanish Sahara (TIME. Oct. 27) was ready to begin.

Realizing that an armed invasion might well cause a war with both Spain and Algeria, Hassan had asked for 350,000 volunteers to cross the frontier, armed only with the Koran. By the end of the week, 700,000, including 70,000 women, had signed up for what Moroccan newspapers had dubbed "the Green March" (after Islam's traditional color). Doctors were still giving physical examinations to decide who was up to the arduous 15-day, 60-mile trek across a land as desolate as the moon, where temperatures at this time of year can climb as high as 113DEG at midday and fall to 41DEG at night.

Hassan had been preparing his move even before the International Court of Justice ruled that Morocco had not proved its "ties of territorial sovereignty" over the 103,000-sq.-mi. land, which has, outside of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., perhaps 20% of the world's phosphates. All last week a fleet of nearly 8,000 trucks rumbled toward Tarfaya, Morocco's southernmost city, with cargoes that included 42,580 tons of water, food and fuel, along with blankets and tents. Overhead, army helicopters scattered back and forth watching for emergencies, as the never-ending column rolled through its own cloud of red dust. At night the motley army dozed in blankets or thick djellaba robes, with hoods pulled over their heads, and charcoal braziers glowed brick red as they brewed the omnipresent mint tea.

Divine Protection. To take care of those who fell from sun or heat stroke, the government had also commandeered 220 ambulances and recruited 470 doctors and nurses. Premier Ahmed Osman personally sent off the first contingent of 20,000--most of whom carried copies of the Koran along with soup bowls, spoons and bottle openers--from the oasis of Ksar-es-Souk. "Go then under divine protection," he said, "helped by your unshakable faith, your true patriotism and your total devotion to the guide of your victorious march, King Hassan II."

Spain is ready to give up the Sahara but has wanted the territory's 70,000 nomads to decide their fate by referendum. Madrid asked the U.N. Security Council to act to halt what it called the Moroccan invasion; the Security Council asked for moderation on all sides. At the same time, Madrid sent a special envoy, Jose Solis Ruiz, head of the National Movement, to Marrakech to talk to Hassan. Solis and the King are old friends, and the Spaniard said that their discussions were conducted in "an atmosphere of extraordinary friendliness." The Moroccan government said, however, that Hassan would call off the march only if Spain promised to negotiate with Morocco over the Sahara.

Blue-Robed Troops. The real threat to Hassan's crusade was not Spain but neighboring Algeria, which does not want Morocco's right-wing monarchy to have the phosphate-rich Saharan property. An Algerian-backed leftist movement in the territory, called Frente Polisario (People's Front for the Liberation of the Western Sahara), said it would oppose the marchers, by force if necessary. Morocco claimed that Algiers had sent 2,000 of its own troops, disguised as blue-robed nomads, to back up the Polisario 's threat. Meanwhile, both Algeria and Morocco reportedly had troops positioned along their southern borders, ready to go to war. Spain insisted that its soldiers would not fire on the crusaders--but it also noted that there are minefields, planted by both the Spanish and Moroccan armies, along the Sahara frontier.

At week's end there were some signs that Hassan's gambit might be producing results. U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim flew to the region to see what he could accomplish, and the Spanish Government announced that it would propose to transfer sovereignty of the Sahara, presumably to Morocco. Thus the invasion was temporarily held up, and the Moroccan marchers waited at the frontier, uncertain whether they would walk across or return.

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