Reuters/Rabat

Morocco’s King Mohamed has called for action against traitors who threatened the country’s “territorial integrity”, a direct warning to Western Sahara independence campaigners.

Morocco took control of most of Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain withdrew, triggering a war with the independence-seeking Polisario Front that lasted until 1991 when the UN brokered a ceasefire.

Morocco is now offering limited autonomy for the territory while Polisario, backed by Morocco’s neighbour Algeria, is holding out for a referendum with independence as one option.

Polisario has threatened to pull out of UN-backed talks to resolve the deadlock unless Morocco releases seven Sahrawi rights activists arrested on October 8 when they arrived in Morocco after visiting Sahrawi refugee camps in southeast Algeria.

In a speech marking 34 years since Morocco took control of the desert territory, King Mohamed said on Friday it was time to stop outlaws taking advantage of its civic freedoms to agitate from within.

“Would any democratic country accept the use of democracy and human rights as a pretext ... for a gang of outlaws to plot, in intelligence with its enemies, against its unity and higher interests?” he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

“The time of double-games and evasion is over,” he said. “It is time for clarity and for assuming your duty. You are either a patriot or a traitor. There is no half-way house between patriotism and treason.”

He said the Moroccan authorities must be doubly vigilant to head off any challenge to national sovereignty and act firmly to preserve security, stability and public order.

A consultative body set up to propose a plan for self-government in Western Sahara would be restructured to make it more representative and the territory would take priority in a plan to devolve more government to the regions, he said.

“As for the adversaries of our territorial integrity ... they know more than anyone that the Sahara is a crucial cause of the Moroccan people, united around their throne,” the king said.