Western Sahara

Irony of fate

By: Nafaa. M. S.
Polisario Front Office, Stockholm.

 >> trad. en castellano

It happened in North West Africa. Colonised by Spain in 1884 and portioned by the same power and handed over in 1975 to the neighbouring countries Mauritania and Morocco in the shameful Madrid Accords, Western Sahara is the last territory to be decolonised in Africa. Morocco unearthed abrupt claims to Western Sahara, divorced from reality on the ground, were in fact, disregarded by the International Community and the International Court of Justice shortly afterwards.

The covetous Sultans of Morocco tried to rewrite some episodes of the history of Western Sahara, even though this came to failure and proved to be unfound and counterfeit. They argued that in old times, certain Saharawi tribe chieftains paid allegiance to “His Majesty the King” and that by this legend Western Sahara is part of Morocco. This dialectic method of argument cannot be attributed to Hegel, although it cannot be traced back as far as Socrates.“Will Sweden simply become a part of now-days Turkey because some Vikings served the Ottoman Caliph by the end of the seventeen Century?” I wondered. Of course, until the lions have their own historians, tales of hunt will always glorify the hunter.

The expansionist scheme and risky policies of the Moroccan rulers that led them right in the beginning to make fatal mistakes and wrong calculations, by pursuing the idea that the dossier of Western Sahara is close, and that it can eradicate the resistance of the people Western Sahara in few weeks.

The Saharawi people waged a bloody war for emancipation and freedom.

The proclamation of the Saharawi Republic came as another decisive response in the furtherance of the legal framework and as to provide the constitution which will materialize the aspirations of the people and defend the objective for an independent state in the Western Sahara. The Polisario Front has thereby provided a unique experience in the life of national liberation in undertaking simultaneously the war of liberation and the building of the state.

The UN brokered a cease-fire in 1991 and managed to organise a self-determination referendum to let the people of Western Sahara to choose freely their fate. Morocco clearly rejected fifteen years of hard work and concessions in his favour. The International Community remain a blind deaf spectator to the conspiracy.

The Moroccan government, in the very act, is engaged in a drive that could plunge the region into a dangerous situation with incalculable consequences. However, the "laxity" of the UN Security Council vis-à-vis Morocco, which still refuses to comply with international legality, is denounced.

What the Saharawi people regret is that many EU members abstain from voting for the right of the Saharawi people for self-determination, it said that they fully support the UN Peace Plan based on this principle but on the ground they abstain. Like thesis and the antithesis in medieval times, that the world is flat

What they regret most is that their particular Sweden figures in this list. Last I saw the Saharawis was last December, shrivelling up in their Swedish second-hand clothes, eyes full of sorrow.

This decision derogates from the principles of wisdom which marked the Nordic Countries policy, which was harnessed to support the stability worldwide, to put an end to conflicts and wars, and to promote cooperation and cohabitation between all peoples.

Now, deplorably the Saharawi people killed, oppressed, exiled, living in the most inhospitable place of the universe and finally disfranchise, waiting for the UN to finish leafing through their dossier which it begun thirty years ago. What a long Novel.

The Sahrawi Republic is represented throughout many capitals, and is an effective founding member of the African Union. The respect of the Sahrawi cause shines also in the agenda of many solidarity networks and support group and enjoys reference and esteem in the international arena. I served as a Saharawi Representative in many places mainly in Africa. I used to hardly struggle to have an article published in a daily newspaper. However, a TV interview was a victory. All this was done voluntarily and friendly by two Swedish people, Fredrik Quistbergh and Åse Fougner in just one month after my arrival. Fredrik has a record to have a saharawi refugee moving his body on dance floor in Stockholm. The Sahrawis will remain forever indebted to the countless sympathizers and supporters through the globe that have stand courageously side by side with their just cause, and choose to stand to be counted in the most difficult moments, while the conspiracy has reached its height.

19.02.05


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