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   Vol.65/No.35            September 17, 2001 
 
 
Western Sahara freedom fighters host revolutionary youth
(feature article)
 
BY JACK WILLEY AND CARLOS CORNEJO  
SMARA, Refugee Camps of Western Sahara--Coming out of the 15th World Festival of Youth and Students, 14 people from Canada, France, Iceland, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United States visited the refugee camps of Western Sahara, August 19–21. The visit was hosted by the youth organization of the Polisario Front, Ujsario, which organized a full program of activity that presented the facts about the history and current stage of their independence struggle, the conditions under which they are fighting, and the advances led by the Polisario Front to improve living conditions of refugees in the camps.

Mohamed Mouloud, general secretary of the Ujsario, welcomed the delegation to the Sahrawi camps--located in southwestern Algeria, in the middle of the Sahara desert near the border with Western Sahara--and gave a brief overview of the Sahrawi fight for self-determination.

Western Sahara was a direct colony of Spain from 1884 to 1975. In 1975, the Spanish government relinquished direct control of Western Sahara and handed it over to the regimes of Mauritania and Morocco, which swiftly moved in to militarily occupy the territory.

"The majority of our people are here in the desert in four refugee camps, which are run by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)," said Mouloud. "We came to this region because of the military occupation and terror of our country by the Mauritanian and Moroccan governments, which forced most of our people to flee." Today, some 180,000 Sahrawis live in the camps, 84,000 in occupied Western Sahara, and several thousands in the Polisario-controlled liberated zone in the east of the country.

The Ujsario leader said the years 1975–76 "were very difficult. At that time, refugees had no homes, young people had no schools, there were no hospitals or medical facilities, and no modern means of communication. On Feb. 27, 1976, the day the last Spanish soldier left Western Sahara, we established the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. But the Polisario Front had no experience administering refugee camps. International aid was very limited. We did not have enough food, clothing, or medical supplies.

"Over time we have built schools and sent thousands of our youth to other countries to study," he said. "We have established relations with organizations to receive the necessary aid and we've worked hard to advance medical services for the people in the camps. We are administering an area that is both temporary and preparing for the future at the same time," Mouloud explained.

The Polisario Front continued to lead the independence struggle and defeated the Mauritanian regime in 1979. The Mauritanian forces withdrew from the southern third of Western Sahara and recognized the SADR government-in-exile. Moroccan forces extended their occupation into the previously Mauritania-controlled region and the armed struggle waged by the Polisario Front continued.

The Moroccan government and the Polisario Front entered into a cease-fire and in 1991 signed a UN-brokered agreement in which the Moroccan government pledged to hold a referendum by Sahrawis to decide on independence or integration with Morocco. The Moroccan government and UN have stalled the implementation of the referendum agreement and as of today no date is set for the vote.

In July, the UN Security Council, seeking to undercut the independence struggle, adopted a resolution that would give territorial "autonomy" to Western Sahara, while allowing the Moroccan government to continue its military occupation and its control over the natural resources and domestic and foreign policy.

During the solidarity visit, the delegation met with UN representatives on the "Sahara conflict." After explaining the UN position and the refusal of the Moroccan government to recognize Sahrawi independence, the representatives said the UN Security Council is presenting a "compromise that can appease both parties." The proposal was immediately rejected by the Polisario Front and other Sahrawi mass organizations.

The Association of Family Members of Sahrawi Prisoners and Disappeared (AFAPREDESA) issued a statement that was widely distributed at the world youth festival and to the visiting delegation, stating their position on the UN proposal.

"Morocco has obtained once more what it always wanted," the statement said, "to get rid of a situation that would lead the Sahrawi people to recognize their inalienable rights to self-determination and independence. This time the protagonists of this dilatory maneuver are the two powerful nations of the United States and France. AFAPREDESA remembers the position of each of these two countries that are responsible for the exile and barbarity committed against the Sahrawi people."

During the trip, the delegation visited a museum of military equipment captured by the Polisario Front during its guerrilla war with Morocco from 1975 to 1989. On display were dozens of land mines the Polisario forces defused during the war, U.S.-made fragmentation bombs, tanks, personnel carriers, grenade launchers, automatic weapons, and other weaponry. The majority of weapons were provided by the U.S. and French governments, but there were also weapons that had been provided to the Moroccan military from governments in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, South Africa, and the former Soviet Union.

The museum included a model of the 1,200-mile wall built by the Moroccan regime to separate the occupied region of Western Sahara from the Polisario-controlled liberated zone. The Moroccan government has set up military posts along the length of the barrier and lined the wall with antipersonnel and anti-artillery land mines.  
 
Rich in phosphates
"Western Sahara is a very rich country but the Sahrawis are a very poor people," explained Omar Mansour, minister of health of the SADR.

Near the city of Bu Craa lies one of the world's richest phosphate deposits, which Spain began exploiting in 1969. Under a 1975 agreement, the Spanish government was given a 35 percent stake in the phosphate mines and the remainder was divided between Morocco and Mauritania. Since then, Morocco has exported up to 3.7 million tons of phosphate annually at a handsome profit for the occupier and its backers in Madrid, Paris, and Washington. In addition to phosphate, Western Sahara has a 750-mile coastline with large fish reserves.

The Sahrawi struggle has a decades-long record of fighting against imperialist domination and of championing the position that the natural resources of the country are the patrimony of the Sahrawi people, a position that the imperialist powers view as a threat to their domination of the region.

Brahim Dahi and Mohamed Tamik, members of the Executive Committee for AFAPREDESA, met with the delegation and showed videos documenting the resistance in the occupied part of Western Sahara.

Dahi said 207 Sahrawis were "disappeared," there are more than 150 Sahrawi prisoners of war in Morocco, and hundreds of others have been arrested and held in prisons without trials. "The Polisario Front has 1,400 Moroccan prisoners of war. We released several hundred prisoners after the cease-fire," he added. "Now, the International Red Cross and UN Security Council are pressuring the Polisario Front to release more Moroccan prisoners."

After the referendum agreement, the Moroccan government carried out a major campaign to move tens of thousands of Moroccan citizens into settlements in Western Sahara, declare them Sahrawi, and demand they participate in the referendum vote on independence or integration with Morocco. The UN mission estimates some 250,000 Moroccan civilians and troops now occupy Western Sahara, compared to 84,000 Sahrawis in the occupied territory.  
 
Protests demanding independence
In face of severe repression by the Moroccan authorities, Sahrawis in the occupied territory have organized demonstrations demanding independence.

After King Hassan II of Morocco died and Mohammed VI took the throne, Dahi said, "thousands of Sahrawis held a peaceful demonstration in El Aaiun, our capital. They were attacked by the police and 1,500 were detained. Twenty-seven were arrested, convicted on false charges, and given 5–15 year prison sentences."

Dahi and Tamik showed a video of a May Day rally held in El Aaiun this year called by the Moroccan Workers Union. Although the union officially supports the regime's occupation of Western Sahara, dozens of Sahrawis participated with banners and chants demanding information about the hundreds of Sahrawis who are "disappeared" or political prisoners.

The international delegation visited the National Sahrawi Radio, which broadcasts seven hours each day through short-wave, with programs in Arabic, the native Sahrawi language, and Spanish. Technicians there explained the radio station began in Libya in 1975 and moved to Algeria a year later with a small transmitter. They have built up from there. The main targeted audience are the people in Morocco and in occupied Western Sahara. The radio is considered subversive by the Moroccan government, which used to regularly scramble the signals forcing the station to continuously change frequencies.

Mohamed Salem Mohamed Nayem Breir, a radio DJ and antennae technician, said, "Everything changed last year when several groups and a local government council in the Basque country raised money and gave us modern equipment. The Moroccan king is very frustrated because he can no longer scramble our signal and our reach is farther and clearer."

The station plays a wide selection of music from around the world, offers international news and updates on the liberation struggle, and runs programs focusing on women, youth, cultural issues, and health.  
 
Advances in the refugee camps
The SADR has taken a number of measures to improve the quality of life in the refugee camps, including building a national hospital. The hospital includes a laboratory to produce more than 30 kinds of medication, an X-ray facility, surgery rooms, and a dental clinic. The hospital also has a mobile dental clinic that travels to each camp and offers free dental care. All medical care is free of charge and is codified in the SADR Constitution as a right.

In addition to the Sahrawi medical staff, doctors from Cuba, Italy, Spain, and other countries take stints working at the hospital. The international delegation met with the eight-person doctors brigade from Cuba, in place for the last 25 years, with doctors rotating in for two-year missions.

Omar Mansour explained the government has built health-care centers in each camp and carried out a vaccination program. The Sahrawi infant mortality rate has dropped substantially from 250 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1975 to 60 per 1,000 live births, he said. The life expectancy has risen from 56 years 25 years ago to age 61 today.

"Our goal is to convince as many Sahrawis as we can to stay in the camps to continue the struggle, not to emigrate to other countries," Mansour said. "We are taking every step we can to provide everyone with the necessities of life and ease the hardships of living in the camps to help make this possible."

The international delegation joined several hundred Sahrawis in the Smara camp who heard presentations reporting back from the 15th World Festival of Youth and Students in Algeria. After the presentations, there were musical and dance performances. Some of the guests were also part of a traditional wedding ceremony with music and dancing. The leadership of the liberation movement encourages and frequently hosts cultural activities.

Although there is no access to major sources of electrical power in the camps, the Polisario Front and other mass organizations have arranged for most families to have access to a solar panel to charge a car battery that can then be used to power a fluor-escent light, small television, or am- plifier. Pooled together, they provide enough electricity to hold activities after sundown. A couple of older Sahrawis remarked how this was a major advance over the conditions of life for many years in the camps where, with rare exceptions, there was no access to artificial light after the sun set.

"We have worked hard to advance women's rights and leave the bad traditions of the past behind." said Selma Boulahi from the Sahrawi Women's Union in a meeting with the delegation. "The main objective of our organization since its founding in 1974 is to organize women into the fight for independence. Through that struggle we are working to raise awareness among women about their political and social rights and drawing them into taking more leadership responsibility."

Boulahi explained that during the armed struggle when most of the men were at the front, women took primary responsibility for all aspects of organizing the camps. The SADR leadership took several measures to advance women's rights, including opening up the 27th of February School, where women study government administration, teaching, nursing, weaving, and other subjects. Although many leadership responsibilities have shifted back to men since the cease-fire, the women that the delegation met on the trip exuded the self-confidence they have gained through the struggle. Pointing to the advances in women's rights, Bouhali remarked, "The liberation movement has forced both men and women to change."
 
 
Related article:
In UK, youth discuss anti-imperialist festival  
 
 
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