Western Sahara is a nation of 300,000 people on the northwest coast of Africa. A Spanish colony since 1884, it was occupied by the armies of Morocco and Mauritania after Madrid’s withdrawal in 1975 in the face of a rising independence struggle led by Polisario. When the Polisario fighters forced out Mauritania’s military in 1979, Morocco’s troops extended their occupation across the entire territory.

Tens of thousands of Saharawis, the bulk of the population, fled to refugee camps in the adjacent Algerian desert, where they have lived for three decades. “We live under tents, dependent completely on humanitarian aid, but we’re very organized,” Fadel said. “We’ve avoided hunger and epidemics. We’ve survived and improved conditions.” Fadel explained how Saharawis have set up schools, hospitals, and even gardens in the harsh environment.

During his visit, Fadel spoke at public meetings in four cities and at three university campuses. He also sought the support of the New Zealand government for the Saharawi struggle in meetings with members of parliament and government officials and met with trade unionists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and the foreign affairs spokesperson for the Green Party.

Fadel was also able to learn about the struggle of the Maori people against national oppression in a meeting with Maori students at the University of Canterbury, and during a tour of the Kura Hoani Waititi. The latter is an educational facility in Auckland where a junior school and high school have been established for students taught entirely in the Maori language.

Western Sahara was listed by the United Nations as a “non-self governing territory” in 1963. “We’re still on that list,” said Fadel.

The Saharawi people fought a war against Moroccan occupation until 1991, when both parties agreed to a UN-brokered ceasefire and a plan for a referendum on independence. “The only stage that was implemented was the ceasefire, which favored Morocco because the war was costing them a lot,” Fadel told students at a meeting at Auckland University. “We don’t have a referendum 12 years later and we don’t have our country. The UN has been there, monitoring the ceasefire, and spent $600 million, but it has not achieved what it was there to do.”

Last October the Moroccan government rejected another plan to get the referendum underway. The plan would allow for a four- to five-year period in which the territory would remain under Moroccan rule, but would be granted limited autonomy. The Saharawi people would be resettled in Western Sahara, and a referendum on independence would be held at the end, in which the Moroccan settlers now living in the territory would also be eligible to vote.

“Polisario didn’t like this plan,” Fadel noted. “We rejected it at first, but decided to accept it as a compromise. It’s a gamble but also a challenge to Morocco. We think Morocco can’t trust its own settlers—in five years they may prefer an independent Western Sahara to Morocco, because we’ll show we are a democratic state, we respect human rights and we are not against them, but against the Moroccan state.”

Morocco is ruled by a monarchy, a loyal pillar of imperialist rule in the region. Its occupation of Western Sahara has been backed by the governments of France, Spain, and the United States.

In his meetings, Fadel described the massive 1,500-mile-long sand and rock wall that Morocco has built to keep Polisario out of occupied Western Sahara. The separation wall is fortified with trenches, barbed wire, land mines, and radar, and is guarded by 100,000 troops. There are tremendous efforts of resistance by the Saharawis living in occupied Western Sahara, despite severe repression by the Moroccan authorities, Fadel said, answering a question at the Auckland University meeting. Hundreds of people have disappeared, or have been imprisoned and tortured. Those who have relatives belonging to Polisario, or who are suspected of sympathy with the underground struggle, are a particular target. Saharawi culture and language are suppressed and it is dangerous to even listen to the radio broadcast from the refugee camps. Meanwhile the settlers encouraged to move there pay no taxes, have preference in jobs, and often live in homes vacated by Saharawis who fled the invasion. Despite this situation, Saharawis organize demonstrations, put up posters and the Saharawi flag, and resist in various other ways, Fadel said.

Families separated by the wall have had little contact for 28 years, the Polisario envoy added. But the Internet and mobile phones have made communications easier. A telephone link has recently been established with one of the camps. The United Nations is now also organizing regular planes to carry small groups between the camps and the occupied areas for family visits.

“From our side we’ve been very patient, we’ve compromised many times,” Fadel said, “but patience has its limits. We have to be careful in what we do now and not take a decision that we might regret. Some want to relaunch the war, and there’s a dialogue inside our movement now about this. But we have a government, regular elections, a parliament—a state-in-waiting—what we really need is to return to our country and exercise our right to self-determination.”

Fadel asked those he addressed to consider becoming involved in setting up a group in New Zealand in solidarity with the struggle for independence for Western Sahara.
 
 
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