Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Sahara occidental : la France contre les droits de l'homme ?
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2010/12/22/sahara-occidental-la-france-contre-les-droits-de-l-homme_1456151_3232.html
Sahara occidental : la France contre les droits de l'homme ?
Le Monde, 22.12.2010
Les événements qui ont embrasé El-Ayoun, la capitale du Sahara occidental, le 8 novembre, devraient convaincre la diplomatie française de changer de cap sur un dossier peu connu, mais qui embarrasse jusqu'aux plus aguerris de ses diplomates. Depuis plusieurs années, à l'abri des portes closes du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, la France use du pouvoir de dissuasion que lui confère son droit de veto pour tenir les Nations unies à l'écart des questions touchant au respect des droits de l'homme dans le territoire annexé par son allié marocain en 1975.
Faute d'un mandat approprié, la mission de l'ONU au Sahara Occidental (Minurso) est restée aveugle tout au long des événements qui ont opposé le mois dernier les forces de l'ordre marocaines aux militants sahraouis – les troubles les plus graves depuis le cessez-le-feu de 1991. Le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, en charge de la paix internationale, s'est vu dans l'incapacité de faire la part des choses entre le mouvement indépendantiste du Front Polisario, qui a dénoncé sans preuve le massacre de 36 manifestants pacifiques, et le Maroc qui prétendait, sans plus de crédibilité, libérer les milliers de civils sahraouis soi-disant retenus en otage par des " criminels " dans un camp érigé en signe de protestation à proximité de El-Ayoun.
Si ces événements s'étaient déroulés en République démocratique du Congo, en Haïti ou au Soudan, des experts en droits de l'homme de l'ONU auraient immédiatement été dépêchés sur place pour établir une version objective des événements et informer le Conseil de sécurité, contribuant ainsi à apaiser les tensions. La présence d'observateurs de l'ONU aurait aussi pu s'avérer dissuasive pour les forces de sécurité marocaines qui ont à plusieurs reprises, selon notre enquête, passé à tabac des personnes arrêtées à la suite des troubles.
Toutes les missions de maintien de la paix de l'ONU établies depuis 1991 disposent de ces mécanismes, qui reposent sur le constat que toute paix durable s'appuie sur le respect des droits de l'homme. Partout ailleurs, du Darfour au Timor Leste, en passant par le Kosovo, la France soutient pleinement l'intégration croissante des questions touchant aux droits de l'homme dans les missions de l'ONU. Il n'y a que sur le dossier sahraoui que Paris s'arc-boute, persistant à défendre une anomalie historique.
Cette obstination française a un coût. L'ambassadeur de France à l'ONU, Gérard Araud, l'a appris à ses dépens, le 30 avril dernier, lorsqu'il a dû faire face aux pays du Conseil de sécurité tels que le Royaume-Uni, l'Autriche, l'Ouganda, le Nigeria ou le Mexique, qui sont favorables à un élargissement du mandat de la Minurso aux questions de droits de l'homme. A quelques heures de l'expiration du mandat de la mission de l'ONU, selon plusieurs témoins, le ton est monté.
Comment la France, qui se prétend le berceau des droits de l'homme, pouvait-elle s'opposer à toute mention des droits de l'homme dans la résolution, a demandé un ambassadeur occidental ? Son homologue chinois, un rien ironique, s'est réjoui de constater que Paris partageait désormais les réserves de Pékin sur tout débat des droits de l'homme au Conseil de sécurité. Après une vive réponse de l'ambassadeur français, suivie d'excuses toutes diplomatiques, la France a obtenu gain de cause, non tant par la force de ses arguments que par celle de son droit de veto.
Les diplomates français se défendent en affirmant que la question des droits de l'homme est devenue un chiffon rouge pour le Maroc, qui y voit une ruse du Polisario et de son soutien officiel algérien, pour embarrasser le Royaume chérifien. A en croire Paris, cette question est une diversion, qui ne fait que braquer Rabat, sans faire avancer les pourparlers entre les deux camps, par ailleurs enlisés depuis des années.
Mais au lieu de s'aligner sur Rabat, la France devrait convaincre le Maroc qu'il a tout à gagner à améliorer les conditions dans lesquelles vivent les Sahraouis sous son contrôle, souvent muselés et harcelés par les forces de l'ordre marocaines lorsqu'ils osent se prononcer pour l'indépendance. Les observateurs onusiens seraient aussi d'un grand secours pour les réfugiés sahraouis qui vivent près de Tindouf, en Algérie, dans des camps où le Front Polisario règne en maître et intimide ceux qui soutiennent le plan d'autonomie marocain – une situation mainte fois dénoncée par Rabat.
Le renouvellement du mandat de la Minurso, en avril 2011, offre à la diplomatie française une chance de corriger la situation. Il est temps que Paris reconnaisse que, sans un strict respect des droits des Sahraouis, garanti par l'ONU, les deux camps continueront à se livrer à des campagnes de désinformation qui ne font que compliquer les efforts du Conseil de sécurité en faveur d'une solution politique.
Philippe Bolopion, directeur ONU de Human Rights Watch
Sahara occidental : la France contre les droits de l'homme ?
Le Monde, 22.12.2010
Les événements qui ont embrasé El-Ayoun, la capitale du Sahara occidental, le 8 novembre, devraient convaincre la diplomatie française de changer de cap sur un dossier peu connu, mais qui embarrasse jusqu'aux plus aguerris de ses diplomates. Depuis plusieurs années, à l'abri des portes closes du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, la France use du pouvoir de dissuasion que lui confère son droit de veto pour tenir les Nations unies à l'écart des questions touchant au respect des droits de l'homme dans le territoire annexé par son allié marocain en 1975.
Faute d'un mandat approprié, la mission de l'ONU au Sahara Occidental (Minurso) est restée aveugle tout au long des événements qui ont opposé le mois dernier les forces de l'ordre marocaines aux militants sahraouis – les troubles les plus graves depuis le cessez-le-feu de 1991. Le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, en charge de la paix internationale, s'est vu dans l'incapacité de faire la part des choses entre le mouvement indépendantiste du Front Polisario, qui a dénoncé sans preuve le massacre de 36 manifestants pacifiques, et le Maroc qui prétendait, sans plus de crédibilité, libérer les milliers de civils sahraouis soi-disant retenus en otage par des " criminels " dans un camp érigé en signe de protestation à proximité de El-Ayoun.
Si ces événements s'étaient déroulés en République démocratique du Congo, en Haïti ou au Soudan, des experts en droits de l'homme de l'ONU auraient immédiatement été dépêchés sur place pour établir une version objective des événements et informer le Conseil de sécurité, contribuant ainsi à apaiser les tensions. La présence d'observateurs de l'ONU aurait aussi pu s'avérer dissuasive pour les forces de sécurité marocaines qui ont à plusieurs reprises, selon notre enquête, passé à tabac des personnes arrêtées à la suite des troubles.
Toutes les missions de maintien de la paix de l'ONU établies depuis 1991 disposent de ces mécanismes, qui reposent sur le constat que toute paix durable s'appuie sur le respect des droits de l'homme. Partout ailleurs, du Darfour au Timor Leste, en passant par le Kosovo, la France soutient pleinement l'intégration croissante des questions touchant aux droits de l'homme dans les missions de l'ONU. Il n'y a que sur le dossier sahraoui que Paris s'arc-boute, persistant à défendre une anomalie historique.
Cette obstination française a un coût. L'ambassadeur de France à l'ONU, Gérard Araud, l'a appris à ses dépens, le 30 avril dernier, lorsqu'il a dû faire face aux pays du Conseil de sécurité tels que le Royaume-Uni, l'Autriche, l'Ouganda, le Nigeria ou le Mexique, qui sont favorables à un élargissement du mandat de la Minurso aux questions de droits de l'homme. A quelques heures de l'expiration du mandat de la mission de l'ONU, selon plusieurs témoins, le ton est monté.
Comment la France, qui se prétend le berceau des droits de l'homme, pouvait-elle s'opposer à toute mention des droits de l'homme dans la résolution, a demandé un ambassadeur occidental ? Son homologue chinois, un rien ironique, s'est réjoui de constater que Paris partageait désormais les réserves de Pékin sur tout débat des droits de l'homme au Conseil de sécurité. Après une vive réponse de l'ambassadeur français, suivie d'excuses toutes diplomatiques, la France a obtenu gain de cause, non tant par la force de ses arguments que par celle de son droit de veto.
Les diplomates français se défendent en affirmant que la question des droits de l'homme est devenue un chiffon rouge pour le Maroc, qui y voit une ruse du Polisario et de son soutien officiel algérien, pour embarrasser le Royaume chérifien. A en croire Paris, cette question est une diversion, qui ne fait que braquer Rabat, sans faire avancer les pourparlers entre les deux camps, par ailleurs enlisés depuis des années.
Mais au lieu de s'aligner sur Rabat, la France devrait convaincre le Maroc qu'il a tout à gagner à améliorer les conditions dans lesquelles vivent les Sahraouis sous son contrôle, souvent muselés et harcelés par les forces de l'ordre marocaines lorsqu'ils osent se prononcer pour l'indépendance. Les observateurs onusiens seraient aussi d'un grand secours pour les réfugiés sahraouis qui vivent près de Tindouf, en Algérie, dans des camps où le Front Polisario règne en maître et intimide ceux qui soutiennent le plan d'autonomie marocain – une situation mainte fois dénoncée par Rabat.
Le renouvellement du mandat de la Minurso, en avril 2011, offre à la diplomatie française une chance de corriger la situation. Il est temps que Paris reconnaisse que, sans un strict respect des droits des Sahraouis, garanti par l'ONU, les deux camps continueront à se livrer à des campagnes de désinformation qui ne font que compliquer les efforts du Conseil de sécurité en faveur d'une solution politique.
Philippe Bolopion, directeur ONU de Human Rights Watch
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
WikiLeaks documents support Polisario’s goal of self-determination : By Dr. Suzanne Scholte
At a time when tensions between the Polisario and Morocco in their fight over Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony, are at the highest point since the 1991 ceasefire, WikiLeaks documents have enhanced the cause of the Polisario by revealing that the supporters of the Polisario are the good guys in this fight.
One of the difficulties the Polisario has had to overcome is a well-financed Moroccan lobby that spends millions of dollars annually to obscure the facts in this conflict. Ten lobbying firms are currently registered to do King Mohamed VI’s bidding and spread outright lies and distortions about the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, where 165,000 Sahrawis live, having fled when Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975; about the motivation of Algeria in giving them refuge; and about the nature of the Sahrawi Republic itself — a democratic, pro-Western exile government recognized by over eighty nations as the legitimate government of Western Sahara.
The Polisario, formed by the Sahrawis in 1973 as a liberation movement against their Spanish colonizers, is now dedicated to one goal: ensuring the Sahrawis get their vote on self-determination, first called for by the United Nations in 1966, promised by Spain, reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice in 1975, and promised by the United Nations in 1991 as part of the ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario. Among the outlandish claims that the Kingdom of Morocco and those on the King’s payroll are spreading: the Polisario is holding the Sahrawi refugees against their will in these camps; the Polisario is involved in illegal activities from human trafficking to terrorism; the Polisario is restricting access to the camps; and the camps are a breeding ground for al Qaeda.
The truth is that the Polisario long for visitors to the refugee camps, and there are regular visitors from Spain as well as a constant UN presence. I have personally organized delegations of Americans to visit the camps, and this Christmas thousands of Spanish citizens will travel there to celebrate this holy Christian day with their Muslim friends.
Not only do the Polisario welcome visitors, but their embrace of Western ideals including religious freedom and women’s equality, their intolerance of extremism, and their severe punishments for traffickers and anyone associated with terrorism have caused Islamic extremists to label the Sahrawi as “too close to the West and not pious enough.”
U.S. Ambassador–at-Large for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin affirmed there are no links between al Qaeda and the Western Sahara in a press conference last month.
Morocco has also tried to cast suspicion on the motivations of Algeria. Algeria saved thousands of Sahrawi women and children by allowing them to enter Algeria when the Moroccan air force was dropping napalm and phosphorus on them as they were fleeing from the invading Moroccan army. Today, Algeria allows the Sahrawis to govern and oversee their refugee camps, which are located in northwest Algeria, without interference. When former Secretary of State James Baker served as UN Special Envoy on Western Sahara, he attempted to spur a settlement by offering Algeria part of Western Sahara, believing the Algerians would sell out their friends for a land route to the Atlantic. The Algerians were offended that such an offer would even be made. WikiLeaks has revealed the consistency of Algeria’s position. WikiLeaks has also revealed that Algeria’s support of the Polisario is based on principle. Algeria has no interest in stealing the Sahrawis’ land, as Morocco has done, and only wants the people of Western Sahara to have the opportunity to exercise their fundamental right to self-determination, as Algeria President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has strongly argued to U.S. officials.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/20/wikileaks-documents-support-polisarios-goal-of-self-determination/#ixzz18ll7oob0
One of the difficulties the Polisario has had to overcome is a well-financed Moroccan lobby that spends millions of dollars annually to obscure the facts in this conflict. Ten lobbying firms are currently registered to do King Mohamed VI’s bidding and spread outright lies and distortions about the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, where 165,000 Sahrawis live, having fled when Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975; about the motivation of Algeria in giving them refuge; and about the nature of the Sahrawi Republic itself — a democratic, pro-Western exile government recognized by over eighty nations as the legitimate government of Western Sahara.
The Polisario, formed by the Sahrawis in 1973 as a liberation movement against their Spanish colonizers, is now dedicated to one goal: ensuring the Sahrawis get their vote on self-determination, first called for by the United Nations in 1966, promised by Spain, reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice in 1975, and promised by the United Nations in 1991 as part of the ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario. Among the outlandish claims that the Kingdom of Morocco and those on the King’s payroll are spreading: the Polisario is holding the Sahrawi refugees against their will in these camps; the Polisario is involved in illegal activities from human trafficking to terrorism; the Polisario is restricting access to the camps; and the camps are a breeding ground for al Qaeda.
The truth is that the Polisario long for visitors to the refugee camps, and there are regular visitors from Spain as well as a constant UN presence. I have personally organized delegations of Americans to visit the camps, and this Christmas thousands of Spanish citizens will travel there to celebrate this holy Christian day with their Muslim friends.
Not only do the Polisario welcome visitors, but their embrace of Western ideals including religious freedom and women’s equality, their intolerance of extremism, and their severe punishments for traffickers and anyone associated with terrorism have caused Islamic extremists to label the Sahrawi as “too close to the West and not pious enough.”
U.S. Ambassador–at-Large for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin affirmed there are no links between al Qaeda and the Western Sahara in a press conference last month.
Morocco has also tried to cast suspicion on the motivations of Algeria. Algeria saved thousands of Sahrawi women and children by allowing them to enter Algeria when the Moroccan air force was dropping napalm and phosphorus on them as they were fleeing from the invading Moroccan army. Today, Algeria allows the Sahrawis to govern and oversee their refugee camps, which are located in northwest Algeria, without interference. When former Secretary of State James Baker served as UN Special Envoy on Western Sahara, he attempted to spur a settlement by offering Algeria part of Western Sahara, believing the Algerians would sell out their friends for a land route to the Atlantic. The Algerians were offended that such an offer would even be made. WikiLeaks has revealed the consistency of Algeria’s position. WikiLeaks has also revealed that Algeria’s support of the Polisario is based on principle. Algeria has no interest in stealing the Sahrawis’ land, as Morocco has done, and only wants the people of Western Sahara to have the opportunity to exercise their fundamental right to self-determination, as Algeria President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has strongly argued to U.S. officials.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/20/wikileaks-documents-support-polisarios-goal-of-self-determination/#ixzz18ll7oob0
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
So much for human rights
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/12/13/jeremy-harding/so-much-for-human-rights/
So much for human rights
Jeremy Harding 13 December 2010
Tags: western sahara | wikileaks
Two things we can learn about Morocco’s illegal occupation of Western Sahara from the US embassy in Rabat, courtesy of WikiLeaks: 1) it’s a source of personal revenue for Moroccan army officers but 2) everything’s fine really.
Western Sahara used to be a Spanish possession, which Madrid was due to hand over to the indigenous population in 1975. King Hassan II of Morocco took advantage of the chaos in Spain at the time of Franco’s death and annexed the territory. The UN deplored the move; the Polisario Front embarked on a liberation war, which resulted in stalemate and a ceasefire in 1989. By this time Morocco controlled most of the territory and was pouring in settlers to outnumber indigenous Sahrawis.
Under UN auspices, both parties – the kingdom of Morocco and Polisario – agreed to a referendum on independence. Twenty years later, the vote is a lost hope: the Moroccans have driven it into the ground with Byzantine objections, year on year. The UN mission has been sidelined; the settler colonial project continues; there are hundreds of thousands of refugees in Algeria and a population inside the territory that’s punished when it calls for independence.
These are trifling matters for Ambassador Thomas T. Riley, filing from Rabat in 2008. What counts is America’s ‘robust military relationship’ with Morocco, confirmed by ‘the purchase of sophisticated weapons from the US to include 24 F-16s this year’. The regime, Riley announces,
has also increased its activities under a partnership arrangement with the Utah National Guard, which regularly deploys to Morocco to conduct joint training and humanitarian relief operations.
Even so, he’s disturbed by corruption in the Moroccan army (total numbers 218,000; between ‘50 and 70 per cent… preoccupied with operations in the Western Sahara region’). Riley cites Lieutenant Geneneral Abdelaziz Bennani, commander of the Southern Section – i.e. the annexed territory. Apparently, Bennani has used his position to
skim money from military contracts and influence business decisions. A widely believed rumour has it that he owns large parts of the fisheries in Western Sahara… There are even reports of students at Morocco’s military academy paying money… to obtain positions in lucrative military postings.
Top of the list: Western Sahara.
Riley walked into a top job at Savvis, the communications company, after the Republicans lost the White House. Move on to summer 2009: another pair of hands is at the laptop in Rabat – the chargé d’affaires, Robert P. Jackson – pounding out a dispatch he’s pleased to call ‘Western Sahara Realities’. He repeats Riley’s estimate – about 150,000 Moroccan soldiers are deployed in Western Sahara – and says, correctly, that there are now 385,000 people living in the annexed area. (Only a marginal ‘liberated’ strip of desert is still controlled by Polisario, and the ceasefire has held.)
Jackson is also right that settlers from Morocco now account for ‘well over half’ that figure. Here is a territory, then, whose indigenous population is only slightly larger than the number of soldiers deployed by Rabat: the ratio is close to one on one. If this isn’t repression, what is it? Mentoring, possibly? Is the army holding door-to-door seminars on Mormon genealogy with assistance from the Utah National Guard? Yet Jackson says that ‘respect for human rights in the territory has greatly improved’. He admits that indigenous people aren’t allowed to advocate independence: perhaps human rights for Sahrawis is like animal rights for foxes – go to ground and hope someone’s speaking out on your behalf. Only it won’t be Jackson, who’s now ambassador to Cameroon.
Eight weeks ago near Layoune, the capital of Western Sahara, a camp set up by Sahrawis to protest against the Moroccan occupation was brought under military siege and in November it was broken up; 60 people were injured and the usual round of detentions followed. So much for human rights.
There are even more worrying passages about the nature of the conflict in Jackson’s cable. He wonders why Polisario (which operates a ‘Cuba-like system’ in his view) has never claimed areas of Morocco proper, Mauritania or Algeria, where large numbers of Sahrawis can be found, as part of the independent state they seek. He takes this to signify the absence of ‘a larger nationalism’, from which it follows that the dispute must be narrowly territorial – an expression of older border tensions between Morocco and Algeria, with Polisario acting as an Algerian stooge.
Well yes, it is about territory, but only inasmuch as the decolonisation of Spanish Sahara should have conferred a right to independence. The ethnicity of its inhabitants, or others outside the borders, has nothing to do with it. Whatever Algeria’s role in this conflict, Polisario could never have compromised its aims by challenging the OAU on the inviolability of colonial boundaries and hoping for a ‘larger’, expanded Western Sahara. Had it done so, the International Court of Justice would not have advised in its favour, the UN would not have called for a referendum on independence, and the notional government of what is now Africa’s only colonised territory (the SADR) would not be a member of the African Union or be recognised by 81 states
But there you have it: a chargé d’affaires in Rabat snorts dismissively at the independence movement because it’s played by the book. Morocco, by contrast, violates sovereign boundaries, tramples Sahrawi aspirations, stuffs its annexed land with soldiers and settlers, and gets two dozen fighter aircraft for its pains
So much for human rights
Jeremy Harding 13 December 2010
Tags: western sahara | wikileaks
Two things we can learn about Morocco’s illegal occupation of Western Sahara from the US embassy in Rabat, courtesy of WikiLeaks: 1) it’s a source of personal revenue for Moroccan army officers but 2) everything’s fine really.
Western Sahara used to be a Spanish possession, which Madrid was due to hand over to the indigenous population in 1975. King Hassan II of Morocco took advantage of the chaos in Spain at the time of Franco’s death and annexed the territory. The UN deplored the move; the Polisario Front embarked on a liberation war, which resulted in stalemate and a ceasefire in 1989. By this time Morocco controlled most of the territory and was pouring in settlers to outnumber indigenous Sahrawis.
Under UN auspices, both parties – the kingdom of Morocco and Polisario – agreed to a referendum on independence. Twenty years later, the vote is a lost hope: the Moroccans have driven it into the ground with Byzantine objections, year on year. The UN mission has been sidelined; the settler colonial project continues; there are hundreds of thousands of refugees in Algeria and a population inside the territory that’s punished when it calls for independence.
These are trifling matters for Ambassador Thomas T. Riley, filing from Rabat in 2008. What counts is America’s ‘robust military relationship’ with Morocco, confirmed by ‘the purchase of sophisticated weapons from the US to include 24 F-16s this year’. The regime, Riley announces,
has also increased its activities under a partnership arrangement with the Utah National Guard, which regularly deploys to Morocco to conduct joint training and humanitarian relief operations.
Even so, he’s disturbed by corruption in the Moroccan army (total numbers 218,000; between ‘50 and 70 per cent… preoccupied with operations in the Western Sahara region’). Riley cites Lieutenant Geneneral Abdelaziz Bennani, commander of the Southern Section – i.e. the annexed territory. Apparently, Bennani has used his position to
skim money from military contracts and influence business decisions. A widely believed rumour has it that he owns large parts of the fisheries in Western Sahara… There are even reports of students at Morocco’s military academy paying money… to obtain positions in lucrative military postings.
Top of the list: Western Sahara.
Riley walked into a top job at Savvis, the communications company, after the Republicans lost the White House. Move on to summer 2009: another pair of hands is at the laptop in Rabat – the chargé d’affaires, Robert P. Jackson – pounding out a dispatch he’s pleased to call ‘Western Sahara Realities’. He repeats Riley’s estimate – about 150,000 Moroccan soldiers are deployed in Western Sahara – and says, correctly, that there are now 385,000 people living in the annexed area. (Only a marginal ‘liberated’ strip of desert is still controlled by Polisario, and the ceasefire has held.)
Jackson is also right that settlers from Morocco now account for ‘well over half’ that figure. Here is a territory, then, whose indigenous population is only slightly larger than the number of soldiers deployed by Rabat: the ratio is close to one on one. If this isn’t repression, what is it? Mentoring, possibly? Is the army holding door-to-door seminars on Mormon genealogy with assistance from the Utah National Guard? Yet Jackson says that ‘respect for human rights in the territory has greatly improved’. He admits that indigenous people aren’t allowed to advocate independence: perhaps human rights for Sahrawis is like animal rights for foxes – go to ground and hope someone’s speaking out on your behalf. Only it won’t be Jackson, who’s now ambassador to Cameroon.
Eight weeks ago near Layoune, the capital of Western Sahara, a camp set up by Sahrawis to protest against the Moroccan occupation was brought under military siege and in November it was broken up; 60 people were injured and the usual round of detentions followed. So much for human rights.
There are even more worrying passages about the nature of the conflict in Jackson’s cable. He wonders why Polisario (which operates a ‘Cuba-like system’ in his view) has never claimed areas of Morocco proper, Mauritania or Algeria, where large numbers of Sahrawis can be found, as part of the independent state they seek. He takes this to signify the absence of ‘a larger nationalism’, from which it follows that the dispute must be narrowly territorial – an expression of older border tensions between Morocco and Algeria, with Polisario acting as an Algerian stooge.
Well yes, it is about territory, but only inasmuch as the decolonisation of Spanish Sahara should have conferred a right to independence. The ethnicity of its inhabitants, or others outside the borders, has nothing to do with it. Whatever Algeria’s role in this conflict, Polisario could never have compromised its aims by challenging the OAU on the inviolability of colonial boundaries and hoping for a ‘larger’, expanded Western Sahara. Had it done so, the International Court of Justice would not have advised in its favour, the UN would not have called for a referendum on independence, and the notional government of what is now Africa’s only colonised territory (the SADR) would not be a member of the African Union or be recognised by 81 states
But there you have it: a chargé d’affaires in Rabat snorts dismissively at the independence movement because it’s played by the book. Morocco, by contrast, violates sovereign boundaries, tramples Sahrawi aspirations, stuffs its annexed land with soldiers and settlers, and gets two dozen fighter aircraft for its pains
Resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories
Resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories
The General Assembly adopted a resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories by which the Assembly reaffirmed the right of peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories to self-determination in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, as well as their right to enjoy and dispose of their natural resources in their best interest.
Also according to the text, the Assembly called once again on all Governments that had not yet done so to take legislative, administrative or other measures to put an end to enterprises in the Territories — undertaken by those Governments’ nationals or corporate bodies under their jurisdiction — that were detrimental to the interests of the inhabitants. It called upon the administrating Powers to ensure that the exploitation of the marine and other natural resources in the Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration were not in violation of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and did not adversely affect the interests of the peoples of those Territories. The text was aproved by a recorded vote:
The Vote
The resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories was adopted by a recorded vote of 173 in favour to 2 against, with 2 abstentions,
Against: Israel, United States.
Abstain: France, United Kingdom.
http://overseasreview.blogspot.com/2010/12/un-general-assembly-approves-third.html
The General Assembly adopted a resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories by which the Assembly reaffirmed the right of peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories to self-determination in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, as well as their right to enjoy and dispose of their natural resources in their best interest.
Also according to the text, the Assembly called once again on all Governments that had not yet done so to take legislative, administrative or other measures to put an end to enterprises in the Territories — undertaken by those Governments’ nationals or corporate bodies under their jurisdiction — that were detrimental to the interests of the inhabitants. It called upon the administrating Powers to ensure that the exploitation of the marine and other natural resources in the Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration were not in violation of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and did not adversely affect the interests of the peoples of those Territories. The text was aproved by a recorded vote:
The Vote
The resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories was adopted by a recorded vote of 173 in favour to 2 against, with 2 abstentions,
Against: Israel, United States.
Abstain: France, United Kingdom.
http://overseasreview.blogspot.com/2010/12/un-general-assembly-approves-third.html
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Western Sahara and Wiki Leaks
First Sahara Wikileak leak: Sarkozy inked deal with OCP
First cable from US embassy mentions 3 billion Euro deals for Sarkozy, as French Western Sahara policy leans towards Moroccan position. Among the agreements signed by Sarkozy, was the nuclear deal with Moroccan phosphate plunderer OCP.
01.12 - 2010 15:34 Printer version
"Sarkozy and entourage completed nearly 3 billion Euros worth of commercial deals and military sales during the visit, including a naval frigate", notes the embassy in the document dated 29 October 2007, in relation to Sarkozy's visit to Morocco.
The letter mentions specifically the agreement signed by French nuclear group Areva and National Phosphate Company (OCP). The deal was to extract uranium from Moroccan phosphoric acid.
OCP carries out the illegal mining in Western Sahara, taking place in violation of the UN legal opinion from 2002.
At the same time, the US embassy noted how Sarkozy annoyed the representatives of the Sahrawi people:
"Sarkozy’s remarks on Sahara appeared to move France closer toward the Moroccan position, and were embraced as such by most of the Moroccan press, which characterized the president’s remarks as a breakthrough for French policy on the Sahara question. (We understand the Polisario leadership has protested Sarkozy’s remarks.)", writes the US embassy in the first confidential letter on Western Sahara published on Wikileaks today.
The Moroccan proposition on the Western Sahara dispute, is to include the territory of Western Sahara into the Moroccan kingdom, without giving a voice to the people of Western Sahara.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Testimonies of Saharwi Students in Semara who were attacked by Moroccans on November 29.2010
شهادات الضحايا المرجو تحميلها من على هذه الروابط
http://www.4shared.com/video/s7qA9oZO/tfara7_ttabt.html?
http://www.4shared.com/video/Wca3KCQc/lahbib_weld_baba.html?
http://www.4shared.com/video/GOIDAaea/chahadat.html?
http://www.4shared.com/video/WdVHXe1f/ali_olfdil.html?
http://www.4shared.com/video/s7qA9oZO/tfara7_ttabt.html?
http://www.4shared.com/video/Wca3KCQc/lahbib_weld_baba.html?
http://www.4shared.com/video/GOIDAaea/chahadat.html?
http://www.4shared.com/video/WdVHXe1f/ali_olfdil.html?
Friday, November 19, 2010
Upsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara
Upsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara
Western SaharaNews Articles (7)Publications (20)Primary Resources (14)Links (3)18 November 2010
Western Sahara
A structure in Western Sahara
Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause.
By Stephen Zunes for openDemocracy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On November 8, Moroccan occupation forces attacked a tent city of as many as 12,000 Western Saharans just outside of Al Aioun, in the culminating act of a months-long protest of discrimination against the indigenous Sahrawi population and worsening economic conditions. Not only was the scale of the crackdown unprecedented, so was the popular reaction: In a dramatic departure from the almost exclusively nonviolent protests of recent years, the local population turned on their occupiers, engaging in widespread rioting and arson. As of this writing, the details of these events are unclear, but they underscore the urgent need for global civil society to support those who have been struggling nonviolently for their right of self-determination and to challenge western governments which back the regime responsible for the repression.
Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated nation located on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Africa. Traditionally inhabited by nomadic Arab tribes, collectively known as Sahrawis and famous for their long history of resistance to outside domination, the land was occupied by Spain from the late 1800s through the mid-1970s. The nationalist Polisario Front launched an armed independence struggle against Spain in 1973, and Madrid eventually promised the people of what was then still known as the Spanish Sahara a referendum on the fate of the territory by the end of 1975. Irredentist claims by Morocco and Mauritania were brought before the International Court of Justice, which ruled in favour of the Sahrawis’ right to self-determination. A special Visiting Mission from the United Nations engaged in an investigation that same year and reported that the vast majority of Sahrawis supported independence under the leadership of the Polisario, not integration with Morocco or Mauritania. Under pressure from the United States, which did not want to see the leftist Polisario come to power, Spain reneged on its promise for a referendum and instead agreed to partition the territory between the pro-Western countries of Morocco and Mauritania.
As Moroccan forces moved into Western Sahara, most of the population fled to refugee camps in neighboring Algeria. Morocco and Mauritania rejected a series of unanimous UN Security Council resolutions calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces and recognition of the Sahrawis’ right of self-determination. The United States and France, meanwhile, despite voting in favor of these resolutions, blocked the UN from enforcing them. Meanwhile, the Polisario – which had been driven from the more heavily populated northern and western parts of the country – declared independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Thanks in part to the Algerians providing significant amounts of military equipment and economic support, Polisario guerrillas fought well against both occupying armies. Mauritania was defeated by 1979, agreeing to turn their third of Western Sahara over to the Polisario. However, the Moroccans then annexed that remaining southern part of the country as well.
The Polisario then focused their armed struggle against Morocco and, by 1982, had liberated nearly 85% of their country. Over the next four years, however, the tide of the war was reversed in Morocco’s favor thanks to dramatic increases in American and French support for the Moroccan war effort, with U.S. forces providing important training for the Moroccan army in counter-insurgency tactics and helping with the construction of a wall which kept the Polisario out of most of their country. Meanwhile, the Moroccan government, through generous housing subsidies and other benefits, successfully encouraged thousands of Moroccan settlers to immigrate to Western Sahara. By the early 1990s, these Moroccan settlers outnumbered the remaining Sahrawis indigenous to the territory by a ratio of more than 2:1.
A cease fire in 1991 was part of an agreement that would have allowed for the return of Sahrawi refugees to Western Sahara followed by a UN-supervised referendum on the fate of the territory. Neither the repatriation nor the referendum took place, however, due to Moroccan insistence on stacking the voter rolls with Moroccan settlers and other Moroccan citizens that it claimed had tribal links to Western Sahara. To break the stalemate, the UN Security Council passed a resolution in 2004 which would allow Moroccan settlers to also vote in the referendum following five years of autonomy. Morocco, however, rejected this proposal too, with the apparent reassurance that the French and Americans would yet again threaten to veto any resolution imposing sanctions or other pressures on them to compromise.
Unarmed popular resistance
As happened during the 1980s in both South Africa and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the locus of the Western Sahara freedom struggle shifted from the military and diplomatic initiatives of an exiled armed movement to a largely unarmed popular resistance from within, as young activists in the occupied territory and even in Sahrawi-populated parts of southern Morocco confronted Moroccan troops in street demonstrations and other forms of nonviolent action, despite the risk of shootings, mass arrests, and torture. Sahrawis from different sectors of society have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause. Indeed, perhaps most significantly, civil resistance helped to build support for the Sahrawi movement among international NGO’s, solidarity groups and even sympathetic Moroccans.
Internet communication became a key element in the Saharawi movement, with public chat rooms evolving as vital centres for sending messages, as breaking news regarding the burgeoning resistance campaign reached those in the Saharawi diaspora and among international activists. Despite attempts by the Moroccans to disrupt these contacts, the diaspora has continued to provide financial and other support to the resistance. Though there have been complaints from inside the territory that support for their movement by the older generation of Polisario leaders was inadequate, the Polisario appears to have recognized that by having signed a cease-fire and then having had Morocco reject the diplomatic solution expected in return, it has essentially played all its cards. So there was a growing recognition that the only real hope for independence has to come from within the occupied territory in combination with solidarity efforts from global civil society. There have been some small victories, such as the successful campaign which led to Sahrawi nonviolent resistance leader Aminatou Haidar securing the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, as well as forcing Moroccan authorities to reverse their expulsion order in December 2009, which resulted in her near-fatal 30-day hunger strike.
After Moroccan authorities’ use of force to break up the large and prolonged demonstrations in 2005 -2006, the resistance subsequently opted mainly for smaller protests, some of which were planned and some of which were spontaneous. A typical protest would begin on a street corner or a plaza where a Sahrawi flag would be unfurled, women would start ululating, and people would begin chanting pro-independence slogans. Within a few minutes, soldiers and police would arrive, and the crowd would quickly scatter. Other tactics have included leafleting, graffiti (including tagging the homes of collaborators), and cultural celebrations with political overtones. Such nonviolent actions, while broadly supported by the people, appear to have been less a part of coordinated resistance than a result of action by individuals. Still, the Moroccan government’s regular use of violent repression to subdue the Sahrawi-led nonviolent protests suggests that civil resistance is seen as a threat to Moroccan control.
One of the obstacles to the internal resistance is that Moroccan settlers outnumber the indigenous population by a ratio of more than 2:1 and by more in the major cities, making certain tactics used effectively in similar struggles more problematic. For example, although a general strike could be effective, the large number of Moroccan settlers, combined with the minority of indigenous Sahrawis who oppose independence, could likely fill the void resulting from the absence of much of the Sahrawi workforce. Although that might be alleviated by growing pro-independence sentiments among ethnic Sahrawi settlers from the southern part of Morocco, it still presents challenges that have not been faced by largely nonviolent struggles in other occupied lands - among them East Timor, Kosovo, and the Palestinian territories.
A shift in Morocco's strategy
Despite this, civil resistance also appears to have forced a shift in Morocco’s strategy to maintain control of the mineral-rich territory. Although the Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory put forward in 2006 does not meaningfully address Morocco’s legal responsibility to recognize the Sahrawi’s right of self-determination (see my Open Democracy article More Harm Than Good), it nevertheless constitutes a reversal of Morocco’s historical insistence that Western Sahara is as much a part of Morocco as other provinces by acknowledging that it is indeed a distinct entity. Protests in Western Sahara in recent years have begun to raise some awareness within Morocco, especially among intellectuals, human rights activists, pro-democracy groups, and some moderate Islamists - long suspicious of the government line in a number of areas - that not all Sahrawis see themselves as Moroccans and that there exists a genuine indigenous opposition to Moroccan rule.
In the occupied territory, Moroccan colonists and collaborators are given preference for housing and employment and the indigenous people receive virtually no benefits from their country’s rich fisheries and phosphate deposits. In response, a new tactic emerged late this summer, as Sahrawi activists erected the tent city about 15 kilometers outside of El Aioun, the former colonial capital and largest city in the occupied territory. Since any protests calling for self-determination, independence, or enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions are brutally suppressed, the demonstrators pointedly avoided such provocative calls, instead simply demanding economic justice. Even this was too much for the Moroccan monarchy, however, which was determined to crush this nonviolent act of mass defiance. The Moroccans tightened the siege in early October, attacking vehicles bringing food, water and medical supplies to the camp, resulting in scores of injuries and the death of a 14-year old boy. Finally, on November 8, the Moroccans attacked the camp, driving protesters out with tear gas and hoses, beating those who did not flee fast enough, setting off rioting and triggering the burning and pillaging of Sahrawis homes and shops, with occupation forces shooting or arresting suspected activists, hundreds of whom disappeared after the outbreak of violence.
Morocco has been able to persist in flouting its international legal obligations toward Western Sahara largely because France and the United States have continued to arm Moroccan occupation forces and blocked the enforcement of resolutions in the UN Security Council demanding that Morocco allow for self-determination or even simply the stationing of unarmed human rights monitors in the occupied country. So now, at least as important as nonviolent resistance by Sahrawis is the potential of nonviolent action by the citizens of France, the United States, and other countries that enable Morocco to maintain its occupation. Such campaigns played a major role in forcing Australia, Great Britain, and the United States to end their support for Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor.
Despite 35 years of exile, war, repression and international neglect, Sahrawi nationalism is at least as strong within the younger generation as their elders, as is their will to resist. How soon they will succeed in their struggle for self-determination, however, may well rest on such acts of international solidarity by global civil society.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and serves as advisory committee chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. His most recent book (co-authored with Jacob Mundy) is Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010).
Western SaharaNews Articles (7)Publications (20)Primary Resources (14)Links (3)18 November 2010
Western Sahara
A structure in Western Sahara
Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause.
By Stephen Zunes for openDemocracy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On November 8, Moroccan occupation forces attacked a tent city of as many as 12,000 Western Saharans just outside of Al Aioun, in the culminating act of a months-long protest of discrimination against the indigenous Sahrawi population and worsening economic conditions. Not only was the scale of the crackdown unprecedented, so was the popular reaction: In a dramatic departure from the almost exclusively nonviolent protests of recent years, the local population turned on their occupiers, engaging in widespread rioting and arson. As of this writing, the details of these events are unclear, but they underscore the urgent need for global civil society to support those who have been struggling nonviolently for their right of self-determination and to challenge western governments which back the regime responsible for the repression.
Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated nation located on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Africa. Traditionally inhabited by nomadic Arab tribes, collectively known as Sahrawis and famous for their long history of resistance to outside domination, the land was occupied by Spain from the late 1800s through the mid-1970s. The nationalist Polisario Front launched an armed independence struggle against Spain in 1973, and Madrid eventually promised the people of what was then still known as the Spanish Sahara a referendum on the fate of the territory by the end of 1975. Irredentist claims by Morocco and Mauritania were brought before the International Court of Justice, which ruled in favour of the Sahrawis’ right to self-determination. A special Visiting Mission from the United Nations engaged in an investigation that same year and reported that the vast majority of Sahrawis supported independence under the leadership of the Polisario, not integration with Morocco or Mauritania. Under pressure from the United States, which did not want to see the leftist Polisario come to power, Spain reneged on its promise for a referendum and instead agreed to partition the territory between the pro-Western countries of Morocco and Mauritania.
As Moroccan forces moved into Western Sahara, most of the population fled to refugee camps in neighboring Algeria. Morocco and Mauritania rejected a series of unanimous UN Security Council resolutions calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces and recognition of the Sahrawis’ right of self-determination. The United States and France, meanwhile, despite voting in favor of these resolutions, blocked the UN from enforcing them. Meanwhile, the Polisario – which had been driven from the more heavily populated northern and western parts of the country – declared independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Thanks in part to the Algerians providing significant amounts of military equipment and economic support, Polisario guerrillas fought well against both occupying armies. Mauritania was defeated by 1979, agreeing to turn their third of Western Sahara over to the Polisario. However, the Moroccans then annexed that remaining southern part of the country as well.
The Polisario then focused their armed struggle against Morocco and, by 1982, had liberated nearly 85% of their country. Over the next four years, however, the tide of the war was reversed in Morocco’s favor thanks to dramatic increases in American and French support for the Moroccan war effort, with U.S. forces providing important training for the Moroccan army in counter-insurgency tactics and helping with the construction of a wall which kept the Polisario out of most of their country. Meanwhile, the Moroccan government, through generous housing subsidies and other benefits, successfully encouraged thousands of Moroccan settlers to immigrate to Western Sahara. By the early 1990s, these Moroccan settlers outnumbered the remaining Sahrawis indigenous to the territory by a ratio of more than 2:1.
A cease fire in 1991 was part of an agreement that would have allowed for the return of Sahrawi refugees to Western Sahara followed by a UN-supervised referendum on the fate of the territory. Neither the repatriation nor the referendum took place, however, due to Moroccan insistence on stacking the voter rolls with Moroccan settlers and other Moroccan citizens that it claimed had tribal links to Western Sahara. To break the stalemate, the UN Security Council passed a resolution in 2004 which would allow Moroccan settlers to also vote in the referendum following five years of autonomy. Morocco, however, rejected this proposal too, with the apparent reassurance that the French and Americans would yet again threaten to veto any resolution imposing sanctions or other pressures on them to compromise.
Unarmed popular resistance
As happened during the 1980s in both South Africa and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the locus of the Western Sahara freedom struggle shifted from the military and diplomatic initiatives of an exiled armed movement to a largely unarmed popular resistance from within, as young activists in the occupied territory and even in Sahrawi-populated parts of southern Morocco confronted Moroccan troops in street demonstrations and other forms of nonviolent action, despite the risk of shootings, mass arrests, and torture. Sahrawis from different sectors of society have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause. Indeed, perhaps most significantly, civil resistance helped to build support for the Sahrawi movement among international NGO’s, solidarity groups and even sympathetic Moroccans.
Internet communication became a key element in the Saharawi movement, with public chat rooms evolving as vital centres for sending messages, as breaking news regarding the burgeoning resistance campaign reached those in the Saharawi diaspora and among international activists. Despite attempts by the Moroccans to disrupt these contacts, the diaspora has continued to provide financial and other support to the resistance. Though there have been complaints from inside the territory that support for their movement by the older generation of Polisario leaders was inadequate, the Polisario appears to have recognized that by having signed a cease-fire and then having had Morocco reject the diplomatic solution expected in return, it has essentially played all its cards. So there was a growing recognition that the only real hope for independence has to come from within the occupied territory in combination with solidarity efforts from global civil society. There have been some small victories, such as the successful campaign which led to Sahrawi nonviolent resistance leader Aminatou Haidar securing the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, as well as forcing Moroccan authorities to reverse their expulsion order in December 2009, which resulted in her near-fatal 30-day hunger strike.
After Moroccan authorities’ use of force to break up the large and prolonged demonstrations in 2005 -2006, the resistance subsequently opted mainly for smaller protests, some of which were planned and some of which were spontaneous. A typical protest would begin on a street corner or a plaza where a Sahrawi flag would be unfurled, women would start ululating, and people would begin chanting pro-independence slogans. Within a few minutes, soldiers and police would arrive, and the crowd would quickly scatter. Other tactics have included leafleting, graffiti (including tagging the homes of collaborators), and cultural celebrations with political overtones. Such nonviolent actions, while broadly supported by the people, appear to have been less a part of coordinated resistance than a result of action by individuals. Still, the Moroccan government’s regular use of violent repression to subdue the Sahrawi-led nonviolent protests suggests that civil resistance is seen as a threat to Moroccan control.
One of the obstacles to the internal resistance is that Moroccan settlers outnumber the indigenous population by a ratio of more than 2:1 and by more in the major cities, making certain tactics used effectively in similar struggles more problematic. For example, although a general strike could be effective, the large number of Moroccan settlers, combined with the minority of indigenous Sahrawis who oppose independence, could likely fill the void resulting from the absence of much of the Sahrawi workforce. Although that might be alleviated by growing pro-independence sentiments among ethnic Sahrawi settlers from the southern part of Morocco, it still presents challenges that have not been faced by largely nonviolent struggles in other occupied lands - among them East Timor, Kosovo, and the Palestinian territories.
A shift in Morocco's strategy
Despite this, civil resistance also appears to have forced a shift in Morocco’s strategy to maintain control of the mineral-rich territory. Although the Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory put forward in 2006 does not meaningfully address Morocco’s legal responsibility to recognize the Sahrawi’s right of self-determination (see my Open Democracy article More Harm Than Good), it nevertheless constitutes a reversal of Morocco’s historical insistence that Western Sahara is as much a part of Morocco as other provinces by acknowledging that it is indeed a distinct entity. Protests in Western Sahara in recent years have begun to raise some awareness within Morocco, especially among intellectuals, human rights activists, pro-democracy groups, and some moderate Islamists - long suspicious of the government line in a number of areas - that not all Sahrawis see themselves as Moroccans and that there exists a genuine indigenous opposition to Moroccan rule.
In the occupied territory, Moroccan colonists and collaborators are given preference for housing and employment and the indigenous people receive virtually no benefits from their country’s rich fisheries and phosphate deposits. In response, a new tactic emerged late this summer, as Sahrawi activists erected the tent city about 15 kilometers outside of El Aioun, the former colonial capital and largest city in the occupied territory. Since any protests calling for self-determination, independence, or enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions are brutally suppressed, the demonstrators pointedly avoided such provocative calls, instead simply demanding economic justice. Even this was too much for the Moroccan monarchy, however, which was determined to crush this nonviolent act of mass defiance. The Moroccans tightened the siege in early October, attacking vehicles bringing food, water and medical supplies to the camp, resulting in scores of injuries and the death of a 14-year old boy. Finally, on November 8, the Moroccans attacked the camp, driving protesters out with tear gas and hoses, beating those who did not flee fast enough, setting off rioting and triggering the burning and pillaging of Sahrawis homes and shops, with occupation forces shooting or arresting suspected activists, hundreds of whom disappeared after the outbreak of violence.
Morocco has been able to persist in flouting its international legal obligations toward Western Sahara largely because France and the United States have continued to arm Moroccan occupation forces and blocked the enforcement of resolutions in the UN Security Council demanding that Morocco allow for self-determination or even simply the stationing of unarmed human rights monitors in the occupied country. So now, at least as important as nonviolent resistance by Sahrawis is the potential of nonviolent action by the citizens of France, the United States, and other countries that enable Morocco to maintain its occupation. Such campaigns played a major role in forcing Australia, Great Britain, and the United States to end their support for Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor.
Despite 35 years of exile, war, repression and international neglect, Sahrawi nationalism is at least as strong within the younger generation as their elders, as is their will to resist. How soon they will succeed in their struggle for self-determination, however, may well rest on such acts of international solidarity by global civil society.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and serves as advisory committee chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. His most recent book (co-authored with Jacob Mundy) is Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010).
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
On W.Sahara, UN Blind As Probe Is Called For in Uganda Paragraphs, Mexico YouTube
On W.Sahara, UN Blind As Probe Is Called For in Uganda Paragraphs, Mexico YouTube
By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, November 16, updated -- As the Security Council started meeting about Western Sahara on Tuesday afternoon, all sides had and spread only limited information.
At 4:15 p.m., Uganda's Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda told Inner City Press that his country has proposed a full Press Statement calling for an investigative team to be send to Western Sahara. "Very sketchy," he called the information the UN provided.
Inner City Press asked on November 12 and 16 if the UN has any first hand information about the murders in the Gdeim Izik camp in El-Ayoun. No, acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq replied both times.
On what basis then was the UN's number two peacekeeper Atul Khare rushing into the Council eight minutes late? What possible information could he provide?
Inner City Press has heard and reported that the UN Department of Political Affairs prepared its first statement about the violence while watching YouTube videos. And DPKO?
Due to the lack of information, several delegations said they intended to ask for an investigation team. If DPKO has no information, one said, that is not normal, something will have to be done.
Others, including one member state joining the Council in January, said this added force to the request to be made again in April for a human rights component to the MINURSO peacekeeping mission.
But that's four months away, and things may have changed by then. A member said that language for a proposed “elements to the press” was being floated by Uganda, but that France would strongly oppose it. The US, too, was said to not favor any outcome to the meeting.
Khare previously with Yukio Takasu, now in line for DPKO job?
Two representatives of the Polisario Front spoke to the Press during the morning, while the Council met about Sudan. They spoke of a mass grave with 34 corpses, of MINURSO peacekeepers confined to their bases, under Moroccan surveillance, using vehicles with Morocco plates.
Inner City Press at the day's noon briefing asked Haq if MINURSO had visited the seen. We have no first hand knowledge, Haq said once again. He said he didn't know about MINURSO's licence plates, nor presumably the bugging. (Bed bugs were also asked about, and Inner City Press' exclusive report of fleas in the UN was confirmed.)
One country on the Council with a particular interest is Mexico, in part because it has one of its nationals, Antonio Velazquez, hiding in the area, posting evidence to YouTube. Mexico took the lead in asking for the meeting, but doesn't want to be seen out front. If Uganda proposes something, they are prepared to support. And Austria? Watch this site.
Footnote: In other DPKO news, Inner City Press reported by Twitter on November 15 that former Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu is in line for a job as Peacekeeping Advisor at the UN. On November 16 Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Haq, video here.
Update of 4:02 pm -- with the Council in closed consultations, the buzz such as there is at the stakeout involves quotes from the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch Peter Bouckaert, ranging from “We have so far only been able to confirm the death of two civilians” to “The civilian hospital in El-Ayoun was guarded by police who beat up wounded Sahrawis who came, and even Moroccan taxi drivers who brought them to the hospital.”
Polisario says that because people were afraid to go to the hospital, the number is under counted. Proponents of the number, on the other hand, say it is hard to hide dozens of bodies. Is this round and round debate being echoed in the closed door consultations? We will try to find out.
At 4:15 p.m., Uganda's Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda told Inner City Press that his country has proposed a full Press Statement calling for an investigative team to be send to Western Sahara. "Very sketchy," he called the information the UN provided.
Update of 4:43 pm - outside the Council chamber, a non Permanent member's Perm Rep tells InnerCityPress, of Uganda's draft Press Statement on Western Sahara, “I don't think it'll come out that way.”
Update of 4:55 pm - with closed door consultations continuing, at the stakeout a video asked about by the Moroccan side, and found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3z-V7T9Cc (beware: violent)
With the highlighting of “bladed weapons” and abuse, it's reminiscent of the video of the violence on the Gaza flotilla. Technology and war crimes, while the UN closes its eyes.
Update of 5:09 pm - the consultations are over, there WILL be "elements to the press," not the full press statement proposed by Uganda.
Update of 6:08 pm -- Mark Lyall Grant of the UK came to the stakeout and read out the “elements to the press” reproduced below. Then as Inner City Press asked about MINURSO's lack of first hand information, Lyall Grant said “no more questions” and walked away. But as has become a pattern this month, he took not a single question.
Next came Ruhakana Rugunda of Uganda, who said his country and the African Union are in favor of an investigation by the UN or an “independent force.” nner City Press asked who -- he didn't specify -- and about MINURSO's failure to go to the site. He said, “That should be answered by DPKO” - we'll be asking. The Polisario representative called MINURSO a “virtual mission... captured by Morocco.”
Morocco's Ambassador came next, speaking in Arabic. Inner City Press ran to the UN's North Lawn building for a stakeout about the G-20, at which French Ambassador Gerard Araud and his deputy were already standing, tending to their minister. Inner City Press asked about Chinese yuan, US Federal Reserve pouring out $600 billion and about IMF reform -- what that's another story. Watch this site.
These are the “Elements to the Press” read out by Mark Lyall Grant on November 16, after which he said “no more questions” --
The members of the Security Council have been briefed by the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Atul Khare, on the recent incidents in Western Sahara.
Council members deplored the violence in El Aaiun and Gdaim Izyk camp, and expressed their condolences over the deaths and injuries that resulted.
They reaffirmed their support for MINURSO and its mission.
The members of the Security Council also heard a briefing by the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy Ambassador Christopher Ross. They offered their full support for his ongoing efforts and urged the parties to demonstrate further political will towards a solution.
* * *
By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, November 16, updated -- As the Security Council started meeting about Western Sahara on Tuesday afternoon, all sides had and spread only limited information.
At 4:15 p.m., Uganda's Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda told Inner City Press that his country has proposed a full Press Statement calling for an investigative team to be send to Western Sahara. "Very sketchy," he called the information the UN provided.
Inner City Press asked on November 12 and 16 if the UN has any first hand information about the murders in the Gdeim Izik camp in El-Ayoun. No, acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq replied both times.
On what basis then was the UN's number two peacekeeper Atul Khare rushing into the Council eight minutes late? What possible information could he provide?
Inner City Press has heard and reported that the UN Department of Political Affairs prepared its first statement about the violence while watching YouTube videos. And DPKO?
Due to the lack of information, several delegations said they intended to ask for an investigation team. If DPKO has no information, one said, that is not normal, something will have to be done.
Others, including one member state joining the Council in January, said this added force to the request to be made again in April for a human rights component to the MINURSO peacekeeping mission.
But that's four months away, and things may have changed by then. A member said that language for a proposed “elements to the press” was being floated by Uganda, but that France would strongly oppose it. The US, too, was said to not favor any outcome to the meeting.
Khare previously with Yukio Takasu, now in line for DPKO job?
Two representatives of the Polisario Front spoke to the Press during the morning, while the Council met about Sudan. They spoke of a mass grave with 34 corpses, of MINURSO peacekeepers confined to their bases, under Moroccan surveillance, using vehicles with Morocco plates.
Inner City Press at the day's noon briefing asked Haq if MINURSO had visited the seen. We have no first hand knowledge, Haq said once again. He said he didn't know about MINURSO's licence plates, nor presumably the bugging. (Bed bugs were also asked about, and Inner City Press' exclusive report of fleas in the UN was confirmed.)
One country on the Council with a particular interest is Mexico, in part because it has one of its nationals, Antonio Velazquez, hiding in the area, posting evidence to YouTube. Mexico took the lead in asking for the meeting, but doesn't want to be seen out front. If Uganda proposes something, they are prepared to support. And Austria? Watch this site.
Footnote: In other DPKO news, Inner City Press reported by Twitter on November 15 that former Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu is in line for a job as Peacekeeping Advisor at the UN. On November 16 Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Haq, video here.
Update of 4:02 pm -- with the Council in closed consultations, the buzz such as there is at the stakeout involves quotes from the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch Peter Bouckaert, ranging from “We have so far only been able to confirm the death of two civilians” to “The civilian hospital in El-Ayoun was guarded by police who beat up wounded Sahrawis who came, and even Moroccan taxi drivers who brought them to the hospital.”
Polisario says that because people were afraid to go to the hospital, the number is under counted. Proponents of the number, on the other hand, say it is hard to hide dozens of bodies. Is this round and round debate being echoed in the closed door consultations? We will try to find out.
At 4:15 p.m., Uganda's Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda told Inner City Press that his country has proposed a full Press Statement calling for an investigative team to be send to Western Sahara. "Very sketchy," he called the information the UN provided.
Update of 4:43 pm - outside the Council chamber, a non Permanent member's Perm Rep tells InnerCityPress, of Uganda's draft Press Statement on Western Sahara, “I don't think it'll come out that way.”
Update of 4:55 pm - with closed door consultations continuing, at the stakeout a video asked about by the Moroccan side, and found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3z-V7T9Cc (beware: violent)
With the highlighting of “bladed weapons” and abuse, it's reminiscent of the video of the violence on the Gaza flotilla. Technology and war crimes, while the UN closes its eyes.
Update of 5:09 pm - the consultations are over, there WILL be "elements to the press," not the full press statement proposed by Uganda.
Update of 6:08 pm -- Mark Lyall Grant of the UK came to the stakeout and read out the “elements to the press” reproduced below. Then as Inner City Press asked about MINURSO's lack of first hand information, Lyall Grant said “no more questions” and walked away. But as has become a pattern this month, he took not a single question.
Next came Ruhakana Rugunda of Uganda, who said his country and the African Union are in favor of an investigation by the UN or an “independent force.” nner City Press asked who -- he didn't specify -- and about MINURSO's failure to go to the site. He said, “That should be answered by DPKO” - we'll be asking. The Polisario representative called MINURSO a “virtual mission... captured by Morocco.”
Morocco's Ambassador came next, speaking in Arabic. Inner City Press ran to the UN's North Lawn building for a stakeout about the G-20, at which French Ambassador Gerard Araud and his deputy were already standing, tending to their minister. Inner City Press asked about Chinese yuan, US Federal Reserve pouring out $600 billion and about IMF reform -- what that's another story. Watch this site.
These are the “Elements to the Press” read out by Mark Lyall Grant on November 16, after which he said “no more questions” --
The members of the Security Council have been briefed by the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Atul Khare, on the recent incidents in Western Sahara.
Council members deplored the violence in El Aaiun and Gdaim Izyk camp, and expressed their condolences over the deaths and injuries that resulted.
They reaffirmed their support for MINURSO and its mission.
The members of the Security Council also heard a briefing by the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy Ambassador Christopher Ross. They offered their full support for his ongoing efforts and urged the parties to demonstrate further political will towards a solution.
* * *
Monday, November 15, 2010
Incompetencia de la de la ONU, mas descrédito de la Comunidad Europea y del Gobierno Español
La verdad, que no hay palabras para describir el sentimiento de impotencia y frustración que sentimos ante la pasividad de la ONU y la Unión Europea , cuando vemos como los intereses de los países más fuertes se imponen en el seno de ambas instituciones ,incluso pasando por encima de los derechos humanos , no es nuevo,ya ha sucedido anteriormente y desgraciadamente seguirá sucediendo;el caso del Sáhara Occidental clama al cielo llevan 35 años esperando una solución ,desde 1991 año del alto el fuego , en el que la MINURSO se crea para la preparación de un referendum que nunca llega, evidentemente por intereses convenidos entre Francia y EEUU y dejando además un papel marginal a España que legalmente sigue siendo la potencia administradora en el Sáhara Occidental ,obedeciendo esta al dictado de los fuertes ,a tal extremo han llegado las cosas que Marruecos se permite el lujo de maltratar y amenazar a los periodistas españoles dentro de su territorio y muy especial mente en el Sáhara Occidental ocupado ,nos obligan a quitar a las mujeres policías de los puestos fronterizos de Ceuta y de Melilla y un sinfín de desatinos más.
No esla primera vez que el gobierno socialista de España, mira hacia otro lado ante los desmanes perpetrados por Marruecos contra la población civil saharaui, tanto dentro de Marruecos, como en el Sáhara Occidental ocupado sobre todo, pero el que lo haga ante un hecho tan grave como la sangrienta y brutal intervención de las fuerzas de seguridad marroquí,en el campamento de Gdeym Izik en las proximidades del Aaiún , que además ha sido seguida de una brutal represión que continúa hasta hoy y en la cual no sabemos todavía el número de víctimas entre fallecidos, heridos ,desaparecidos y detenidos, e incluso tratando de evitar el acceso a la zona de la prensa española, en el vano intento de ocultar estos crímenes contra la población civil saharaui; ante las lamentables declaraciones de la ministra de exteriores de España Trinidad Jimenez ,que se ha negado a condenar tan criminal represión alegando falta de datos , recordando la importancia geoestratégica y económica de nuestro vecino del Sur, y ante lo cual los ciudadanos españoles nos preguntamos ¿Donde están los tan cacareados derechos humanos? ,¿Donde se aplican? ¿En cualquier pais que esté en las Qimbambas? .Estos crímenes se han cometido y se siguen cometiendo a 100 kilómetros de Canarias en un territorio que está pendiente de descolonización , simplemente por manifestar sus habitantes su deseo de decidir libremente su futuro, este es su crimen y nada mas, ademas, al no haberse transferido la administración correctamente según la ONU , lo que sucede en el Sáhara Occidental no es, ni puede ser una cuestión ajena a España ,un ciudadano español de origen saharaui ha fallecido víctima de esta represión, pero otros muchos saharauis en mi opinión siguen siendo españoles a la luz de la irregularidad de la transferencia del territorio a Marruecos.
Estos crímenes que se han cometido y continuan cometiéndose no pueden ni deben quedar impunes, ya que al mirar hacia otro lado nos convertimos en cómplices de estos crímenes dando alas al opresor para que continue la represión y el genocidio contra el Pueblo Saharáui.
Marcos Gonzalez
No esla primera vez que el gobierno socialista de España, mira hacia otro lado ante los desmanes perpetrados por Marruecos contra la población civil saharaui, tanto dentro de Marruecos, como en el Sáhara Occidental ocupado sobre todo, pero el que lo haga ante un hecho tan grave como la sangrienta y brutal intervención de las fuerzas de seguridad marroquí,en el campamento de Gdeym Izik en las proximidades del Aaiún , que además ha sido seguida de una brutal represión que continúa hasta hoy y en la cual no sabemos todavía el número de víctimas entre fallecidos, heridos ,desaparecidos y detenidos, e incluso tratando de evitar el acceso a la zona de la prensa española, en el vano intento de ocultar estos crímenes contra la población civil saharaui; ante las lamentables declaraciones de la ministra de exteriores de España Trinidad Jimenez ,que se ha negado a condenar tan criminal represión alegando falta de datos , recordando la importancia geoestratégica y económica de nuestro vecino del Sur, y ante lo cual los ciudadanos españoles nos preguntamos ¿Donde están los tan cacareados derechos humanos? ,¿Donde se aplican? ¿En cualquier pais que esté en las Qimbambas? .Estos crímenes se han cometido y se siguen cometiendo a 100 kilómetros de Canarias en un territorio que está pendiente de descolonización , simplemente por manifestar sus habitantes su deseo de decidir libremente su futuro, este es su crimen y nada mas, ademas, al no haberse transferido la administración correctamente según la ONU , lo que sucede en el Sáhara Occidental no es, ni puede ser una cuestión ajena a España ,un ciudadano español de origen saharaui ha fallecido víctima de esta represión, pero otros muchos saharauis en mi opinión siguen siendo españoles a la luz de la irregularidad de la transferencia del territorio a Marruecos.
Estos crímenes que se han cometido y continuan cometiéndose no pueden ni deben quedar impunes, ya que al mirar hacia otro lado nos convertimos en cómplices de estos crímenes dando alas al opresor para que continue la represión y el genocidio contra el Pueblo Saharáui.
Marcos Gonzalez
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Thousands Protest In Spain Over Western Sahara
(AP) MADRID (AP) - Thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid on Saturday against Morocco's recent crackdown that has left at least 10 people dead in the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in northwestern Africa.
Many protesters blamed Spain for not taking a firmer stance against what they see as human rights abuses by Morocco's police and army in the territory.
Demonstration organizers said in a statement that the Moroccan government had sent in soldiers and police to quash local demands for better working and social conditions to mark the 35th anniversary of the territory's annexation by Morocco.
Among those protesting on Saturday was Hollywood actor Javier Bardem, as well as Spanish lawmakers and other political, civil rights and trade union leaders.
"There's a lot of people here as you can tell, just to condemn the violation of human rights in Sahara and to try to make the international community and especially the government of Spain understand that diplomacy is about human rights," Bardem said.
Protesters marched about a mile (2 kilometers) from Atocha railway station to downtown Sol square carrying banners saying "Morocco out of the Sahara, 35 years of occupation is enough" and "Free Sahara."
Western Sahara is a mineral-rich former Spanish colony that Morocco marched into and occupied when Spain withdrew in 1975, leaving a power vacuum.
Local Saharawi people have long campaigned for the right to self-determination. but most Moroccans now view the territory as a part of their kingdom.
"The reason for this protest is to ask our government, as former occupying power of Western Sahara, to resolve this conflict," said Juan Carlos Caballero, 46, president of the North Madrid association of friends of the Saharawi people.
Banners from many parts of Spain could be seen at the demonstration which also included live music and street performers dressed in the red, green, black and white of the traditional Saharawi flag.
The Moroccan-controlled territory's main city, Laayoune, is reported to be tense and overrun by police and heavily-armed troops following riots there Monday after Moroccan forces raided the crowded protest camp.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Many protesters blamed Spain for not taking a firmer stance against what they see as human rights abuses by Morocco's police and army in the territory.
Demonstration organizers said in a statement that the Moroccan government had sent in soldiers and police to quash local demands for better working and social conditions to mark the 35th anniversary of the territory's annexation by Morocco.
Among those protesting on Saturday was Hollywood actor Javier Bardem, as well as Spanish lawmakers and other political, civil rights and trade union leaders.
"There's a lot of people here as you can tell, just to condemn the violation of human rights in Sahara and to try to make the international community and especially the government of Spain understand that diplomacy is about human rights," Bardem said.
Protesters marched about a mile (2 kilometers) from Atocha railway station to downtown Sol square carrying banners saying "Morocco out of the Sahara, 35 years of occupation is enough" and "Free Sahara."
Western Sahara is a mineral-rich former Spanish colony that Morocco marched into and occupied when Spain withdrew in 1975, leaving a power vacuum.
Local Saharawi people have long campaigned for the right to self-determination. but most Moroccans now view the territory as a part of their kingdom.
"The reason for this protest is to ask our government, as former occupying power of Western Sahara, to resolve this conflict," said Juan Carlos Caballero, 46, president of the North Madrid association of friends of the Saharawi people.
Banners from many parts of Spain could be seen at the demonstration which also included live music and street performers dressed in the red, green, black and white of the traditional Saharawi flag.
The Moroccan-controlled territory's main city, Laayoune, is reported to be tense and overrun by police and heavily-armed troops following riots there Monday after Moroccan forces raided the crowded protest camp.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
ارتفاع حصيلة الشهداء ، المفقودين ، المختطيفين ، والمعتقلين الصحراويين والمنازل المداهمة بمدينة العيون المحتلة
ارتفاع حصيلة الشهداء ، المفقودين ، المختطيفين ، والمعتقلين الصحراويين والمنازل المداهمة بمدينة العيون المحتلة
التقرير حرر بتاريخ : 10 نونبر2010
يستمر الإحتلال المغربي في هجمته المسعورة ضد المواطنين الصحراويين بمدينة العيون المحتلة ، هذا ولحد الساعة تشير المعطيات الواردة من مدينة العيون المحتلة مواصلة مختلف الأجهزة القمعية المغربية قمعها الدموي مستعملة الرصاص الحي والمطاطي ، القنابل المسيلة للدموع في قمع الصحراويين ، وهو مانتح عنده سقوط العديد من الضحايا الصحراويين من بينهم شهداء ومصابين إصابات بليغة ومفقودين ومختطفين ومنازل مداهمة. وفي هذه الأثناء والساعة تشير إلى الساعة الحادية و30 دقيقة بتاريخ 10 نونبر2010 ، الشرطة المغربية وهي مدججة بالأسلحة تقتحم حي معطى الله ، حي ليراك ، حي النهضة ، وتقوم بإقتحام منازل الصحراويين بهذه الأحياء وشن حملة واسعة النطاق من الإختطافات والإعتقالات في صفوف المدنيين الصحراويين من مختلف الأعمار . وهذه لائحة بأسماء الضحايا ، سيتم تطعيمها أولا بأول بكل جديد نتوصل به من مدينة العيون المحتلة .
الشهداء الصحراويين
علي سالم الأنصاري ، أستشهد بمدينة أكادير المغربية ، بعدما رفضت المستشفيات المغربية إستقباله ، ليتم تم نقله من مدينة العيون المحتلة في حالة خطيرة جراء تعذيبه من طرف الجيش الملكي الغربي بتاريخ 08 نونبر 2010 . ليستشهد مساء اليوم 10 نونبر2010 .
الضحايا
نوع الإصابة
الشايعة منت محمد ولد سيدي البلال
مصابة بمختلف أنحاء جسمها
المحظية منت عبد الله ولد سيدي ولد البلال
مصابة على مستوى القدمين
مريم الحسيني 13 سنة
مصابة برضوض على مستوى أنحاء الجسم
لبنة عمنة
مصابة على مستوى الفخذ
مولاي أهل السباعي
مصاب على مستوى الرأي
محمود ولد المصطفى الخير البيلال
إعتدي عليه وتم تخريب سيارته
ثريا منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اعتدي عليها وهي حامل
اسليكة منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
تحجلب منت دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
فلوحة منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
الريم منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
مريم منت دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
انتصار منت دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
لخديجة منت الشيعة
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
مصطفى محمد بوناني
إصابة على مستوى الفخذ وأنحاء أخرى
الباتول منت سيدي ولد عبد الله
مصابة بسكور على مستوى اليدين
عائشة منت محمد سالم ولد بابا
مصابة بثلاثة كسور ،وفي حاجة إلى 03 عمليات جراحية
زينب منت الحاج أمبارك
مصابة على مستويات متفرقة من الجسم
المعتقلين والمختطفين و المفقودين
محمد ولد العربي دادة ، مختطف
أحمد بلمكي ، معتقل
ولد الدي ولد أنذور، مختطف
الليهة منت محمود ولد ميارة, معتقلة
الرباب منت محمود ولد ميارة, معتقلة
السالك لعبيدي عبد السلام, مفقود
الداه لحبيب احمد عياد, مفقود
اعمر محمد سالم يوسف, مفقود
عبد الرحمان مولود بيجة, مصاب إصابة خطيرة و مفقود
محمود البورحيمي, مفقود
محمد لحسين أنذور مختطف
الغوث الهاشمي معتقل
محمود الهاشمي معتقل
بشاري علي سالم ولد لحبيب مفقود
مولاي ولد البشير ولد علي سالم معتقل
عبد الله ولد لحسن ولد أبهي
محمد ولد الحسين ولد أدي
التوزاني ولد سالم ولد محمد مفقود
عبد الرحمان ولد عبد الجليل مفقود
المنازل المداهمة والمحاصرة
مكان تواجدها
منزل فاطمة الحيول
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل الحسيني
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل خديجة منت الحافظ الجوامعي
حي مايسمى بالعودة ، تمت محاصرته وترهيب عائلته
منزل أهل بوحمالة
شارع القدس بحي معطى الله
منزل أهل بوعمود
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل عكيدة
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل الزمامي
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل لخفاوني
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل سلامة ولد الديش تم إحراق سيارتيه
حي الفيلات
آهل دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الده
حي معطى الله
أهل محمود ولد هلاب
حي بلانا 92
أهل محمود ولد ميارة
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل لحسين أنذور
شارع بوكراع
منزل أهل الهاشمي
بالقرب من قيادة بوكراع
منزل أهل أميدان
شارع بوكراع
منزل أهل كريطة
شارع بوكراع
التقرير حرر بتاريخ : 10 نونبر2010
يستمر الإحتلال المغربي في هجمته المسعورة ضد المواطنين الصحراويين بمدينة العيون المحتلة ، هذا ولحد الساعة تشير المعطيات الواردة من مدينة العيون المحتلة مواصلة مختلف الأجهزة القمعية المغربية قمعها الدموي مستعملة الرصاص الحي والمطاطي ، القنابل المسيلة للدموع في قمع الصحراويين ، وهو مانتح عنده سقوط العديد من الضحايا الصحراويين من بينهم شهداء ومصابين إصابات بليغة ومفقودين ومختطفين ومنازل مداهمة. وفي هذه الأثناء والساعة تشير إلى الساعة الحادية و30 دقيقة بتاريخ 10 نونبر2010 ، الشرطة المغربية وهي مدججة بالأسلحة تقتحم حي معطى الله ، حي ليراك ، حي النهضة ، وتقوم بإقتحام منازل الصحراويين بهذه الأحياء وشن حملة واسعة النطاق من الإختطافات والإعتقالات في صفوف المدنيين الصحراويين من مختلف الأعمار . وهذه لائحة بأسماء الضحايا ، سيتم تطعيمها أولا بأول بكل جديد نتوصل به من مدينة العيون المحتلة .
الشهداء الصحراويين
علي سالم الأنصاري ، أستشهد بمدينة أكادير المغربية ، بعدما رفضت المستشفيات المغربية إستقباله ، ليتم تم نقله من مدينة العيون المحتلة في حالة خطيرة جراء تعذيبه من طرف الجيش الملكي الغربي بتاريخ 08 نونبر 2010 . ليستشهد مساء اليوم 10 نونبر2010 .
الضحايا
نوع الإصابة
الشايعة منت محمد ولد سيدي البلال
مصابة بمختلف أنحاء جسمها
المحظية منت عبد الله ولد سيدي ولد البلال
مصابة على مستوى القدمين
مريم الحسيني 13 سنة
مصابة برضوض على مستوى أنحاء الجسم
لبنة عمنة
مصابة على مستوى الفخذ
مولاي أهل السباعي
مصاب على مستوى الرأي
محمود ولد المصطفى الخير البيلال
إعتدي عليه وتم تخريب سيارته
ثريا منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اعتدي عليها وهي حامل
اسليكة منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
تحجلب منت دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
فلوحة منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
الريم منت دوكة ولد سيدي ابراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
مريم منت دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
انتصار منت دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الداه
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
لخديجة منت الشيعة
اصابات على مستوى الجسم
مصطفى محمد بوناني
إصابة على مستوى الفخذ وأنحاء أخرى
الباتول منت سيدي ولد عبد الله
مصابة بسكور على مستوى اليدين
عائشة منت محمد سالم ولد بابا
مصابة بثلاثة كسور ،وفي حاجة إلى 03 عمليات جراحية
زينب منت الحاج أمبارك
مصابة على مستويات متفرقة من الجسم
المعتقلين والمختطفين و المفقودين
محمد ولد العربي دادة ، مختطف
أحمد بلمكي ، معتقل
ولد الدي ولد أنذور، مختطف
الليهة منت محمود ولد ميارة, معتقلة
الرباب منت محمود ولد ميارة, معتقلة
السالك لعبيدي عبد السلام, مفقود
الداه لحبيب احمد عياد, مفقود
اعمر محمد سالم يوسف, مفقود
عبد الرحمان مولود بيجة, مصاب إصابة خطيرة و مفقود
محمود البورحيمي, مفقود
محمد لحسين أنذور مختطف
الغوث الهاشمي معتقل
محمود الهاشمي معتقل
بشاري علي سالم ولد لحبيب مفقود
مولاي ولد البشير ولد علي سالم معتقل
عبد الله ولد لحسن ولد أبهي
محمد ولد الحسين ولد أدي
التوزاني ولد سالم ولد محمد مفقود
عبد الرحمان ولد عبد الجليل مفقود
المنازل المداهمة والمحاصرة
مكان تواجدها
منزل فاطمة الحيول
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل الحسيني
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل خديجة منت الحافظ الجوامعي
حي مايسمى بالعودة ، تمت محاصرته وترهيب عائلته
منزل أهل بوحمالة
شارع القدس بحي معطى الله
منزل أهل بوعمود
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل عكيدة
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل الزمامي
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل لخفاوني
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل سلامة ولد الديش تم إحراق سيارتيه
حي الفيلات
آهل دوكة ولد سيدي إبراهيم الده
حي معطى الله
أهل محمود ولد هلاب
حي بلانا 92
أهل محمود ولد ميارة
حي مايسمى بالعودة
منزل أهل لحسين أنذور
شارع بوكراع
منزل أهل الهاشمي
بالقرب من قيادة بوكراع
منزل أهل أميدان
شارع بوكراع
منزل أهل كريطة
شارع بوكراع
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Report on Vitctims and Casualties- Arabic Version-
الاخبار يوم 9 نوفمبر 2010
العيون المحتلة
09.11.2010
بعد يوم دامي شهدته مدينة العيون المحتلة، استأنفت صباح اليوم الثلاثاء عمليات القمع المغربي بحي معطى الله حيث انتشر المئات من عناصر الجيش المغربي بمحيط الحي فاسحين المجال إلى عناصر من الشرطة مسلحين بمسدسات لاقتحام بعض المنازل كمنزل أهل لغريد ومنزل أهل بوحنانة
والى حدود كتابة هذا التقرير تقوم قوات الاحتلال بتسهيل وتعبيد الطريق أمام المئات من المستوطنين حيث بدؤوا في اقتحام منازل مواطنين صحراويين بحي الدويرات والوفاق وكذا الراحة ، انتقاما من مقاومتهم الشرسة يوم أمس وليلة البارحة لمحاولات جيش الاحتلال التدخل ضدهم .
فيما لا تزال مقاومة بطولية مستمرة لأحياء العودة والأمل لصد هجوم لجيش الاحتلال مدعوما بميليشا المستوطنين وقد شارك في التدخل العسكري طائرات مروحية كانت ترمي متظاهرين صحراويين بقنابل مسيلة للدموع
شارع اسكيكيمة يشهد مواجهات بين صحراويين وقوات الاحتلال التي نهبت محلات تجارية بعد كسرها .
زنقة جبل طارق هي الأخرى تشهد مواجهات عنيفة وإطلاق الرصاص المطاطي
ضد المتظاهرين
المستوطنين احرقوا إعدادية التعاون بدير أيدك ويقومون بنهب منازل صحراويين بعد اقتحامها
كل ذلك أسفر عن سقوط العديد من الجرحى ، فيما تؤكد أنباء من تلك الأحياء بوجود حالات خطيرة جدا ، كحالة المناضل الصحراوي سعيد اللومادي الذي يجهل مصيره إلى الآن.
مواجهات يوم أمس أسفرت عن سقوط شهيد صحراوي تم دهسه بسيارة تابعة للشرطة المغربية قبل أن تقوم عناصر أمنية بالاعتداء عليه بالضرب المفضي للموت
وكان جنود ومستوطنون قد اقتحموا أمس وابتداء من الساعة الثالثة من بعد الظهر عشرات المحلات التجارية تعود ملكيتها لمواطنين صحراويين .
كما أسفرت تلك المواجهات عن سقوط مئات الجرحى واعتقال مئات آخرين وهذه لائحة أولية بأسماء الضحايا
الإصابات
* الصحفي الأميركي John Thorn اعتدي عليه بالقرب من فندق نكجير هو والناشط الحقوقي إبراهيم الأنصاري ممثل منظمة هيومان رايتس ووتش
* احمد لحميد (حالة خطيرة) أصيب على مستوى الفك واليد وجرح غائر بالرأس
* احمد الطالبي " احمد ولد محمد سالم ولد حميدي" أصيب على مستوى الرأس والكتف
* عزيز الطالبي " عزيز ولد محمد سالم ولد حميدي" أصيب بجراح خطيرة على مستوى الرأس
* السالك لعسيري أصيب برصاصة على مستوى اليد
* البشير خدا أصيب بجرح أصيب بنزيف حاد بعد إصابته على مستولى الرأس
* مصطفى بونان أصيب برصاصة على مستوى الفخذ
* ماء العينين هدي
* سيدي الوالي
* لمباركي مولاي اعلي
- Mostrar texto citado -
* عيادة عوبة
* محمود ولد اباعيا
* سعد دويهي
* الدحو ولد اللو
* عبد الله ولد فركاك
* المجاهيد سدرة
* لارباس اليدالي
* بشيرنا اليدالي
* الناجم هيدالة ولد الخليل
* البكاي العرابي
* أمباركة من سويح منت السي بلخير
* طودار كمال ولد عبد اللطيف
* واقة عبد الله
* الوافي رشيد
* لمباركي فاطمة
* داهي حسون
* يسلم ولد الخليل
* سيولمة محمد لمبارك بوبكر
* محفوظ ازفاطي
* لوشاعة جاعة
* فالة الشتوكي
* سعيد اللومادي
* الغالية سيدي محمد الديد
* خديجة سيدي محمد الديد
* اكليمينة علالي الحبيب
* المحجوب علالي عثمان
* علالي عثمان الزاوي
* سيد احمد هاشم
* محمود سعيد يبلغ من العمر 8 سنوات
* خديجة عالي معاقة
* أم الخوت منت مولود مسنة
أسماء المعتقلين
* حسن بوعمود
* حمودي محمد سالم الليلي
* دادة اعلي سالم
* ليلى الليلي
* فاطمتو البيلال
* كزيزة لجود
* احمد الطنجي معتقل بإحدى الثكنات العسكرية
* بوريال محمد
* الزاوي الحسين
* محمد الأمين أهل الطالب معاق
* احمد جدو الخنشي
* محمد الأمين ولد خطري ولد الداه
* السلامي عبد الفتاح ولد اعلي بيبا
* المكي سيد احمد
* هباد إبراهيم
* البشير يايا
* الحبيب إبراهيم السالم اعلي الأحمر
* إبراهيم كشبار
* احمد كشبار
* انكية كشبار
* محمد سالم المرابط
* مبارك فريدو
* عبدي السعيدي
* المهدي الاسماعيلي
* احمد المكي
* لمين ماء العينين
* محمود لهويدي
* رشيد الشمامي
* النوف الركيبي محمد الأمين
* الركيبي الوالي
* سعيد ددي
* بوتباعة احمد
* عبد الرحمان البيلال
* أمبارك منيصير
*احمد حسن المكي
* بنكا الشيخ
* ألمين ماءالعينين
أسماء المختطفين مجهولي المصير
* أندور محمد مولود
* لعروسي ميان
* سكينة منت رمضان ولد البشرة
* عياش بوجمعة محمد الأمين
* عياش عمر ولد محمد الأمين
* مولاي اعلي مبارك
* لمام هدي
* حمزة الشواف
* احمد الكنتاوي
* محمد لمين الطالبي
* لالة الغالية مرزوك
* السالك التوالي
* محجوب التوالي
* لخميني القاضي
* بابيت حمزة
* إبراهيم علي سالم بابيت
بمدينة المرسى 25 كلم جنوب غرب العيون المحتلة أصيبت عائلة صحراوية بجروح بليغة على اثر تدخل لجيش الاحتلال لصدهم من التوجه إلى بادية المنطقة
وكان مواطنون صحراويون قد تعرضوا للتعذيب بعد اعتقالهم بالمدينة بسبب مشاركتهم في مظاهرة نظمت احتجاجا على ما تعرض له اخوانهم في مخيم مدينة اكديم ايزيك والعيون المحتلة وقد اصيب في ذلك التدخل
عائلة اهل احريم ، والمواطن الصحراوي عبد الحي الناصيري ، المواطن الصحراوي بلعمش رشيد
ليلى الليلي
مختطف
العلاوي مولود مختطف
مختطف قشلة الحشيشة
منزل إبراهيم لبيهي فتحوه بالرصاص شارع الحزام
في انتظار المزيد من التفاصيل أو إكمال التقرير
الجيش يكول الصحراء مغربية
أهل جعيدر وأهل المخليل طردهم من المخيم
شارع الحزام توقيف نيسان اعتقال خمسة على متنها شابين وثلاث نساء
توقيف السيارات بقوة السلاح
ف
العيون المحتلة
09.11.2010
بعد يوم دامي شهدته مدينة العيون المحتلة، استأنفت صباح اليوم الثلاثاء عمليات القمع المغربي بحي معطى الله حيث انتشر المئات من عناصر الجيش المغربي بمحيط الحي فاسحين المجال إلى عناصر من الشرطة مسلحين بمسدسات لاقتحام بعض المنازل كمنزل أهل لغريد ومنزل أهل بوحنانة
والى حدود كتابة هذا التقرير تقوم قوات الاحتلال بتسهيل وتعبيد الطريق أمام المئات من المستوطنين حيث بدؤوا في اقتحام منازل مواطنين صحراويين بحي الدويرات والوفاق وكذا الراحة ، انتقاما من مقاومتهم الشرسة يوم أمس وليلة البارحة لمحاولات جيش الاحتلال التدخل ضدهم .
فيما لا تزال مقاومة بطولية مستمرة لأحياء العودة والأمل لصد هجوم لجيش الاحتلال مدعوما بميليشا المستوطنين وقد شارك في التدخل العسكري طائرات مروحية كانت ترمي متظاهرين صحراويين بقنابل مسيلة للدموع
شارع اسكيكيمة يشهد مواجهات بين صحراويين وقوات الاحتلال التي نهبت محلات تجارية بعد كسرها .
زنقة جبل طارق هي الأخرى تشهد مواجهات عنيفة وإطلاق الرصاص المطاطي
ضد المتظاهرين
المستوطنين احرقوا إعدادية التعاون بدير أيدك ويقومون بنهب منازل صحراويين بعد اقتحامها
كل ذلك أسفر عن سقوط العديد من الجرحى ، فيما تؤكد أنباء من تلك الأحياء بوجود حالات خطيرة جدا ، كحالة المناضل الصحراوي سعيد اللومادي الذي يجهل مصيره إلى الآن.
مواجهات يوم أمس أسفرت عن سقوط شهيد صحراوي تم دهسه بسيارة تابعة للشرطة المغربية قبل أن تقوم عناصر أمنية بالاعتداء عليه بالضرب المفضي للموت
وكان جنود ومستوطنون قد اقتحموا أمس وابتداء من الساعة الثالثة من بعد الظهر عشرات المحلات التجارية تعود ملكيتها لمواطنين صحراويين .
كما أسفرت تلك المواجهات عن سقوط مئات الجرحى واعتقال مئات آخرين وهذه لائحة أولية بأسماء الضحايا
الإصابات
* الصحفي الأميركي John Thorn اعتدي عليه بالقرب من فندق نكجير هو والناشط الحقوقي إبراهيم الأنصاري ممثل منظمة هيومان رايتس ووتش
* احمد لحميد (حالة خطيرة) أصيب على مستوى الفك واليد وجرح غائر بالرأس
* احمد الطالبي " احمد ولد محمد سالم ولد حميدي" أصيب على مستوى الرأس والكتف
* عزيز الطالبي " عزيز ولد محمد سالم ولد حميدي" أصيب بجراح خطيرة على مستوى الرأس
* السالك لعسيري أصيب برصاصة على مستوى اليد
* البشير خدا أصيب بجرح أصيب بنزيف حاد بعد إصابته على مستولى الرأس
* مصطفى بونان أصيب برصاصة على مستوى الفخذ
* ماء العينين هدي
* سيدي الوالي
* لمباركي مولاي اعلي
- Mostrar texto citado -
* عيادة عوبة
* محمود ولد اباعيا
* سعد دويهي
* الدحو ولد اللو
* عبد الله ولد فركاك
* المجاهيد سدرة
* لارباس اليدالي
* بشيرنا اليدالي
* الناجم هيدالة ولد الخليل
* البكاي العرابي
* أمباركة من سويح منت السي بلخير
* طودار كمال ولد عبد اللطيف
* واقة عبد الله
* الوافي رشيد
* لمباركي فاطمة
* داهي حسون
* يسلم ولد الخليل
* سيولمة محمد لمبارك بوبكر
* محفوظ ازفاطي
* لوشاعة جاعة
* فالة الشتوكي
* سعيد اللومادي
* الغالية سيدي محمد الديد
* خديجة سيدي محمد الديد
* اكليمينة علالي الحبيب
* المحجوب علالي عثمان
* علالي عثمان الزاوي
* سيد احمد هاشم
* محمود سعيد يبلغ من العمر 8 سنوات
* خديجة عالي معاقة
* أم الخوت منت مولود مسنة
أسماء المعتقلين
* حسن بوعمود
* حمودي محمد سالم الليلي
* دادة اعلي سالم
* ليلى الليلي
* فاطمتو البيلال
* كزيزة لجود
* احمد الطنجي معتقل بإحدى الثكنات العسكرية
* بوريال محمد
* الزاوي الحسين
* محمد الأمين أهل الطالب معاق
* احمد جدو الخنشي
* محمد الأمين ولد خطري ولد الداه
* السلامي عبد الفتاح ولد اعلي بيبا
* المكي سيد احمد
* هباد إبراهيم
* البشير يايا
* الحبيب إبراهيم السالم اعلي الأحمر
* إبراهيم كشبار
* احمد كشبار
* انكية كشبار
* محمد سالم المرابط
* مبارك فريدو
* عبدي السعيدي
* المهدي الاسماعيلي
* احمد المكي
* لمين ماء العينين
* محمود لهويدي
* رشيد الشمامي
* النوف الركيبي محمد الأمين
* الركيبي الوالي
* سعيد ددي
* بوتباعة احمد
* عبد الرحمان البيلال
* أمبارك منيصير
*احمد حسن المكي
* بنكا الشيخ
* ألمين ماءالعينين
أسماء المختطفين مجهولي المصير
* أندور محمد مولود
* لعروسي ميان
* سكينة منت رمضان ولد البشرة
* عياش بوجمعة محمد الأمين
* عياش عمر ولد محمد الأمين
* مولاي اعلي مبارك
* لمام هدي
* حمزة الشواف
* احمد الكنتاوي
* محمد لمين الطالبي
* لالة الغالية مرزوك
* السالك التوالي
* محجوب التوالي
* لخميني القاضي
* بابيت حمزة
* إبراهيم علي سالم بابيت
بمدينة المرسى 25 كلم جنوب غرب العيون المحتلة أصيبت عائلة صحراوية بجروح بليغة على اثر تدخل لجيش الاحتلال لصدهم من التوجه إلى بادية المنطقة
وكان مواطنون صحراويون قد تعرضوا للتعذيب بعد اعتقالهم بالمدينة بسبب مشاركتهم في مظاهرة نظمت احتجاجا على ما تعرض له اخوانهم في مخيم مدينة اكديم ايزيك والعيون المحتلة وقد اصيب في ذلك التدخل
عائلة اهل احريم ، والمواطن الصحراوي عبد الحي الناصيري ، المواطن الصحراوي بلعمش رشيد
ليلى الليلي
مختطف
العلاوي مولود مختطف
مختطف قشلة الحشيشة
منزل إبراهيم لبيهي فتحوه بالرصاص شارع الحزام
في انتظار المزيد من التفاصيل أو إكمال التقرير
الجيش يكول الصحراء مغربية
أهل جعيدر وأهل المخليل طردهم من المخيم
شارع الحزام توقيف نيسان اعتقال خمسة على متنها شابين وثلاث نساء
توقيف السيارات بقوة السلاح
ف
Reports of 11 dead, 723 injured and 159 missing after violent clashes in Laayoune yesterday
PRESS RELEASE: NOVEMBER 9, 2010 IMMEDIATE
Reports of 11 dead, 723 injured and 159 missing after violent clashes in Laayoune yesterday
The Sandblast Team, 9th Nov 2010
The latest official figures released this morning by the Saharawi Ministry of Information report 11 Saharawi dead, 723 injured and 159 missing as a result of the violent dismantling of the Gdeim Izik protest camp outside Laayoune yesterday and brutal clashes between Saharawi protesters and Moroccan authorities in the capital. Additionally, new reports suggest that an unknown number of Saharawi have been detained as the authorities today continue to forcefully enter and ransack homes, arresting those over the age of 16.
For their part, Moroccan authorities announced the death of an employee of the Moroccan Phosphate Office, bringing the total number of deaths confirmed by Morocco to six. According to the Saharawi Press Service, the city has been sealed-off by Moroccan forces, preventing the entry of foreigners, including press, and making it very difficult for any reports to be independently confirmed. The figures are expected to change as more information becomes available.
New footage of yesterday’s destruction of the protest camp and the street violence in Laayoune, published by Saharawi activist group, Sahara Thawra, was released today by Spanish newspaper ABC and conveys the violent events as they unfolded.
http://www.abc.es/videos/20101109/colectivo-prosahararui-publica-imagenes-665359133001.html
There has been no international condemnation of yesterday’s events. The governments of Spain, the UK and the rest of the EU remain silent on the issue. The UN, which is brokering talks between Morocco and the Polisario in New York this week, merely urged the two sides to exercise “restraint”.
Sandblast, along with Western Sahara Campaign UK and War on Want urge members of the public to take action by writing to their MPs to push for UK and wider international intervention to prevent an escalation of violence and allow an independent investigation into events to take place. For more details please go to Sandblast’s Ning Community: http://sandblast-arts.ning.com/forum/topics/write-to-your-mp?commentId=4590061:Comment:698
Reports of 11 dead, 723 injured and 159 missing after violent clashes in Laayoune yesterday
The Sandblast Team, 9th Nov 2010
The latest official figures released this morning by the Saharawi Ministry of Information report 11 Saharawi dead, 723 injured and 159 missing as a result of the violent dismantling of the Gdeim Izik protest camp outside Laayoune yesterday and brutal clashes between Saharawi protesters and Moroccan authorities in the capital. Additionally, new reports suggest that an unknown number of Saharawi have been detained as the authorities today continue to forcefully enter and ransack homes, arresting those over the age of 16.
For their part, Moroccan authorities announced the death of an employee of the Moroccan Phosphate Office, bringing the total number of deaths confirmed by Morocco to six. According to the Saharawi Press Service, the city has been sealed-off by Moroccan forces, preventing the entry of foreigners, including press, and making it very difficult for any reports to be independently confirmed. The figures are expected to change as more information becomes available.
New footage of yesterday’s destruction of the protest camp and the street violence in Laayoune, published by Saharawi activist group, Sahara Thawra, was released today by Spanish newspaper ABC and conveys the violent events as they unfolded.
http://www.abc.es/videos/20101109/colectivo-prosahararui-publica-imagenes-665359133001.html
There has been no international condemnation of yesterday’s events. The governments of Spain, the UK and the rest of the EU remain silent on the issue. The UN, which is brokering talks between Morocco and the Polisario in New York this week, merely urged the two sides to exercise “restraint”.
Sandblast, along with Western Sahara Campaign UK and War on Want urge members of the public to take action by writing to their MPs to push for UK and wider international intervention to prevent an escalation of violence and allow an independent investigation into events to take place. For more details please go to Sandblast’s Ning Community: http://sandblast-arts.ning.com/forum/topics/write-to-your-mp?commentId=4590061:Comment:698
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
U.S. Middle East talks--a model for Western Sahara?
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/27/us_middle_east_talks_a_model_for_western_sahara
U.S. Middle East talks--a model for Western Sahara?Posted By Anna Theofilopoulou, Jacob Mundy Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - 12:23 AM Share
The recent decision by the Obama administration to invite Israel and the Palestinian Authority to engage in serious negotiations over the Middle East conflict should be instructive for those interested in resolving one that seems almost as intractable -- the Western Sahara dispute.
Key to this new effort in the Middle East conflict is (1) the US is sponsoring and supporting the talks; (2) the US has demanded that the two negotiate seriously, tackle the difficult subjects that have trounced previous attempts for resolution; and (3) the US has given the two sides a one-year deadline.
Though the fate of the Israel-Palestinian talks still hangs on a knife's edge, a similar attitude on the part of United States towards the Western Sahara dispute might pave the way to a durable solution to one of Africa's oldest conflicts.
Although there are many differences between the two conflicts, which the protagonists on both sides hasten to point out, there are also several undeniable parallels. They are both about the annexation of a geographical area by another state resulting in a group of people either coming under occupation or becoming homeless. In both cases the participants pay lip service to the result that the international community would like to see but with their actions boycott such outcome. Both conflicts have resulted in thousands of refugees living in camps or in exile for over two generations. In both cases the key parties are unequal in power, on the one side a powerful Western-backed state and on the other a former liberation organization with influential allies. In both cases, the US has been a strong, steady and undeniable supporter of the occupying state while paying lip service to the rights of the dispossessed nation.
Morocco, who took control of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in 1975, precipitated a war with the Sahrawi nationalist front Polisario, which has been backed by Algeria and the African Union. Morocco, with strong support from France and the Regan administration, was able to occupy most of Western Sahara by the time the UN Security Council got involved in 1988.
Another important parallel between Western Sahara and the Middle East conflict is that both peace processes made important strides when the Carter, Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations maintained an active interest in seeking a resolution and pressured both sides to make compromises. Conversely, both conflicts drastically deteriorated under the George W. Bush administration, who not only adopted an increasingly passive attitude but also an unabashedly partisan one towards Morocco and Israel in his second term.
Recently getting things back on track, the Obama administration told the Middle East protagonists that the path to Israeli security and Palestinian statehood is through negotiations. The parties to the Western Sahara conflict should be told that only through negotiations will Morocco and Polisario be able to mutually define the meaning of sovereignty and self-determination. These negotiations should be based upon the exchange of views and compromise, not dictating outcomes.
An important aspect of a more aggressive initiative in Western Sahara will be the coordination of the Security Council. China and Russia have tended to let the United States do the heavy lifting with some neutral support from Britain. France, on the other hand, maintains an unambiguously pro-Moroccan position on the issue and Spain, the former colonial power in Western Sahara, vacillates between the parties depending on which party holds power.
A serious initiative in Western Sahara means that it will be imperative that the Group of Friends for Western Sahara -- United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia and Spain -- first agree that there will be no daylight between them regarding the framework for negotiations based upon previous UN Security Council resolutions (i.e., a negotiated political solution that provides for self-determination). Indeed, if there is any need for pre-negotiations in Western Sahara, it is amongst those Western states claiming the most interest in the issue.
At the beginning, Western Sahara does not need high-level intervention from the White House or the State Department. Luckily for the United States, they have the next best thing: the current UN envoy to Western Sahara is former US diplomat Christopher Ross, who brings with him the neutrality of the UN Secretariat and the ear of Washington. For now, all that is needed to jumpstart the peace process in Western Sahara is for Presidents Obama and Sarkozy to the let parties know behind the scenes that they must engage in serious negotiations, listen to each other and get involved in a meaningful give and take. Then a joint communiqué from the US, France and Spain should follow that clearly lays out the terms of reference for the talks, establishes a one-year deadline for an agreement and commits the Security Council to a withdrawal from Western Sahara if no agreement is reached. Indeed, the US should leverage its veto over the UN mission in Western Sahara, which France backs for Morocco and Spain backs for its historical guilt, to get Paris and Madrid on board.
In Western Sahara, unfortunately, the motivation for spending the political capital necessary for peace is far less compelling than in Israel and Palestine. Since the 1991 ceasefire, most of the violence in Western Sahara has either come in the form of Morocco's often-brutal repression of dissident Sahrawis or the structural violence of thousands of Western Saharan refugees living in harsh exile in camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Apart from renewed Polisario threats to return to arms if its national rights are not recognized, the situation is not one that seems to threaten regional stability or US interests. Indeed, Morocco's 100,000 strong military occupation of Western Sahara makes it one of the most secure areas in a region increasingly seen as infested with an Al-Qaida franchise. When compared to the suffering and instability wrought by the Israel-Palestinian conflict on daily basis, it is no wonder that Western Sahara has earned low prioritization.
Nonetheless the Sahrawi refugees must come out of 35 years of exile in the camps to live a regular life in Western Sahara. Morocco needs to address its own domestic socio-economic issues and stop pouring resources of unknown size into a territory that it can only keep calm and quiet through repression. Further, regional economic integration and security cooperation on terrorism in Northwest Africa needs to come out of the deep freeze engendered by the enmity between Rabat and Algiers over Western Sahara.
As in the Middle East, there are no guarantees that the status quo is sustainable in Western Sahara (indeed, US Special Envoy Ross has recently noted the explicit non-sustainability of the status quo). It is now clear that leaving the parties to their own devices in the Middle East has only served to undermine the conditions for a viable two state solution. Similarly, the chances for a peaceful, stable and long-term resolution for Western Sahara will only diminish as the Security Council allows Morocco and Polisario to wage war-by-other-means without respite.
Often one hears in Washington that the parties must first show the political will necessary to solve the issue. Only then will the US back an aggressive peace initiative in Western Sahara. The problem with this argument is that it leaves the parties in the driver's seat. Anybody who understands the conflict should know that this will never happen. As long as either Morocco or Polisario can veto the peace-process, whether directly or through their respective proxies, the Security Council will be held hostage to a deteriorating situation.
Anna Theofilopoulou covered Western Sahara and North Africa in the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations from 1994 to 2006. She worked closely with former US Secretary of State, James A. Baker, III throughout his appointment as Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General on Western Sahara.
Jacob Mundy holds a PhD from the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. He is coauthor of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press). Find more information about the book at wsahara.stephenzunes.org
U.S. Middle East talks--a model for Western Sahara?Posted By Anna Theofilopoulou, Jacob Mundy Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - 12:23 AM Share
The recent decision by the Obama administration to invite Israel and the Palestinian Authority to engage in serious negotiations over the Middle East conflict should be instructive for those interested in resolving one that seems almost as intractable -- the Western Sahara dispute.
Key to this new effort in the Middle East conflict is (1) the US is sponsoring and supporting the talks; (2) the US has demanded that the two negotiate seriously, tackle the difficult subjects that have trounced previous attempts for resolution; and (3) the US has given the two sides a one-year deadline.
Though the fate of the Israel-Palestinian talks still hangs on a knife's edge, a similar attitude on the part of United States towards the Western Sahara dispute might pave the way to a durable solution to one of Africa's oldest conflicts.
Although there are many differences between the two conflicts, which the protagonists on both sides hasten to point out, there are also several undeniable parallels. They are both about the annexation of a geographical area by another state resulting in a group of people either coming under occupation or becoming homeless. In both cases the participants pay lip service to the result that the international community would like to see but with their actions boycott such outcome. Both conflicts have resulted in thousands of refugees living in camps or in exile for over two generations. In both cases the key parties are unequal in power, on the one side a powerful Western-backed state and on the other a former liberation organization with influential allies. In both cases, the US has been a strong, steady and undeniable supporter of the occupying state while paying lip service to the rights of the dispossessed nation.
Morocco, who took control of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in 1975, precipitated a war with the Sahrawi nationalist front Polisario, which has been backed by Algeria and the African Union. Morocco, with strong support from France and the Regan administration, was able to occupy most of Western Sahara by the time the UN Security Council got involved in 1988.
Another important parallel between Western Sahara and the Middle East conflict is that both peace processes made important strides when the Carter, Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations maintained an active interest in seeking a resolution and pressured both sides to make compromises. Conversely, both conflicts drastically deteriorated under the George W. Bush administration, who not only adopted an increasingly passive attitude but also an unabashedly partisan one towards Morocco and Israel in his second term.
Recently getting things back on track, the Obama administration told the Middle East protagonists that the path to Israeli security and Palestinian statehood is through negotiations. The parties to the Western Sahara conflict should be told that only through negotiations will Morocco and Polisario be able to mutually define the meaning of sovereignty and self-determination. These negotiations should be based upon the exchange of views and compromise, not dictating outcomes.
An important aspect of a more aggressive initiative in Western Sahara will be the coordination of the Security Council. China and Russia have tended to let the United States do the heavy lifting with some neutral support from Britain. France, on the other hand, maintains an unambiguously pro-Moroccan position on the issue and Spain, the former colonial power in Western Sahara, vacillates between the parties depending on which party holds power.
A serious initiative in Western Sahara means that it will be imperative that the Group of Friends for Western Sahara -- United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia and Spain -- first agree that there will be no daylight between them regarding the framework for negotiations based upon previous UN Security Council resolutions (i.e., a negotiated political solution that provides for self-determination). Indeed, if there is any need for pre-negotiations in Western Sahara, it is amongst those Western states claiming the most interest in the issue.
At the beginning, Western Sahara does not need high-level intervention from the White House or the State Department. Luckily for the United States, they have the next best thing: the current UN envoy to Western Sahara is former US diplomat Christopher Ross, who brings with him the neutrality of the UN Secretariat and the ear of Washington. For now, all that is needed to jumpstart the peace process in Western Sahara is for Presidents Obama and Sarkozy to the let parties know behind the scenes that they must engage in serious negotiations, listen to each other and get involved in a meaningful give and take. Then a joint communiqué from the US, France and Spain should follow that clearly lays out the terms of reference for the talks, establishes a one-year deadline for an agreement and commits the Security Council to a withdrawal from Western Sahara if no agreement is reached. Indeed, the US should leverage its veto over the UN mission in Western Sahara, which France backs for Morocco and Spain backs for its historical guilt, to get Paris and Madrid on board.
In Western Sahara, unfortunately, the motivation for spending the political capital necessary for peace is far less compelling than in Israel and Palestine. Since the 1991 ceasefire, most of the violence in Western Sahara has either come in the form of Morocco's often-brutal repression of dissident Sahrawis or the structural violence of thousands of Western Saharan refugees living in harsh exile in camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Apart from renewed Polisario threats to return to arms if its national rights are not recognized, the situation is not one that seems to threaten regional stability or US interests. Indeed, Morocco's 100,000 strong military occupation of Western Sahara makes it one of the most secure areas in a region increasingly seen as infested with an Al-Qaida franchise. When compared to the suffering and instability wrought by the Israel-Palestinian conflict on daily basis, it is no wonder that Western Sahara has earned low prioritization.
Nonetheless the Sahrawi refugees must come out of 35 years of exile in the camps to live a regular life in Western Sahara. Morocco needs to address its own domestic socio-economic issues and stop pouring resources of unknown size into a territory that it can only keep calm and quiet through repression. Further, regional economic integration and security cooperation on terrorism in Northwest Africa needs to come out of the deep freeze engendered by the enmity between Rabat and Algiers over Western Sahara.
As in the Middle East, there are no guarantees that the status quo is sustainable in Western Sahara (indeed, US Special Envoy Ross has recently noted the explicit non-sustainability of the status quo). It is now clear that leaving the parties to their own devices in the Middle East has only served to undermine the conditions for a viable two state solution. Similarly, the chances for a peaceful, stable and long-term resolution for Western Sahara will only diminish as the Security Council allows Morocco and Polisario to wage war-by-other-means without respite.
Often one hears in Washington that the parties must first show the political will necessary to solve the issue. Only then will the US back an aggressive peace initiative in Western Sahara. The problem with this argument is that it leaves the parties in the driver's seat. Anybody who understands the conflict should know that this will never happen. As long as either Morocco or Polisario can veto the peace-process, whether directly or through their respective proxies, the Security Council will be held hostage to a deteriorating situation.
Anna Theofilopoulou covered Western Sahara and North Africa in the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations from 1994 to 2006. She worked closely with former US Secretary of State, James A. Baker, III throughout his appointment as Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General on Western Sahara.
Jacob Mundy holds a PhD from the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. He is coauthor of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press). Find more information about the book at wsahara.stephenzunes.org
Monday, October 25, 2010
Escalation of violence against Saharawi civilians as Moroccan soldiers open fire killing a young boy near El Aaiun protest camp
SANDBLAST PRESS RELEASE
Escalation of violence against Saharawi civilians as Moroccan soldiers open fire killing a young boy near El Aaiun protest camp
El Aaiun (Occupied Western Sahara), October 25th 2010, Sandblast Team
A 14-year-old Saharawi boy was killed and seven others were injured yesterday (Sunday) evening near the Saharawi civilian protest camp outside El Aaiun. The Moroccan army opened fire on two vehicles the victims were travelling in as they attempted to deliver essential food, water and medicines to friends and relatives among the thousands of Saharawi camped out for the last two weeks some 12km east of the occupied capital of Western Sahara (El Aaiun).
The boy, Nayem El-Garhi, died instantly in the Nissan pick-up truck in which he was travelling, when it came under a hail of bullets at a control post, outside the camp. Saharawi sources report that seven others were wounded in the two vehicles, including the brother of the victim, Zupir El-Garhi. A Moroccan source puts the number of wounded at three people. All were taken to the military hospital in El Aaiun for treatment.
The victims had been pursued by the Moroccan army from the moment they left the city until their car was brought to a halt by the bullets some 2km from the Gdeim Izik camp, said the Saharawi source.
"Repeated calls by the Polisario Front and the Saharawi Government warning of imminent aggressive intervention by Moroccan forces against the protesters, have been confirmed by this cruel murder and attack on innocent young people who were trying to bring food to their families," a statement issued to the Sahara Press Service said.
The statement, which named two of the seven injured as Lagdaf El-Alwi and Mohamed Daudi, asserted that "the credibility of the UN is now being tested" and called on the international community to respond with a "rapid intervention to prevent a further tragedy.”
A delegation of peers and MPs will today address the issue in the UK with Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt MP, and have released the following reactions to last night’s developments:
“This death is a tragedy, but there are fears this is just the beginning. The UK government can help by urgently raising the issue with the Moroccan authorities to ensure the safety of those who peacefully protest the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.” [Jonathon Evans MP]
“This is a tragedy and a disgrace and at a meeting I have later today with the Foreign Office Minister I’ll be asking that the UK government make the strongest possible reps to the Moroccans not only to allow safe passage but also, to end the political stalemate by allowing the people of the Western Sahara the free choice to decide the future of their own land.” [Jeremy Corbyn MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara]
“I will be raising this issue with the Minister. We cannot continue to ignore the brutality of the Moroccan authorities against those who peacefully demonstrate for their right to independence. The first step is for the Security Council to implement human rights monitoring in Western Sahara.” [Mark Williams MP]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)