Western Sahara declares resumption of liberation war
War broke out between Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic ( SADR) and Morocco on Saturday after the occupying power, Morocco violated the 1991 UN- brokered Peace Plan by attacking civilian protesters.
Briefing the local media Monday in Gaborone this week, Ambassador of Western Sahara to Botswana Malainin Mohammed described the action by Morocco, the illegitimate occupying power in SADR, to attack protesting Saharawi civilians as the “last straw that broke the camel’s back”.
He said that Saharawis, through their liberation movement, Polisario Front, were charged and employing a mixture of classical war and guerilla war tactics to drive out the coloniser.
WESTERN SAHARA IS THE LAST COLONY IN AFRICA.
Mohammed explained that it was supposed to have been decolonised with the rest of Africa in 1975 but unfortunately, an African neighbour, Morocco, decided to invade it following an illegal and secret agreement with the colonial power, Spain.
And since 1975 the two powers – Spain and Morocco - shifted in colonising Western Sahara. He said that the African Union ( AU) and the United Nations ( UN) have never accepted this situation and have always tried to convince Morocco to stop the occupation. In 1975 the Saharawi people waged a liberation war against Morocco and the Mauritania in the beginning. For 16 years Polisario Front, the liberation movement of Western Sahara, fought back the Moroccan invasion and in 1991 the UN succeeded to broker a peace plan between Morocco and Polisario Front and a Referendum was supposed to be held the next year ( 1992). “So it was in 1992 that this issue should have been finished with a simple democratic vote where Saharawi people could hold the sovereignty of their country like all other people.
“This didn’t happen because of many factors, the main one being that Morocco has always stalled and always succeeded to agree on something and then withdraw from it after two years, thereby wasting our time and time and money of the United Nations,” the envoy said.
In 1991 the United Nations had established a Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara ( MINURSO) and according to Mohammed so far
in 2019 this mission has used over $ 1 billion from the international community money without any results, “it didn’t achieve anything”!
Frustrated by Morocco’s inactions and the failure of the United Nations, Mohammed explained that of late the Saharawi civil society decided to demonstrate in front of the 2700KM long Moroccan Military wall, which has been built on their land as they wanted to stop Morocco and ask the UN to resolve the issue once and for all. Mohammed said that a group of representative of Saharawi civil society organisations chose a region called Guerguerat in the southwest of Western Sahara where Morocco has opened a breach in its wall and started channeling its trade.
The protesters said, “No, this is our land we don’t allow an occupying power to continue exporting our resources” and they started the sit- ins on the 20th October 2020. And last Friday November 13th 2020, Morocco decided to intervene in a military operation against these civilians. Mohammed said that Saharawi Army was alert since Morocco had sent many threats to
these demonstrators. Even before that, Saharawi President, Brahim Ghali, who doubles as Secretary General of Polisario Front, stated a few days prior that if any operation is undertaken against the civilians, the Saharawi Army will respond.
“This is exactly what happened. On Friday 13th November early morning around 8 or 9 AM the Moroccan soldiers tried to attack civilians and Saharawi army responded, evacuated civilians safely and war started.
“The same day the Saharawi Liberation Army everywhere started attacking Moroccan military positions. The President of Western Sahara also sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guetteres saying that if Morocco attacked Western Sahara, there is no ceasefire anymore and he decreed the end of engagement and commitment of Saharawi leadership to the ceasefire and he also declared the resumption of armed struggle for liberation.
“The fight is not only in Guerguerat now, but all along the Moroccan military wall. From Friday we have four positions in four main regions where there are various Moroccan bases that are attacked. “The attack now is just artillery and missiles and this type of warfare, but the point now is that there is no peace in Western Sahara since Friday,” the Ambassador explained.
As for the response of the international community he said so far it has been muted with “nothing serious” except calling for calm.
“We have been calm and patient for the past 30 years, but what did the UN do in the 30 years, it wasn’t one or two years it was 30 years of our lives, the lives of our kids and the UN was just sitting there doing nothing, even human rights violations against our people in the occupied zones were not prevented by the UN Mission or by the UN Security Council”. He said that in the occupied territories and Moroccan controlled areas have turned into fields of demonstrations since Polisario Front declared the end of ceasefire.
Whilst civil demonstrations have always been there, as well as political prisoners in the 45 years of occupation, Mohammed said the people in the occupied territories now consider that they are in a war against Morocco since their country is in a war against Moroccan occupation army.
He said that Morocco started arresting demonstrators, most of them kids and young people on Saturday, but did not have actual numbers because it is still going on. As for the African Union, he said its Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, issued a letter on the 12th of November calling for calm among the parties and also calling on the UN and the two parties to implement and stick by the UN- AU Settlement Plan of 1991 as well as the organisation of a referendum. “This is not enough, more is needed. The international community should do more than just calling for calm. It should intervene against the colonial power. It should impose the respect of the international law and international legality. This is how things should be done,” he said, accusing particularly France, which sits in the UN Security Council of backing Morocco’s intrasigence. He said that allowing Morocco for 50 years to occupy “our territory and waste our time” and that of the international community and hinder the peace and stability of the whole region is “very serious and cannot continue”/
“The Saharawi leadership has declared that we are in a state of war now and we will do whatever is necessary to get our rights back”, said the Western Sahara envoy.