Vol. 72/No. 39      October 6, 2008

A public meeting here in late August about the Western Sahara struggle heard Mohamed Beissat, minister in charge of African affairs for the Polisario Front, which is leading the independence fight.

Beissat said the regime in Morocco, which maintains an army of occupation in Western Sahara, has stalled UN-sponsored negotiations begun in 2007 by insisting that autonomy can be the only option for the region. “We say that, in accordance with its resolutions, the United Nations must organize a referendum that allows Saharawis to choose between all alternatives—autonomy, incorporation into Morocco, or independence,” Beissat explained.

The Polisario leader was in New Zealand en route to the Pacific Islands Forum meeting on the island of Niue, where he hoped to win diplomatic recognition from Pacific Island nations for the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which controls 30 percent of the territory of Western Sahara. Diplomatic relations were established July 31 between the Republic of Vanuatu and SADR.  
 
Spanish colonial domination
Beissat told the audience that the struggle of the Saharawi people for independence dates back to the 1970s when the Polisario Front led wars, first against Spanish colonial domination, and then, after Madrid was forced to quit the territory, against invasions from Morocco and Mauritania. The invaders forced many Saharawis from their homes. Today about 170,000 still live in refugee camps in southwest Algeria.

“Mauritania withdrew in 1979, and we reached a cease-fire with Morocco in 1991,” Beissat said. “But since then Morocco has sabotaged every chance of agreement.” He added that the Polisario Front has not ruled out resuming armed struggle, given the failure of the United Nations to organize a promised referendum.

Beissat explained how the Moroccan regime organized settlers to move to Western Sahara and demanded they be able to vote in any referendum. Settlers have spent 17 years living in squatter camps in Laayoune, the capital city. When the Moroccan king visited in 2006, they staged protests over these conditions. “We are confident many of them will support us,” the Polisario leader said.  
 
Independence demonstrations
Since 2005, Saharawis in the occupied zone of Western Sahara, and Saharawi students at universities in Morocco, have demonstrated for independence, Beissat said. The protesters face harsh repression, such as prison sentences of five or six years for distributing pamphlets or displaying the Saharawi flag.

Asked about the attitude of imperialist powers, Beissat said the governments of the United States and France now support the “autonomy” position of Morocco. In many ways “Morocco is still a French colony,” he said. Recent privatizations of state assets there were in fact “Francifications,” so when Paris supports the Moroccan regime, “it is actually defending its own interests.”

To a question from a member of the audience who asked whether an independent Western Sahara could be anything but “a failed state,” Beissat responded that telling peoples they were incapable of ruling themselves was “a racist, colonial argument.”

He pointed out that Morocco itself is an impoverished country, 147th on the UN index of social development, and that the Moroccan people had a proud history of struggling for democracy, “deeply rooted and enshrined in the fisheries, fields, factories, schools, and universities.” He cited “peoples committees” recently formed in Sidi Ifni, Morocco, and other cities in the country to protest the rising prices of food and fuel.

Steve Parfitt contributed to this article.  
 
 
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