Controversial Polisario Front congress starts in Tifariti
2007-12-16
Polisario Secretary-General Mohamed Abdelaziz told the 12th congress that his group is waging a "war of liberation". Morocco considers holding the congress in an UN buffer zone a violation of the ceasefire.
Boualam Senhadji in Algiers and Naoufel Cherkaoui in Rabat contributed to this report – 16/12/07
 [Getty Images] Polisario Front Secretary-General Mohammed Abdelaziz said Western Saharans are waging a "just war of liberation" |
Polisario's 12th congress opened in Tifariti on Friday (December 14th), despite objections by Morocco, which considers the area part of the UN buffer zone established to end the military conflict.
In a speech made at the opening of the group's five-day congress, Polisario Front Secretary-General Mohammed Abdelaziz said before an audience of more than 1,700 participants that Western Saharans are waging a "just war of liberation".
The war, said Abdelaziz, "will continue until its noble objectives are realised, however long it may take, whatever moves the colonists make and whatever means of struggle are authorised by international resolutions." Addressing some 250 delegations from countries including Algeria, South Africa, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, Uruguay, Senegal, Mali and Mauritania, he spoke of the Sahraouis' "fight to protect our rights by all means, by peaceful resistance and armed conflict." Abdelaziz said an "uprising" would provide a solution to break the deadlock in UN-sponsored talks between Morocco and the Front. The talks are scheduled to resume in January after two unsuccessful rounds.
This is the first time since 2003 that the Polisario Front has held a congress in what it calls "liberated territories" of Western Sahara. Previous congresses have been held in refugee camps near the south-western Algerian town of Tindouf.
Last Wednesday, Morocco called on the UN to intervene to prevent the congress from going ahead in Tifariti. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday, Moroccan Foreign Minister Tayeb Fassi-Fihri criticised the fact that the meeting was being held there, in "blatant violation of the ceasefire" brokered by the UN in 1991.
"The kingdom of Morocco reserves the right to take all necessary actions to react to this regrettable development that is rejected and denounced by the whole of the Moroccan people," the letter said, adding that the latest developments "seriously impair the climate of serenity that is essential to the process of negotiations."
Both houses of Morocco's Parliament adopted a declaration on Wednesday denouncing what they called the "Polisario's threat to resume military conflict" and urging the UN to intervene to stop the Sahrawi congress. The declaration described the conference as an attempt by the Polisario to abort the Manhasset talks. It added that the Front had failed to manage the current situation after what it called wide support received by Morocco's proposal of autonomy.
In his speech, Abdelaziz described diplomatic overtures made to the UN and the Security Council as a bid to achieve international equality via the adoption of Security Council Resolutions 1754 and 1783, which call for direct negotiations between the two opposing parties.
Morocco has proposed an autonomous statute for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty while the Polisario Front is pushing for a referendum including the option of full independence.
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بنيونس حجازي Posted 2007-12-16
No reasonable person can discuss that the Sahara is Moroccan in view of history, geography and relations. The International Court of Justice confirmed the ties of allegiance between the Sultan of Morocco and the Saharan tribes. We Muslims understand the meaning of allegiance and fully grasp its purport. The Sahara issue wouldn’t have reached this level if Algeria were liberated from the mentality of the sixties and pumped new blood in its veins. The Algerians themselves suffer from the persistence of this mentality in the ruling bloc for their fatal mistakes in managing public affairs, controlling the wealth of the State with power of the sword. The suffering between the two nations is common and there’s no hope to see the emergence of a group of Algerians who bear modern thinking, favouring reasonable interest over buried hatreds deep-rooted in big-headed minds overcome by history.
Daoudi Posted 2007-12-16
This is a war of underdeveloped countries. Morocco is within its rights, and I find this letter sent by Morocco to the UN ridiculous. The king should have issued a declaration. It should have denounced the matter further. This proves once again the incompetence of our leaders. Let mercenaries celebrate on our territory! It's shameful and humiliating.
امين Posted 2007-12-16
The Sahara is Moroccan. Morocco accepted conducting the referendum but the United Nations knew that it was impossible to conduct it given the disagreement of the electoral board because the polisario refused registering many people of Sahraoui origins. And now Morocco is proposing the extended autonomy but Algeria refuses.
moha Posted 2007-12-16
they lost that why they want to fight us. it is easy to start the war but stopping it ,it's impossible .the land belongs to emazighen and think twice before any action mrs abdelaziz.you need food water ,medication and education but war will send you to sky.welcome to your country morocco and in marakesh your origine is there and never fight against your people and your religion .stop the war now.and let us be united in the name of peace ,land,and blood ,our people does not deserve war anymore .the occupation by spain and frensh just left 50 years ago let keep our nerves stable and do not play dirty politics mrs abedelaziz ,you're a muslim and arabic by god .free people please.
faicel Posted 2007-12-17
The Sahara is Moroccan and will always be Moroccan. Will raise a red and green flag to the end of the world. It’s our nation and we’re always ready to defend our country and our Sahara. Allah, the nation and the king. The Sahara is Moroccan.
sahraoui Posted 2007-12-17
May Algeria stop using our brothers who are quarantined in the camps of Tindouf for military manoeuvres that no one is benefiting from, including the mafia of Algerian military leaders. Every time the price of oil goes up bit, the aforementioned doesn’t shy away from causing a controversial situation in order to justify its reign and thus it possession of the entire “cake”. And, the Sahrawi are the only ones to pay the price!!! It is time that the oil profits be used towards ends that serve our brother Algerian people!!! And why not even in investments in the Grand Maghreb that would bring returns!!! It is clear that if the European borders were open, the leaders of the Maghreb would no longer even have a population to govern!!! Thus, by just making a small comparison of the two, nothing can convince me that by their own volition the Sahrawi are happy to rest in this conditions, being confined from all advantages, including just being in their motherland!!! So, stop speculating at the cost of innocent human lives and take the bull of development by its horns. Stop watching in the rear-view mirror and, for anyone hoping for a better life for the people of the Maghreb, look forward!!!
ibn tachafine Posted 2007-12-17
This referendum is fair only in the dreams of the Polisario and their Algerian masters. Moroccans will never accept this, even if Algeria do get a referendum from the Kabyle and Touareg people for freedom. Long live a free Touareg people! Long live a free Kabyle people! And, long live a multiethnic Morocco!
ibn tachafine Posted 2007-12-17
Neither the Algerians, their servile Polisario dogs, nor anyone else can do anything! By peace or by war, the Sahara is Moroccan and will always be Moroccan!
aziz taroudant Posted 2007-12-18
I say it openly, the Polisario Front should, it's not a State and not a party, we want it to accept autonomy because it's the suitable solution for the dispute of the Sahara. If the Moroccan Sahara wants war, it can't make it.
خالد Posted 2007-12-18
I hope that war will start and we will preserve the Sahara, so that we finish with this old and void discussion.
Benjamin Posted 2007-12-19
Given that you say the Saharan territory formerly occupied by Spain is part of Morocco, I wonder why then your governments, one after the other, are afraid of referendum. I have some friends from the Maghreb, and I know that the Kabyles and the Touaregs do not have similar problems. For example, between the Polisario and Morocco, there was a war. Moreover, in Algeria there was a Kabyle as prime minister. And, I also know that the current head of the powerful workers' union is Kabyle. The central directors of all ministries are also of Kabyle origin. Treating people from mafia or dogs, NO. Be cool while awaiting the reactions of those concerned.
anti ibn tachafine Posted 2007-12-20
You are just blowing hot air about the Sahara being Moroccan. Moreover, you are born out of ignorance: the borders were drawn by the West such that we would mutually confront each other while they get richer, idiot!!! And, one more thing, perhaps Algeria will not give freedom to the Touaregs. I do not know why, but Algeria has always been completely against you. Your people are eating the crumbs of the foreigners who are governing you!!!
gol Posted 2007-12-20
Mr. Benjamin- Morocco is not afraid of a referendum. It is simply incapable of conducting it: there is a problem of identifying true Sahrawis of Moroccan origin in the Western Sahara from the Algerian Touaregs whom Algeria wants to pass off as Sahrawis. Even the head of the Polisario, Mohammed Abdelaziz is a perfect illustration of this: he is not a native of the Western Sahara because he was born in Marrakech. That is why Morocco proposed autonomy to this deception born out of the Cold War.
Gromo Posted 2007-12-20
To my knowledge, the Kabyles never demanded independence. They are not dumb enough to leave the rest of Algeria behind, especially the oil-producing region of the Sahara. On the other hand, they did demand autonomy in governing their region, a formula that permits them to sanction local officials in the case of ineffectuality or poor results in how the affairs of the region are conducted. For the moment. A wali, (a prefect) or a subordinate prefect which makes a blunder is simply transferred out with a promotion just to make the same mistake again, i.e. to repeat the same mistakes as they did in Kabylie.
BEN Posted 2007-12-21
Okay, suppose we gave independence to the Kabyles—because there exist those who claim to be Kabyle and are making a cause of it, even with their Muslim religiosity—Touaregs, Moroccan Sahrawis, Soussi, Andaloux, Tamazighs, Fassis Kabyles, and so on and so on, then we would need to say “goodbye” to the Maghreb in light of pleasing a multinational oil corporation like the one Mohammed Abdelaziz is promoting. The rational and conscious people of the Maghreb have learned the lesson of these distractions. You can see it above all else in their participation in the elections. The Maghreb is not going to sink into this partition at the hands of those people to whom it appears to belong and who pretend to be acting in its name. Be careful!!!
maghrébin Posted 2007-12-22
Sir, Morocco has never been afraid of a referendum. On the contrary, it is its adversaries that never cease to put sticks in its spokes. In effect, this started from the time that the latter realised that the number of Moroccan Sahrawi who wanted to remain citizens in their patrimony surpassed those who wanted the opposite. Thus, they invent histories. Of course, as a sovereign state, Morocco will not allow its territories to cede at the mercy of Spanish colonial mandates. How many people wanted to quit Southern Morocco in this rough time? So, as the UN concluded, a referendum is ideal but unrealisable. In this context, Morocco propose a better solution to end this: autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. The methods remain to be discussed, but as always, in spite its brother Moroccans and those who support them, the Algerian government has nothing but its own interests in mind. They want nothing but access to the Atlantic, even if they have to march over corpses to get it!!! And, its proposition to divide the territories is the proof!!! This scheme has also found support in certain Westerners, most notably the Spanish. As everyone knows, Moroccan-Spanish relations are reverberating in the contours of the islands, Ceuta, and Melilla as well as sardine fishing and other economic and historical stakes stemming all the way back to the period of Islam’s expansion into Andalusia. The last visit of the Spanish sovereign Juan Carlos is nothing but an illustration of this. There is thus one question not only for the Moroccan government but for the Moroccan people too: of the brothers, who needs to be ruled!!!??? And should it just be for all the cash in the Maghreb and elsewhere!!!???
AYALA Posted 2007-12-23
Morocco in its Sahara and the Sahara in its Moroccanism, this was determined.
محمد Posted 2007-12-23
No one doubts that the Sahara belongs to the Moroccans. We Moroccans call upon our Algerian and Arab brothers, in the name of Islam and Arabism, to speak out and defend the legitimacy of the Moroccan cause because they are absolutely certain that the Moroccan government has no intention to spill blood amongst brother nations despite the provocation undertaken by the Algerian government against us all...
ka der mantes Posted 2007-12-23
Algeria supports the Polisario and if Algeria wanted, the conflict would stop.
mo Posted 2007-12-23
i don't understand all this animosity against algeria in a conflict that was left by spain clonialist power . there is people of western sahara wanting to be independant and free and have their own nation that was taken from them by morroco (remember the green march).and Algeria is blamed because thousands of refugees runing away from morocan settled in algerian territories .and if the problem is between algeria and moroco why moroco is meeting with polisario in manassas under UN talks its a problem between moroco the polisario and the UN.
صالجي Posted 2007-12-24
Morocco is Morocco, and the Sahara is a Sahara, so why this obstinacy, brothers?
salm omar ould sidi masoud Posted 2007-12-25
I venture that Morocco should not hold a referendum for or against territorial integration (and I am a pure Sahrawi, even more so than those from Tindouf, who are 60 per cent Mauritanian or Algerian); but rather a referendum posing the question: what does it mean to be Sahrawi. Without a doubt the Polisario’s front will disappear, because they are the footmen of Algiers, without any personal decision or political independence. The United Nations needs to free our brothers in Tindouf and all this will change.
ادم Posted 2007-12-26
The Sahara is Moroccan and will remain Moroccan whether you want or not. We ask the rulers of Algeria to withdraw from their interference in the business of others and not forget the manly attitude of Morocco during the war of independence.
Tonton Posted 2009-07-12
You are right, all of the Sahara belongs to Morocco - not just that which to the south of your country, but that which extends to the high plateaus of Black Africa, that is to say: the former French Equatorial Africa!!! Do not let Algeria deprive you of it!
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