STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Frankfurter Rundschau June 15, 2001 But...the international community...is curiously silent when it comes to the UN Security Council resolution which has determined that the small desert people are entitled to the right of self-determination. If that were not enough, France, the United States, Spain and Britain have all supplied the monarchy in Rabat with military hardware again and again, thus preventing a political solution to this regional conflict. Indeed, Morocoo's foot-dragging seems to have brought successes. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his special envoy for Western Sahara are increasingly moving away from the idea of Saharawi self-determination and instead favouring a path agreeable to Morocco. A SAHARAN MIRAGE Conflict over Western Sahara 25 years old - Revolt foments in camps By Ute Sprenger Tindouf, Algeria - "Caramelos! Caramelos!" scream the shouting, jostling and underfed children in front of the closed tents as they encircle a tourist from Germany. They take the biscuits and sweets offered them, returning shy looks of thanks for her troubles. Obviously, even in a refugee camp it is possible to confront the grotesqueness of rich, first-world holidaymaking habits. At least in the camps run by the Saharawi Popular Front, or Polisario, in the Algerian desert. The camps are deep in the south-western Maghreb, where there is little more than sand dunes and boulders. Algeria trains its recruits in the garrison town of Tindouf. Not far from here, are about 150,000 people who oppose Morocco's foreign rule over Western Sahara. They have found a safe haven here for over a quarter of a century. This February, the refugees celebrated 25 years since the founding of their state, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) - a state based on a tolerant interpretation of Islam and the separation of religion and politics. Throughout its existence, however, the SADR has existed as a mere mirage because of Morocco's illegal occupation of the former Spanish Sahara since Spain withdrew from the colony in 1975. Around half of the Saharawi population fled into Algerian exile. "We have survived all these years with Allah's help and the support of the Algerian state," says Khalil Sid M'Hamed, head of El Aaiun refugee camp. Also ensuring their survival, it has to be said, is the humanitarian aid supplied by international organisations and the work of sympathetic groups from Spain, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The women make sure that day-to-day life in the "dairas", or village communities, functions smoothly and that the aid deliveries are taken where they are needed. They work as nurses, doctors, nursery- and primary-school teachers; some are active in politics. By far the most men serve in the army, in the political leadership and administration. Many believe that these are the best-run refugee camps anywhere in the world. They are free from the diseases which are rampant in African camps elsewhere. School attendance is compulsory and basic medical services are provided. There are also workshops and an administration oriented towards grass-roots democracy. In addition, there are those adventurous tourists who come here to savour a little bit of revolution; they are whisked through the camp in large numbers by Polisario officials, always in the hope that the visitors from southern and western Europe will one day understand what they see and spread the Saharawis' message in their homelands. "We have created an exile state as a liberation organisation, a model which can be transferred to a new society. But we do not have sovereignty," complains Hadidja Hamdi, in charge of culture and further education for Polisario. "Several states provide us with humanitarian aid while giving political backing to Morocco. We are certainly not opposed to the EU co-operating with Morocco. But what we do object to is that it fails to apply pressure on Morocco to find a solution." Instead, accords with the occupying power are negotiated, for example concerning the fisheries sector "on Saharawi territory and at our cost." Providing relief for conditions in the camps is one thing, but nations such as France, Germany, and Italy could become more actively involved on the political front, says Hamdi. But while the international community continues to feed and clothe the refugees in the camps, year in, year out and far removed from the public spotlight, it is curiously silent when it comes to the UN Security Council resolution which has determined that the small desert people are entitled to the right of self-determination. If that were not enough, France, the United States, Spain and Britain have all supplied the monarchy in Rabat with military hardware again and again, thus preventing a political solution to this regional conflict. Morocco continues to regard Western Sahara as an "assimilated province" while human-rights groups report on the activities of police informants, arbitrary arrests and torture in the occupied territories. Hadidja Hamdi says that terror rules in the territory. Even if many of the refugee camps now boast brick houses beside the tents, they have not become a home for the people. This section of the Sahara, with its temperature extremes, sandstorms and recurring drought, is not suited to agriculture. In summer, daytime temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius and the nights are uncomfortably cool. The sand and boulders that make up the desert produce little in relation to the effort expended and in any case, the refugees are more suited to a nomadic lifestyle. Above all, though, they want to return to Western Sahara. "Spain has decolonised. And like other former colonies we are entitled to live freely and independently," says Khalil Sid M'Hamed. "There is no reason to deny us this." This makes publicity and displays of solidarity all the more urgent, especially since talks between Rabat and Polisario have reached a dead end. A fragile ceasefire with Morocco, in force since 1991, now threatens to collapse because of its dependence on a referendum being held under the auspices of the UN's Minurso mission to the region. The Saharawis are supposed to decide one day whether they want to live in an independent state or under royal Moroccan rule. Yet the referendum cannot go ahead as long as the government in Rabat insists on pointless squabbles over registration and voter lists. In 1997, though, it appeared as though a breakthrough was imminent. James Baker, the UN envoy for Western Sahara, achieved agreement regarding the census and the prospect of a referendum in 1997. Provisional voter lists were published and the UNHCR prepared for the Saharawi's return home. But then the peace process was brought to a halt as tens of thousands of Moroccans appealed against their deletion from the electoral roll. "Ten years ago, we interrupted the war so that a referendum could be held. And now look where we've landed: the UN is waiting for Morocco to make concessions. But Morocco blocks everything," says Khalil Sid M'Hamed. The governor of the El Aaiun camp belongs to Polisario's founding generation and was until recently education and interior minister. "Confidence was withdrawn from my government because the people say that they ran after a referendum for ten years and nothing happened." But bitterness in the camps is largely directed at the UN. Many feel cheated by the organisation because it is no longer seriously pursuing a fair solution. Indeed, Morocco's foot-dragging appears to have brought successes. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his special envoy for Western Sahara are increasingly moving away from the idea of Saharawi self-determination and instead favouring a path agreeable to Morocco. This so-called Third Way envisages autonomy under the aegis of Morocco. Reports sent to the Security Council, however, only speak of a "decentralisation of power." In the meantime, tension in the camps is rising. The generation which was born here is especially tired of the hopelessness in the dull Algerian desert. "Young people ask us: How long do we still want to keep our hands stretched out," says Khalil Sid M'Hamed. When Morocco agreed last year to allow the Paris-Dakar rally to pass through the occupied territories, young people demanded that Polisario take up the armed fight once again. And many who are studying or living abroad declared themselves ready to return and take up arms, says Hadidja Hamdi. "No one here wants war but we are watching as Morocco continues to delay the peace process. So if no one will help us to find a peaceful solution then I believe we will have war," says Hamdi. The UN at least is still hopeful that Morocco will relent and has extended the mandate for the Minurso mission by two months. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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