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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/02/struggle-for-liberation-of-western-sahara-intensifies/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Struggle for liberation of Western Sahara intensifies <br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Pavan Kulkarni - January 2, 2023<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lci2r8ch0" alt="image.png" width="392" height="221"><br><p>Moroccan forces illegally occupying the Sahrawi Arab Democratic
Republic (SADR) have come under repeated bombardment by the Sahrawi
People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Moroccan forces currently occupy over <a href="https://theconversation.com/morocco-and-western-sahara-a-decades-long-war-of-attrition-122084">80%</a>
of SADR, also known as Western Sahara, which remains classified by the
UN as among the last countries still awaiting decolonization.</p>
<p><span>On Friday, December 30, according to a <a href="https://www.spsrasd.info/news/ar/articles/2022/12/30/43453.html">statement by the Ministry of Defense of SADR</a>, the SPLA “targeted the trenches of the occupation soldiers in several areas of the Mahbas sector</span><span>.”
The SPLA bombarded the positions of occupation forces in this region,
in the northwest of occupied territory, for the third consecutive day on
Friday. Attacks were also reported on </span><a href="https://www.spsrasd.info/news/en/articles/2022/12/28/43435.html"><span>December 28</span></a><span> and </span><a href="https://www.spsrasd.info/news/ar/articles/2022/12/29/43451.html"><span>29</span></a><span>, inflicting “heavy losses in lives and equipment along the wall of humiliation and shame.”</span></p>
<p>This wall, called the “Berm”, runs<span> from northwest to southeast
across the SADR territory. It separates the areas occupied by Morocco on
the coast-side from the inland territory that is under the control of
the Polisario Front (PF), </span><a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/17222?ln=en"><span>recognized by the UN General Assembly</span></a><span> as the Sahrawi people’s international representative.</span></p>
<p><span>Morocco constructed the berm in the 1980s, with the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8AWG1tbNfA"><span>help of American companies Northrop and Westinghouse</span></a><span>.
At 2,700 kilometers in length, it is among the largest military
infrastructures in the world, and the planet’s second-longest wall. It
is reinforced with the world’s longest minefield consisting of seven
million landmines.</span></p>
<img src="https://peoplesdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Western-Sahara-map-300x225.png" alt="Western Sahara map" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="300" height="225">Map of Western Sahara
<p><span>The SPLA has been engaging the occupying troops along the
length of the berm since the war for liberation of SADR resumed on
November 13, 2020, after 29 years of ceasefire. The ceasefire broke down
after Moroccan troops crossed the berm to forcibly remove unarmed and
peaceful Sahrawi protesters who were blocking an illegal Moroccan road
to Mauritania through their territory. The Moroccan troops crossed into
the UN-patrolled buffer zone of Guergarat across the southeastern tip of
occupied SADR. </span></p>
<p><span>The ceasefire had been secured in August 1991 after the UN
Security Council (UNSC) established the UN Mission for the Referendum in
Western Sahara (MINURSO) with the promise of fulfilling the Sahrawi
people’s right to self-determination. However, backed by the US, UK, and
the EU, Morocco successfully sabotaged the referendum promised by the
UN, and MINURSO was reduced to a peace-keeping force. </span></p>
<h3><em><b>Read: </b><a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/10/10/ahead-of-un-session-sahrawis-recollect-decades-of-betrayal-that-enabled-moroccan-colonization/"><b>Ahead of UN session, Sahrawis recollect decades of betrayal that enabled Moroccan colonization</b></a></em></h3>
<p><span>For the Sahrawis under occupation, the nearly three decades of
ceasefire are often considered wasted years. Moroccan forces continued
“their savagery and violence,” while Sahrawis “were forced by the
international community to wait for nothing. There was no war, no peace,
no hope,” Hamza Lakhal, a dissident poet from Laayoune, the occupied
territory’s largest city, told</span><i><span> Peoples Dispatch</span></i><span>. </span></p>
<p><span>“When the war started, it renewed hope of liberation in the
people because our brothers on the other side of the berm had again
taken arms again to free us from occupation,” he said. It is with this
hope that the people have been able to endure the increasing atrocities
at the hands of the occupying forces since the resumption of the war,
Lakhal explained.</span></p>
<p><span>However, the interests at play in the war go far beyond
Morocco’s borders. The occupying power has received key gestures of
support from Western powers since fighting resumed, which many argue has
emboldened it even further.</span></p>
<p>On December 10, 2020, the<a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-recognizing-sovereignty-kingdom-morocco-western-sahara/"> Donald Trump administration in the US announced</a>
that “the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the entire
Western Sahara territory.” Arguing that “an independent Sahrawi State
is not a realistic option for resolving the conflict,” the US declared
that autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is “the only basis for a just
and lasting solution to the dispute.”</p>
<p>The US government’s approval of Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara came in exchange for its<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-africa-israel-north-africa-morocco-4279242f6f688d242bad5c7a64e29caf"> normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel</a>
on the same day. Since Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the
endorsement of Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara has been <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-official-says-biden-not-changing-position-on-western-sahara/">reiterated.</a></p>
<p>Former colonizer of the territory, Spain, which had handed over the
territory of Western Sahara to the invading Moroccan forces in 1975,
once again in March 2022 rescinded recognition of SADR and accepted
Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over the territory.</p>
<h3><b>EU’s stake in the occupation</b></h3>
<p><span>The European Union (EU) was quick to welcome this decision by
Spain. Strong bilateral relations between its member-states and Morocco
“can only be beneficial for the implementation of the Euro-Moroccan
partnership,” </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-backs-spains-shift-western-saharan-autonomy-2022-03-21/"><span>explained</span></a><span> EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell’s spokesperson following the announcement.</span></p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.eeas.europa.eu/morocco/european-union-and-morocco_en?s=204">partnership</a>,
which was cemented by the establishment of a Free Trade Area in 1996,
ensures that the EU remains Morocco’s largest trading partner,
accounting for 56% of the goods trade in 2019 and for 51% of Morocco’s
imports. The “sustainable fisheries partnership” which allows European
companies to fish in waters outside the EU is a cornerstone of the
partnership. Interestingly enough, <a href="https://op.europa.eu/fr/publication-detail/-/publication/2d387320-b6ff-11e8-99ee-01aa75ed71a1/language-fr/format-PDF"><span>over 90%</span></a><span>
of the fish caught by European fleets under this “Euro-Moroccan
partnership” are extracted from the waters of SADR. This continues
despite being</span><a href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-02/cp180021en.pdf"><span> ruled illegal multiple times since 2018 by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)</span></a><span> which, reiterating the 1975 </span><a href="http://www.worldcourts.com/icj/eng/decisions/1975.10.16_western_sahara.htm"><span>advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)</span></a><span>, concluded that Morocco had no sovereignty over SADR’s territory. </span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/europe-searches-for-alternatives-in-fertiliser-supply-battle/"><span>40% of all European phosphate imports</span></a><span>
also come from Morocco, and this figure is predicted to increase as
Europe seeks alternatives to Russian fertilizers in the backdrop of the
war in Ukraine. At least </span><span>10%</span><span> of the profits generated by </span><a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/01/20/morocco-drives-a-war-in-western-sahara-for-its-phosphates/"><span>OCP SA</span></a><span>,
Moroccan state-owned phosphate rock miner, phosphoric acid manufacturer
and fertilizer producer, come from the phosphate extracted from the Bau
Craa mine in occupied Sahrawi territory. </span></p>
<p><span>“We are told this so-called ‘trade’ of our resources between EU
and Morocco also benefits our local economy. It is the big lie,” Lakhal
said. “All those tens of millions the EU has been paying in return
every year goes to Morocco. The money is used to strengthen its
occupation forces,” he said. </span></p>
<p><span>“The Moroccan policemen outnumber all the Sahrawi civilians
under occupation. Including all soldiers and the settlers the regime has
brought in from Morocco, we are outnumbered one-to-three.”<br>
</span></p>
<h3><b>‘We will resist the occupation to death; we have nothing to lose – not even our homeland’</b></h3>
<p><span>Lakhal claimed that all the engineering or managerial jobs in
these extractive industries go to the Moroccan settlers, while the
Sahrawis only get jobs involving physical labor. “Even these jobs are
taken away from Sahrawi workers if any of them are identified as
activists. They can’t find any other jobs once they are branded. They
are either forced to depend on others for survival or starve,” he
alleged.</span></p>
<p><span>“Students are pulled out of schools and colleges, and denied
opportunity to complete studies when they are identified as activists,”
added Lakhal, who himself was a victim as he was suspended from college
in 2002 for leading a campaign demanding a university in the occupied
territory. “I was barred from continuing studies or holding a job. It
was only with the help of pro-Sahrawi activists abroad that I was able
to survive.” </span></p>
<p><span>It was more than a decade later, in 2015, after his case drew
international attention following the publication of his poetry, that he
was allowed to finally travel to Morocco to complete his graduation.
“We still don’t have a university in [our land]. Students have to go to
Morocco to finish their graduation. Anyone seen as an activist is denied
this opportunity,” he said, explaining how education is used as
leverage against the cause of Sahrawi liberation. </span></p>
<p><span>Those who refuse to budge to these systems of control and
intimidation and succeed in organizing resistance are subjected to
physical attacks, sexual assault and torture. However, “There is no
weapon of repression in the regime’s arsenal that has not been deployed
against us. And yet, we resist; we will resist the occupation to death
because we have nothing to lose – not even our homeland,” Lakhal
insists. </span></p>
<p><span>“There is nothing the regime can do about it. I mean, look at
Sultana Khayya. What more can they do to her?” he asks. Khayya is
currently </span><a href="https://www.aps.dz/monde/145153-l-aarasd-veut-garantir-a-sultana-khaya-un-retour-au-sahara-occidental-sans-crainte-de-represailles"><span>trying to secure a safe passage back to the occupied territory</span></a><span> to continue her struggle for Sahrawi liberation in ground-zero. </span></p>
<p><span>“It doesn’t matter what the so-called ‘international community’
does. We know our rights, and we will fight for them under any
circumstances, with or without their support,” Lakhal asserted, asking
the UNSC to “stop its pretense about human rights and democracy.” He
also called on the “international community” to “stop its hypocrisy”.</span></p>
<p><span>“They will move NATO for Ukraine because they hate Russia, but
occupation of Sahrawi against all international laws and resolutions is
okay because the occupying power here is a friend,” he remarked. </span></p>
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