war escalates against Moroccan occupation
Sahara occidental
The war between the Saharawi army and the Moroccan occupation forces in Western Sahara has intensified in recent days, with the Saharawi people plagued by abuses remaining determined to liberate all their territories, according to the international site Peoples Dispatch.
The site specializing in support for liberation movements around the world indicated, in a recent article, that the Moroccan occupying forces “subject to repeated bombardments by the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army (APLS) which is fighting to liberate its territories”, recalling that the territory of Western Sahara is classified by the UN among the territories awaiting decolonization.
Attacks by the Saharawi Army against the Moroccan occupying forces have continued along the wall of sand since the resumption of the war for the liberation of Western Sahara following the violation by Morocco, on November 13, 2020, of the ceasefire agreement signed between the two parties, the article recalled.
And to add that this ceasefire agreement was signed in 1991 after the United Nations Security Council created the United Nations Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso) with the promise to allow the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination. With the support of international powers, Morocco has shied away from its commitments, the article pointed out.
The wall of sand erected by the Moroccan occupation stretches over 2,700 kilometres. It separates the territories occupied by Morocco from the territories liberated by the Polisario Front, which is recognized by the General Assembly of the United Nations as the sole legitimate representative of the Saharawi people. Sep million mines are buried along this wall of sand, according to Peoples Dispatch.
The article also shines the spotlight on the plundering of the natural resources of the Saharawi people by the Moroccan occupation with the complicity of the European Union (EU) through association agreements, specifying, in this regard, that the partnership between the EU and Morocco “continues despite court decisions deeming it illegal”. He cited in particular the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which, reaffirming the 1975 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice which concluded that Morocco had no sovereignty over the territory of the Sahrawi Republic.
Escalation of human rights violations in occupied cities
He also pointed out that 40% of European phosphate imports come from Morocco, noting that no less than 10% of the profits come from phosphate extracted from the “Boukraa” mine in the occupied territories.
These gains are intended, according to the testimonies of a Sahrawi human rights activist, to strengthen the Moroccan occupation forces, and are not invested in local economic growth as claimed.
The article by Saharawi activist and poet Hamza Lakhal from the occupied city of El-Aayoune demonstrates how the occupying forces have continued, during the years of the ceasefire, in their “brutality and violence” against the Saharawi people, hence the return to the armed struggle. “There was certainly no war, yet there was neither peace nor hope,” he wrote.
Referring to the suffering of Sahrawis in the occupied cities, Mr. Lakhal affirmed that “all positions in engineering or administration in the extractive industries are reserved for Moroccan settlers, and only Sahrawis are left with positions where it is required physical competence.
He explains, moreover, to what extent the occupation authorities apprehend Sahrawi militants in a position to organize the resistance. That is why they are intensifying the physical aggressions, to the point where “there is not a mode of repression left within the Makhzen which has not yet been used against us, however, we will resist the occupation until the dead, today we have nothing to lose,” he added.
Finally, Lakhal castigated the double standard policy of the international community in the treatment of international crises, calling on the Security Council to “stop vainly advocating the protection of human rights and democracy”.