Sarah Chew's List: Polisario - Geography

Polisario - Popular front of the Liberation of of Saquia el Hamra and Rio de Oro & in Spanish Frente Popular para la liberacion de saguia el hamra y rio de oro (Encyclopedia Britannica #9 p. 561)

Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations:

AKA Western Saharans, Saharawis, Saharawus, Sahrawis

Population: 320,000 in NW Africa (Wesern Sahara). 165,000 are refugees in the Algeria region and another 100,000 are in Europe (France and Spain)

Flag: Horizontal stripes, black, white, and green with a red triangle on the left and a red crescent moon with 5 point star in the center.

* Western Sahara or the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is recognized diplomatically by over 70 countries and the Organization of African Unity.

* Most of the region is under Moroccan military control

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=3&hid=14&sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b432d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W62340079115

• Few people in the United States have ever heard of Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud or the decades-long conflict in Western Sahara

• the Polisario Front, an Algerian-based and Algerian-backed separatist organization that has vied with Morocco for control of the non-sovereign Western Sahara since the 1970s.

• Mr. Sidi Mouloud, former security chief of the Polisario front, publicly declared his support for an autonomy plan proposed by Morocco to resolve the dispute. He was subsequently detained by Polisario and Algerian forces -- and accused of treason -- when he tried to return to Algeria.

He was beaten and shot in the foot when he attempted to escape before the Polisario released him in October. Since then, the dissident apparently has been held at a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees compound in Mauritania.

• Polisario Front has been pressing refugees into service as mercenaries to support Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya.

* The conflict is to be decided by an UN referendum that is often put off

* The region they are 'fighting' over is between 97, 344 sq. mi. to 252, 120 sq mi.

65% Morrocans, 35% Sahrawis

* The Sahrawis - a North African tribal people of mixed Berber and Arab background. There are 22 tribes and numerous clans, but they are united by history, religion, and language. Their society is divided by a rigid caste system.

* Population estimates have caused arguments that are causing the UN vote to be delayed. Moroccans say that there are only 175,00 while the Sahrawi population says there a million. This could be due to the fact that an estimated fifth of the population is nomadic and cross international borders.

* They speak a distinct dialect of Arabic called Hassinya or Sahrawi that is a south Arabic dialect that is not intelligible by other Arabic speakers including Moroccan Arabic, the official language, because it combines Berber and Arabic influences.

* Overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, but their customs predate Islam. The urban Sahrawis follow orthodox practices of Islam, but the Nomadic groups believe in spirits and shamanistic ( person regarded as having access to, and) practices.

Peoples of Africa - The Phillip One

*1958- Spain united Rio De Oro and Saguia El Hamra into a single territory, Spanish Sahara.

*In the mid 1970s the guerrila activities of a nationalist movement- Polisario, make Spanish rule untenable.

*In 1976- Morocco and Mauritania split control between them. Polisario forces continue their guerrila warfare and claim independence as the Saharawis Arab democratic republic. refugees flee to Algeria, where large camps are established.

*in 1988- A united nations peace plan is accepted. Morocco and the Polisario accept an eventual referendum on the territory’s future.

*1991- cease fire between Morocco and the Polisario forces begin.

*2005- cease fire violations occur.

*Most speak Arabic but some also speak Spanish.

*Women do not hold public positions.

CIA World Factbook

*supposed population of 393,831

* Growth rate of 2.868

*The Polisario front is outlawed in Morocco and its flag cannot be raised (illegal).

*The Polisario front is recognized by the U.N as the representative of the Western Sahara people.

*The Saharawis created the Democratic Saharwi union.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/467416/Polisario-Front:

*Western Sahara, in northwestern Africa, and win independence for that region.

*The Polisario Front began in May 1973 as an insurgency (based in neighbouring Mauritania) against Spanish control of Western Sahara

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1385172/Saharan-Arab-Democratic-Republic

*Also called Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and Saharan Arab Democratic Republic

*The independence of the SADR has been recognized at various points by some 80 countries, although beginning in the mid-1990s, a number of them withdrew or suspended their recognition.

*The region was a Spanish colony from c. 1884 to 1976. After Spain withdrew from the region in early 1976, the Polisario Front—a politico-military organization based in Algeria and composed largely of Saharawis, the indigenous nomadic inhabitants of Western Sahara—declared independence.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/370109/Mauritania/283211/Struggle-for-postindependence-stability

*In 1969 Morocco’s King Hassan II had reversed his policy and recognized Mauritanian independence as part of his plan to gain control of what was then Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara), and Morocco and Mauritania divided that country in 1976. The difficulties of suppressing the Saharawi independence movement led by the Polisario Front guerrillas in Mauritania’s portion of Western Sahara contributed to Ould Daddah’s downfall. In July 1978 he was deposed and exiled in a military coup led by the chief of staff, Col. Mustapha Ould Salek.

*Mauritania signed a treaty with the Polisario Front in August in an effort to disentangle itself from Western Sahara. This worsened relations with Morocco.

http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=12F61965009477D0&p_docnum=1&p_queryname=1

* 2007 Moreover, the Polisario Front is finding itself prey to the mistrust of Algiers that is not happy about these talks. Worse still to the separatists: Two countries that had recognised the [self-proclaimed] Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) have just frozen their recognition: Kenya, on 26 July, and Cap Verde Republic, on 28 July. Consequently, a more realistic tendency within the Polisario has started to think about an honourable exit from the crisis, which would enable them to play a political role in Moroccan Sahara.

* Leaders:

Coordinator of the Executive Committee of the Polisario -Khat Chahid

Founding Member of the Polisario , Mahjoub Salek

*A large majority of countries have unanimously declared that the self-rule project for the provinces of southern Morocco, proposed by the kingdom, is "a hope for peace in the region, and is likely to ensure progress over the Sahara case". This self-rule project will enable the inhabitants of the Sahara to manage their own affairs within the framework of the kingdom's national sovereignty and territorial integrity. In fact, the Moroccan proposal has been unanimously welcomed by the UN Security Council, the European Union, France, Spain, Great Britain and the USA.

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=3&hid=14&sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b432d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b43-2d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&vid=4&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W6154168406

• "Morocco as an occupying country is obligated to recognize the right of the Saharan people in self-determination [but] sooner or later the will of the people will prevail," Kiir (president of the Government of Southern Sudan)

• Morocco's 1975 annexation of the Western Sahara sparked a war between its forces and Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 but the UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have since made no headway.

• Rabat has pledged to grant Western Sahara widespread autonomy but rules out independence.

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b43-2d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&vid=8&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=WPT153416949510

• Some 90,000 Sahrawis, or native Saharans, have lived in desolate tent camps in Algeria since the late 1970s, where they fled to escape warfare between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front. Now they are fleeing back to the Moroccan side of the Sahara in increasing numbers, according to reports from the Moroccan government and the United Nations. Most escape to reunite with their families and settle in growing Sahrawi communities; some peacefully promote independent statehood for Western Sahara, while others have planned attacks on Moroccan security forces.

• For more than three decades, Morocco and the Polisario have vied for control over the Western Sahara, a non-sovereign territory the size of Colorado. Since 1975, Algeria has provided diplomatic and political support to the Polisario's campaign for independence. Morocco, which controls the majority of the territory, would prefer to oversee a semiautonomous Western Sahara.

• On Nov. 8 (2010), outside the Moroccan-administered town of Laayoune, pro-Polisario militants attacked police with rocks, machetes and knives, killing 11 and wounding 70 others. A demonstration against Moroccan favoritism toward those who have moved back from the Algerian camps had turned violent; "Moroccan police had been ordered to peacefully dismantle a protest camp after militants took control," said Aziz Mekouar, Morocco's ambassador to the United States.

• Saharan discontent dates back generations. During the exodus east to Algeria in the 1970s, some refugees were Polisario supporters and were absorbed into its leadership. The Polisario kidnapped others and forced them to settle in the camps, say hundreds of refugees who escaped or left the camps

• The United Nations and human rights organizations have accused all the conflict's major players - Morocco, Algeria and the Polisario - of human rights abuses. U.N.-led talks among the three last month failed to reach a compromise over the region's status.

• People living in the Polisario camps in southwestern Algeria cannot seek citizenship, work permits or refugee status. Escapees tell of abuse, lack of basic services and infiltration by traffickers. Even as they settle in new Moroccan-built housing and receive Moroccan citizenship, they fear for relatives left behind.

• Moulay Ismaili, 85, lives in Smaara on the Moroccan side and traveled to the United Nations in October to plead for the release of his son. He said, "People in the camps are brainwashed to hate Morocco, and Mustapha saw that the Moroccan Sahara is a nice place to live." His son is former Polisario chief inspector Mustapha Salma Puld Sidid Mouloud, visiting his father for the first time in 31 years.

• Polisario spokesman Emhamed Khadad said that the Polisario is a peaceful, pro-independence movement. Yet according to Moroccan officials more than 1,500 people have left the camps this year and traveled to the Moroccan side of Western Sahara.

• During a meeting in Dakhla with tribal leaders, Sahrawi women shared their stories of escape from the Algerian camps. "Our journey was frightening, and we only made it here by the grace of God," explained Mahjouba, who, like most Sahrawi women, was modestly draped in a colorful head-to-toe garment, and asked to be identified by one name to protect family still living in the camps. The trip through Mauritania has become more dangerous as Polisario traffickers and al-Qaeda militants patrol the borderlands, say area experts and the governments of Morocco and Mauritania.

• "We often went days without food because of the traffickers," "The conditions were very difficult, and it's hard to survive when you have to beg for food. Even the water we received was often undrinkable and hot after arriving in containers shipped across the desert."

• Morocco has invested heavily in those who have returned from the camps, trying to stabilize the region's economy and provide jobs and education. Homes are provided to escapees by the Moroccan government.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/150891.html (Nov 14, 2010)

• Reports say Moroccan forces attacked a Sahrawi refugee camp home to 12,000 refugees set up a month ago in the outskirts of capital, Laayoune due to deteriorating living conditions on Monday, using live ammunition, tear gas, and water cannon. The Moroccan government says 12 people were killed in the incident, 10 of whom were members of the security forces. However, the Polisario Front -- a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement working for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco -- says the death toll was much higher. On Friday, the Polisario Front said that dozens were killed, 4,500 wounded, and more than 2,000 people were arrested during the assault.

• Since 1975, raising the Sahrawi flag in the occupied part of Western Sahara has been illegal.

• Rabat has offered to grant the Western Sahara autonomy but the Polisario Front wants a referendum on full independence.

• In the 1990s, the United Nations promised a referendum for Western Sahara so that the Sahrawi people could choose between independence, autonomy, and integration, but Moroccan authorities have so far failed to deliver on that promise.

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b43-2d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&vid=9&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W6610965048

• A diplomat from Western Sahara has warned Southern Sudan not to make the same mistakes they made by trying for a referendum.

• Western Sahara contested by Morroco and Algerian-backed Polisario since colonial power, Spain, withdrew in ‘75

• According to the regions Ambassador, the Polisario Front agreed to Morocco's proposed delay in good faith but nearly two decades later the vote has still not taken place. (1991 referendum agreement)

• The referendum on the future of the west African territory was to be conducted under the supervision of the United Nations in 1992, but was later on postponed indefinitely following disagreement over who should be eligible to vote.

• The main sticking point has been voter identification. The Polisario Front has insisted that only people registered in a census conducted by Spain in 1973 should be allowed to vote. While Morocco wants the 300,000 Moroccans who have settled in the region since 1975 to be accorded voting rights.

bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W62340079115

• Few people in the United States have ever heard of Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud or the decades-long conflict in Western Sahara

• the Polisario Front, an Algerian-based and Algerian-backed separatist organization that has vied with Morocco for control of the non-sovereign Western Sahara since the 1970s.

• Mr. Sidi Mouloud, former security chief of the Polisario front, publicly declared his support for an autonomy plan proposed by Morocco to resolve the dispute. He was subsequently detained by Polisario and Algerian forces -- and accused of treason -- when he tried to return to Algeria.

He was beaten and shot in the foot when he attempted to escape before the Polisario released him in October. Since then, the dissident apparently has been held at a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees compound in Mauritania.

• Polisario Front has been pressing refugees into service as mercenaries to support Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya.

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b43-2d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&vid=4&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W6154168406

• "Morocco as an occupying country is obligated to recognize the right of the Saharan people in self-determination [but] sooner or later the will of the people will prevail," Kiir (president of the Government of Southern Sudan)

• Morocco's 1975 annexation of the Western Sahara sparked a war between its forces and Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 but the UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have since made no headway.

• Rabat has pledged to grant Western Sahara widespread autonomy but rules out independence.

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b43-2d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&vid=8&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=WPT153416949510

• Some 90,000 Sahrawis, or native Saharans, have lived in desolate tent camps in Algeria since the late 1970s, where they fled to escape warfare between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front. Now they are fleeing back to the Moroccan side of the Sahara in increasing numbers, according to reports from the Moroccan government and the United Nations. Most escape to reunite with their families and settle in growing Sahrawi communities; some peacefully promote independent statehood for Western Sahara, while others have planned attacks on Moroccan security forces.

• For more than three decades, Morocco and the Polisario have vied for control over the Western Sahara, a non-sovereign territory the size of Colorado. Since 1975, Algeria has provided diplomatic and political support to the Polisario's campaign for independence. Morocco, which controls the majority of the territory, would prefer to oversee a semiautonomous Western Sahara.

• On Nov. 8 (2010), outside the Moroccan-administered town of Laayoune, pro-Polisario militants attacked police with rocks, machetes and knives, killing 11 and wounding 70 others. A demonstration against Moroccan favoritism toward those who have moved back from the Algerian camps had turned violent; "Moroccan police had been ordered to peacefully dismantle a protest camp after militants took control," said Aziz Mekouar, Morocco's ambassador to the United States.

• Saharan discontent dates back generations. During the exodus east to Algeria in the 1970s, some refugees were Polisario supporters and were absorbed into its leadership. The Polisario kidnapped others and forced them to settle in the camps, say hundreds of refugees who escaped or left the camps

• The United Nations and human rights organizations have accused all the conflict's major players - Morocco, Algeria and the Polisario - of human rights abuses. U.N.-led talks among the three last month failed to reach a compromise over the region's status.

• People living in the Polisario camps in southwestern Algeria cannot seek citizenship, work permits or refugee status. Escapees tell of abuse, lack of basic services and infiltration by traffickers. Even as they settle in new Moroccan-built housing and receive Moroccan citizenship, they fear for relatives left behind.

• Moulay Ismaili, 85, lives in Smaara on the Moroccan side and traveled to the United Nations in October to plead for the release of his son. He said, "People in the camps are brainwashed to hate Morocco, and Mustapha saw that the Moroccan Sahara is a nice place to live." His son is former Polisario chief inspector Mustapha Salma Puld Sidid Mouloud, visiting his father for the first time in 31 years.

• Polisario spokesman Emhamed Khadad said that the Polisario is a peaceful, pro-independence movement. Yet according to Moroccan officials more than 1,500 people have left the camps this year and traveled to the Moroccan side of Western Sahara.

• During a meeting in Dakhla with tribal leaders, Sahrawi women shared their stories of escape from the Algerian camps. "Our journey was frightening, and we only made it here by the grace of God," explained Mahjouba, who, like most Sahrawi women, was modestly draped in a colorful head-to-toe garment, and asked to be identified by one name to protect family still living in the camps. The trip through Mauritania has become more dangerous as Polisario traffickers and al-Qaeda militants patrol the borderlands, say area experts and the governments of Morocco and Mauritania.

• "We often went days without food because of the traffickers," "The conditions were very difficult, and it's hard to survive when you have to beg for food. Even the water we received was often undrinkable and hot after arriving in containers shipped across the desert."

• Morocco has invested heavily in those who have returned from the camps, trying to stabilize the region's economy and provide jobs and education. Homes are provided to escapees by the Moroccan government.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/150891.html (Nov 14, 2010)

• Reports say Moroccan forces attacked a Sahrawi refugee camp home to 12,000 refugees set up a month ago in the outskirts of capital, Laayoune due to deteriorating living conditions on Monday, using live ammunition, tear gas, and water cannon. The Moroccan government says 12 people were killed in the incident, 10 of whom were members of the security forces. However, the Polisario Front -- a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement working for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco -- says the death toll was much higher. On Friday, the Polisario Front said that dozens were killed, 4,500 wounded, and more than 2,000 people were arrested during the assault.

• Since 1975, raising the Sahrawi flag in the occupied part of Western Sahara has been illegal.

• Rabat has offered to grant the Western Sahara autonomy but the Polisario Front wants a referendum on full independence.

• In the 1990s, the United Nations promised a referendum for Western Sahara so that the Sahrawi people could choose between independence, autonomy, and integration, but Moroccan authorities have so far failed to deliver on that promise.

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?sid=c6d389e2-ae4e-43cf-9b43-2d505fef0239%40sessionmgr13&vid=9&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W6610965048

• A diplomat from Western Sahara has warned Southern Sudan not to make the same mistakes they made by trying for a referendum.

• Western Sahara contested by Morroco and Algerian-backed Polisario since colonial power, Spain, withdrew in ‘75

• According to the regions Ambassador, the Polisario Front agreed to Morocco's proposed delay in good faith but nearly two decades later the vote has still not taken place. (1991 referendum agreement)

• The referendum on the future of the west African territory was to be conducted under the supervision of the United Nations in 1992, but was later on postponed indefinitely following disagreement over who should be eligible to vote.

• The main sticking point has been voter identification. The Polisario Front has insisted that only people registered in a census conducted by Spain in 1973 should be allowed to vote. While Morocco wants the 300,000 Moroccans who have settled in the region since 1975 to be accorded voting rights.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/me_libya0607_05_20.asp

July 9, 2009

* Obama has ended support for a Moroccan plan that will establish Autonomy for Western Sahara

* When Bush was in office he wrote a letter to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI stating that the U.S supported the Moroccan Government in is conflict with the polisario

* “The independent state is not a realistic option, while the moroccan proposal of granting the region a substantial degree of autonomy instead of independence was “credible and serious”,”-President Bush

* A U.S diplomat has stated that the Algerian government has approved the deployment of polisario soldiers to Libya to join Gadhafi in fighting against rebels

* Sources report that the mercenaries are being payed 10,000 dollars each by gadhafi

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/22/algeria-polisario-arrests-rare-dissentr-refugee-camps

Sept. 23, 2010

* Polisario security arrested Mostapha Selma Sidi Mouloud, a police officer, who was heading toward the Polisario-run Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria

* Mostapha was arrested after a visit to Western Sahara which is under Moroccan Control- while there he publicly stated that he supported morocco's proposal to find a solution over the disagreement of the territory- granting it autonomy under Moroccan power. Autonomy- the condition of being autonomus; self government or the right to self government

* "Selma publicly defended Morocco's solution to the conflict and said he would return to Tindouf to defend it, which is his right" "if the Polisario front wants to show they are not persecuting Selma for his views, it should set him free immediately or ensure that he receives a fair and transparent trial on credible charges"-Sarah Leah Whiston, Middle east and North Africa director of human rights watch.

* The polisario front creates Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria granted the approval of the government.* Morocco has directed the territory as if it were part of its own since taking control over it when Spain withdrew in 1975.

* The United Nations made a plan to organize a referendum in union with Polisario-Moroccan cease fire in 1991, the plan was stalled with the opposition from Morocco.

* Morocco refuses independence as an option for Western Sahara.