Why and how the "Sahrawi problem" is the world's problem.
Definitions of the words:
- fellowship
- self-esteem
- self-efficacy
- sovereignty
- human
- autonomy
- self realization
- shifting values
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Discussion
The following information was taken from various news sources. It sets the stage for some enlightened discussion about choices, karma, and free will.
Western Sahara
A mainly desert
territory in north-west Africa, Western Sahara is the subject of a
decades-long dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
Caravans once passed
through this Sahara Desert territory. Over time, as tribes slowly
Islamized, and various North African Islamic dynasties took control.
Historical ties between Moroccan sultans and Saharan tribes were
integrated, followed by treaties, followed by colonial records that
liberated the southern provinces from Spanish colonial rule. The
Polisario Front, which is
backed by Algeria, was set up on 10 May 1973 as the sole
representative of the Saharan people. Western Sahara maintains
tribal and religious connections sponsored by the Polisario Front,
which won formal recognition in the African
Union.
Meanwhile, Morocco
seeks to control Western Sahara, and its Atlantic coast line is
already controlled by Morocco, backed by the Arab
League. Since the 1970s, National consciousness and anticolonial
sentiment has resulted in decades of guerrilla insurgency by the
indigenous nomadic Saharawis. The territory is phosphate-rich
and believed to have offshore oil deposits, most of it under Moroccan
control since 1976. A United
Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement began in 1991.As of 2006,
the United Nations still had still not recognized Moroccan
sovereignty
over Western Sahara.
In October 1975 the
International Court of Justice rejected territorial claims by Morocco
and Mauritania. The court recognised the Saharawis' right to
self-determination, which caused Moroccan King Hassan II to "Green
March" 300,000 Moroccans into the territory. Polisario declared
the area to be called a Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
They named SADR
president, Mohamed Abdelaziz, who
was also
previously elected Polisario
secretary-general in August 1976.
in
January 1992, Western Saharans would vote
between independence and integration with Morocco. But
first, Polisario wanted to
rule out Moroccans who had
settled in Western Sahara
during
the Green March, so IDs had
to be created. In May 1996 the UN suspended the identification
process. Initial attempts to revive the process foundered over
Morocco's worries that a referendum would not serve its (Arab)
interests. In
July 2003, the UN adopted a compromise resolution proposing that
Western Sahara become a semi-autonomous region of Morocco for a
transition period of up to five years. Polisario signaled its
readiness to accept, but Morocco rejected the plan, citing security
concerns.
Talks resumed
between Morocco and the Polisario Front in March 2008 in New York,
with Mauritania and Algeria also attending, when US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice sought to break the impasse. In November 2010,
several people were killed in violent clashes between Moroccan
security forces and protesters near the capital Laayoune, shortly
before UN-mediated talks on the future of the territory were due to
open in New York.
We now mark the 40th
year of the push for independence in Western Sahara, with a movement
that for the last two decades has been largely peaceful, but for many
outsiders around the world, has also been largely silenced from all
media coverage, all the way to, and including, American eyes. The
Polisario Front—the formerly armed nationalist group
that officially represents Western Saharans in their
negotiations—signed a cease-fire with Morocco in 1991, and since
that time protests have unfolded much like this recent one.
Members of the indigenous Sahrawi ethnic group raise their fists in the air and honk car horns to show their displeasure with Moroccan rule; some brandish Polisario flags, which are banned by the government 800 miles away in Rabat. Sahrawis have learned to integrate Western protest effort. They stage marches and organize human rights activist groups and hunger strikes, but what they still need is educational opportunity, and access to their local resources.
Members of the indigenous Sahrawi ethnic group raise their fists in the air and honk car horns to show their displeasure with Moroccan rule; some brandish Polisario flags, which are banned by the government 800 miles away in Rabat. Sahrawis have learned to integrate Western protest effort. They stage marches and organize human rights activist groups and hunger strikes, but what they still need is educational opportunity, and access to their local resources.
Educating People
with Workshops
“This is the
oppression that’s been going on for decades. We want to come up
with something new, something different, and get out of the
city limits,” said one of the protesters.
It was suggested
that workshops could help:
-
to end discrimination
-
to bolster job opportunities
-
to portray freedom of assembly without permits
-
to teach various skills and abilities
-
to form charity groups that collect funds
-
to dialogue committees responsible for running negotiations with the Moroccan government
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to put an end to the need (and causes of) civil disobedience
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to break through the media blockage that hides violence
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to have a voice in the world
-
to strengthen self-esteem and self-efficacy
Near Laayoune,
10,000 Western Sahara people pitched tents to demonstrate against
occupation. Protestors have sought attention for their demands, as
listed above. While Moroccan police had been brutally dismantling
protestor tent camps, burning tents to the ground, beating
protesters, and arresting citizens, protesters had fought back.
Protestors were killed, security officers were killed, and hundreds
were injured. Yet protestors did breakdown media blockage. The
Sahrawis like to see themselves as the inspiration for Arab Spring.
There is hope for Western Sahara if workshops are allowed and if the people are given access to their own natural resources, for profit and for jobs creation.
There is hope for Western Sahara if workshops are allowed and if the people are given access to their own natural resources, for profit and for jobs creation.
Moroccan Stance
As Morocco sees it, Western Sahara has natural resources, a coastline with access to richest fisheries, and ground that contains phosphate in global demand as fertilizer. Splitting it off could undermine the monarchy. Morocco further believes that the Polisario offers nothing but socialist rhetoric, that Algerian ties do not win friends in the West, and that “status quo” is easier and more tolerable than trying to provide stability, should Morocco attempt to let Western Saharans self-govern. Morocco has proposed Saharawis limited self-government, but not independence. They site concerns of vulnerability to extremists and jihadis, for security reasons, because as a state it would be a poor one with a small population.
And what makes a state rich? Education. Self-empowerment. Knowledge. Job skills. Natural resources.
Polisario Stance
Independence-seekers respond that Morocco is inflating security threats, making false allegations about Al Qaeda infiltrating the refugee camps, spreading propaganda, sanctioning Human Rights Violations, and spawning terrorist connections. “We are a small people with big land and big natural resources, occupied by a power that uses our wealth to pad its historical relationships with Western countries. So this is why they let this ongoing conflict not get resolved.” What is Morocco let Saharawis keep the profits of fertilizer and fisheries? What if governments helped the population to gain ways to make a profit and create jobs? What is Sahrawi people were given a chance to shine?
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Arab Spring / Tuareg Spring
The Polisario Front, formed on May 10, 1973, gained support among the territory’s half-million habitants, known as “Sahrawis,” through this term propagated by the Polisario in the late 1970s as a political unifier to bring together the multiple tribes living in and around the territory.
Though Tuareg are everywhere, they are rarely referred to by name.
- Is a Sahrawi also a Tuareg?
- Is a Sahrawi a desert-loving nomad or Berber who is not Tuareg?
- Do Sahrawis include previous Moroccan citizens or Mauritanians in their mix?
Sahrawi seems to refer to the melting pot of any and all desert dwellers, who are not necessarily nomadic. This term may disturb Tuareg who are distinctly separate in culture and language, but who have shared the desert with other tribal groups.
Over-running an area with new inhabitants was Step One in Indian removal in the United States. Calling Indians extinct, or not referring to them at all, was Step Two.
The Tuareg would be wise to make sure they are named out loud and that their tribes do not go unstated, unnamed, or voiceless.
All groups deserve respect, a voice, and a chance to self-determine their state of being.
Refugee Camps in Transition
Paradigm Shifts Await
All together, six camps are home to about 150,000 Sahrawi refugees — dispossessed by a decades-long conflict with Morocco, a war the majority of the population is too young to know, but is affected by nevertheless.
Despite the Polisario’s early guerrilla successes against the Mauritanians, the Western Sahara War, as it is referred to, ground on bitterly for nearly 17 years. The Moroccans dropped napalm and phosphorus bombs on the Polisario camps nearest the Moroccan border in the early months of 1976, pushing thousands of Polisario fighters, along with half of the Sahrawi population, from the coast to the interior desert of Algeria. By 1976, roughly 165,000 Sahrawis had left the land they’d called home and were living in refugee camps.
In one of these camps, called Smara, observers walk along the desert road, stepping over strewn cigarette boxes, crumpled playing cards, and blue plastic bags, until we encounter a row of shops. A mishmash of cheap goods lines the shelves: toothpaste, half-empty cigarette lighters, perfumes, an assortment of lentils, flour, and juice boxes.
Young soldiers seen in a truck are part of the Polisario’s response to this any violence, including the 2011 kidnapping of three aid workers by members of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Comprised of approximately 100 soldiers, their special counter-terrorism unit was created in October 2012 to combat the visible ascent of Islamist extremism in the region.
"Lingering on the peripheries, between states with more influence and problems that more insistently demand attention, Western Sahara is suffering through a globally acknowledged humanitarian crisis, the severity of which still falls short of compelling urgency."
Goal of Workshops
How We Can Help
- To create people who work as instruments of reform, refining public opinion, who have a sense of identity with the common man, and who can open up brave new worlds of thought and accomplishment.
- A shared belief in freedom and independence for everyone, via re-education and enlightened thinking. Bringing a new message with more realistic meaning for religions, philosophy, morals, ethics, education, and law.
- To initiate and innovate, to participate in daring exploits, to utilize visionary thinking.
Love and compassion can always make a difference
