The Sahrawi People’s Plight and France’s Complicity in the Occupation of Western Sahara
Translated by Adaptation: Dr. Hana Saada
Authored by Yazid Ben Hounet, CNRS Researcher, Laboratory of Social Anthropology (CNRS-EHESS-Collège de France), and Sébastien Boulay, Associate Professor at the University of Paris, Center for Population and Development (University of Paris, IRD).
On April 18, 2018, L’Humanité published an open letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron, signed by dozens of specialists in international law, international relations, human rights, and North Africa. The letter pointedly highlighted France’s responsibility in the non-decolonization of Western Sahara.
From a French perspective, media coverage of the Western Sahara issue often reduces it to a territorial conflict between Morocco and the “independence movement,” the Polisario Front, “supported by Algeria.”
However, from an international standpoint and according to experts in the field, the situation in Western Sahara is primarily viewed as a hindered decolonization process by Morocco, which occupies nearly 80% of the territory with the clandestine support of France. This situation has resulted in human rights violations and colonization crimes in the areas under Moroccan occupation.
Impeded Decolonization
As a Spanish colony from 1884 to 1976, Western Sahara quickly became a target of interest for neighboring Morocco and, later, Mauritania, which invaded the territory in late 1975 and early 1976, pursuant to an agreement with the Franco regime (November 14, 1975), without the consent of the colonized people of Western Sahara (the Sahrawis) and in violation of UN resolutions.
This invasion sparked a sixteen-year war with the Polisario Front, a liberation movement founded in 1973, which initially fought against Spain for the decolonization of the territory. The Polisario Front was recognized as the sole representative of the Sahrawi people by the UN in May 1975.
Aligned with other African liberation movements, the Polisario Front adhered to UN resolutions (1) and the charter of the Organization of African Unity (Addis Ababa, 1963), which was the founding document of the African Union.
Self-Determination Referendum
The latter established two clear principles for all of Africa: firstly, the respect for borders inherited from colonization to avoid potential border conflicts among newly decolonized countries (a rule reiterated at the Cairo Conference of 1964); and secondly, the support of newly independent states for national liberation movements in territories yet to be decolonized (such as the case of the Polisario Front).
The war triggered a massive exodus of Sahrawi refugees into camps established by the Algerian Red Crescent in the southwestern part of the country near Tindouf, where an independent Sahrawi state – the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) – was proclaimed on February 27, 1976, by Sahrawi nationalists.
In 1979, Mauritania, economically drained, withdrew from the conflict. The SADR became a member of the African Union in 1982. In 1991, a ceasefire between the Polisario Front and the Moroccan state envisaged the organization of a self-determination referendum under the auspices of the United Nations, which established the United Nations Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), tasked with monitoring the ceasefire and organizing the electoral consultation.
A Silenced Society
Three decades later, the self-determination referendum has yet to take place due to recurring disagreements over voter lists, with Morocco now proposing an expanded autonomy plan since 2007. In November 2020, the conflict resumed in what remains Africa’s last colony.
As detailed in the aforementioned open letter, France annually supports Morocco’s position in April at the Security Council, refusing to broaden the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MINURSO) to include human rights monitoring and the implementation of a self-determination referendum. This referendum was the primary objective of the 1991 ceasefire and has been a United Nations requirement since 1966.
This French stance enables the Moroccan state, still considered an occupier by the UN, AU, and EU, to continue its colonization efforts. These efforts include facilitating the relocation of populations from Morocco and imprisoning and “judging” Sahrawi political prisoners on Moroccan soil, blatant violations of international law and humanitarian standards, among other infringements.
Thirty Years of Imprisonment
In fact, MINURSO remains the only United Nations mission worldwide without a mandate to observe human rights violations. On June 11, 2022, the Spanish section of Reporters Without Borders presented its report on Western Sahara, a true information black hole, becoming a lawless area for journalists.
Four decades of neglect of Africa’s last colony, with a low-intensity conflict both on the ground and in the media, have turned Western Sahara into a journalistically impenetrable fortress, a zone of human rights violations against Sahrawis and independent journalists. Among the group of prisoners from the infamous dignity camp – Gdeim Izik (2010) – are four journalists alongside activists, victims of torture, beatings, periods of isolation, and unfair trials resulting in extremely heavy sentences, including life imprisonment.
Naâma Asfari, a lawyer and human rights defender, husband of Claude Mangin-Asfari, an honorary citizen of Ivry, is one of these prisoners. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in an unfair trial. Like eighteen of his companions, he has been in prison since 2010. On December 12, 2016, Morocco was condemned by the UN Committee Against Torture following a complaint filed by ACAT (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture) and Naâma Asfari’s lawyers.
Intense Human Rights Violations
In addition to the aforementioned unpublicized imprisonments, there are ongoing regular acts of violence perpetrated against Sahrawi activists, particularly targeting women such as Aminatou Haidar and Sultana Khaya.
In a damning report published in late 2021, the Federation of Catalan Associations in solidarity with the Sahrawi people and the Novact Association (International Institute for Nonviolent Action), in partnership with the Geneva Support Group for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in Western Sahara, documented no fewer than one hundred and sixty human rights violations between November 2020 and November 2021.
This averages out to one violation every two days, including attacks on civilians and their property, including executions; widespread restrictions on movement and circulation; house arrests, raids, and property destruction; arbitrary detentions and other forms of deprivation of liberty; physical assaults and torture; unfair trials, among others. The intensity of such human rights violations becomes apparent when considering the size of the Sahrawi population living under occupation (between 100,000 and 200,000 individuals).
These violations are further exacerbated by the Moroccan wall in Western Sahara, one of the longest in the world and paradoxically one of the least visible in mainstream media. It divides Western Sahara and its people into two parts. With over seven million antipersonnel mines strewn throughout, the wall poses daily threats to the lives of Sahrawis and their livestock.
A Crime Against Humanity
Since the open letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron, France’s support for this colonial enterprise has intensified: the establishment of a delegation of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Dakhla, in the part illegally occupied by Morocco (March 1, 2019), the establishment of Moroccan-French scientific partnerships covering Western Sahara through the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), and the opening of a branch of the presidential party, LREM, in Dakhla as well (April 8, 2021).
Today, while the war rages on in Ukraine and forces European countries to rethink their energy supplies, the French government appears particularly committed to its rapprochement with Algeria… Hopefully, the French president will remember the words he spoke in Algiers on February 15, 2017: “Yes, colonization is a crime against humanity.”
Notes:
(1) Resolution 1514 of the United Nations General Assembly dated December 14, 1960.
(2) Resolutions from the Addis Ababa Conference on Decolonization – the founding document of the Organization of African Unity – from May 22 to May 25, 1963.
(3) The National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) estimates the population of Western Sahara to be 626,000 in 2021. Due to massive settlement colonization, Sahrawis find themselves in the minority and would currently represent roughly one-third of the population in the part occupied by Morocco. Various NGO reports estimate the number of Sahrawi refugees in camps near Tindouf to be around 175,000. In addition to this, there are Sahrawis living in territories controlled by the SADR (approximately 20% of Western Sahara), in Mauritania, and elsewhere (Europe – primarily Spain; USA, etc.).
Source Text in French:
https://saharainfos.blogspot.com/2024/02/reflexion-perissent-les-principes-de-la.html
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