Opinion

The best and only solution is the autonomy

photo_camera ignacio ortiz sahara onu

Given the time and place, we are not going to theorise about the terrorist phenomenon here, especially given the singularity of the case we are dealing with, that of the Polisario Front, and the obvious historical link between its attacks and its separatist aspirations. Many specialists define it as a tool to instil fear in opponents, create social alarm and impose a particular political project by force. A common feature in all of them is a sectarian discourse and thinking, cloaked in the wrapping of a romantic narrative associated with a supposedly liberating struggle.

2. Origins, kidnapping and forced deportation of its own population

During its first stage, towards the end of Spanish colonisation, Polisario relentlessly harassed Spanish troops. From the first attack in 1973 until the departure from the territory, the Spanish army suffered around 100 casualties, including 20 deaths among Europeans and natives.

In the final part of the Spanish colony, the military settlements in the interior were left defenceless and attacked by Polisario guerrillas. It was then that the Sahrawi civilian population itself was abandoned to the fate of these terrible incursions.

In these raids, the Polisario forced its own people to move forcibly to the Tindouf camps, with the deliberate aim of swelling and increasing a permanent population that, on the basis of the Montevideo Convention, could support the claims of constituting a state in exile.

This part of the Sahrawi population was forever cut off from the rest of their families who were able to avoid those incursions, a family fracture that sadly continues to this day. With this mass exile to the camps, this population was enlisted 'manu militari' in the armed groups of the Polisario.

3. Subsequent developments: attacks on fishing boats, Spanish and foreign workers

Between the 1970s and 1980s, we witnessed the peak of these grotesque activities, known as the 'black decade'. To this day, the terrorist acts committed against workers and fishermen fishing in the waters of the Saharan fishing bank remain uninvestigated. The number of victims is estimated at around 300, Spaniards and foreigners.

A reality hidden or forgotten in Spain by politicians, judges and the media in a denialist attempt to whitewash these acts. They have not even acknowledged them. Nor have they made reparations for them. And they were brutal and bloodthirsty. The main responsible for these crimes is the then 'minister of war', Brahim Ghali, who ordered these criminal actions.

4. Subsequent developments

In 2019, more recently, we have the case of the alarm about the risk of a terrorist attack in the Tindouf area. This was denied and criticised by the Polisario, but it came from ISIS-Greater Sahara, led by Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, a former member of the Polisario Front. An individual with numerous actions in the area, including the kidnapping of three aid workers in Tindouf in 2011.

We also recall the conclusions of the SAFTE report, co-financed in 2018 by the European Union, on the access of terrorism to the illegal arms trade, which stated that the Polisario possessed a significant arsenal, thanks in particular to Algeria and Libya.

6. Recent threats

We were also shocked by the recent news of a terrorist threat from the Polisario against the holding of a car race that would pass through Morocco and Mauritania. In the 21st century, they are returning to their origins, like a closing circle.

The terrorist threat in the Sahel is a well-known and increasingly worrying problem. The permanence of the Polisario in this equation by perpetuating this dispute contributes to the instability of the Atlantic-Mediterranean axis.

It is time to leave behind this situation of instability after half a century of chasing utopias. We must save the present and build the best possible future. The majority of the Sahrawi population no longer believes in revolutionary ideas or unattainable promises. At this point, the best and only solution to this eternal problem is to accept the autonomy proposal offered by Morocco. We believe that this proposal is the starting point for a new era in which everyone can prosper in peace and harmony.

7. Epilogue

 would like to end by responding to something that was said here yesterday. When the second speaker, Inés Miranda, mentioned General Assembly resolution 2625 of 1970. I would like to recall another excerpt from that same resolution:

"The parties to a dispute have the duty, in the event of failure to reach a settlement by the peaceful means mentioned above, to continue to seek to settle the dispute by other peaceful means agreed upon by them".

And I say: Isn't that precisely what the Moroccan proposal for autonomy is all about? Why do the Polisario's friends in the Canaries and in Spain always insist on using the resolutions in a biased way or only those that are in their interest? Who gains from this obtuse and obstructionist attitude, thus helping to perpetuate this dispute? Perhaps the answers lie in the questions themselves.
 
Intervention at the 77th session (2022), Special and Decolonisation Policy (IV Committee). United Nations.

Ignacio Ortiz Palacio, vice-president of Fórum Canario Saharaui