WE CONDEMN THE GREAT VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED CITIES OF WESTERN SAHARA

The Saharawi Women want to express their fourceful condemnation to the continous violations of human rights perpetrated by the moroccan army in the occupied cities of Western Sahra. The moroccan police abducts torture and leave a sahrawi minor naked in the outskirts of the occupied city of El Aaiun. This young saharawi girl is Enguía El Hawassi.

Sources from the occupied capital of Western Sahara, El Aaiun, indicated to UPES that the Moroccan police abducted, tortured and left the Saharawi girl, Nguia El Haouassi, in the outskirts of the city.The 19 years old girl, it should be recalled was one of the six Saharawi students who were supposed to participate to a students encounter organised last August 5 to 18 by the British organisation Talk Together in Oxford.

The young girl told human rights defenders that she was stopped by Moroccan police, headed by the famous Moroccan torturer, Aziz Anouch, around 9 o’clock in the evening, while she was walking in the street in Matallah especially that in the nights of Ramadan citizens stay late in the streets.The policemen forced her in their car and blindfolded her.

They drove her to an unknown place outside the city, naked her and started beating her and insulting her, threatening her of rape if she doesn’t cooperate.According to her testimony, her torturers were asking about the reasons behind her attention to participate to the Oxford youth encounter organised by Talk Together, her relation with Saharawi human rights activists and her political opinion about the Moroccan occupation and the independence of Western Sahara.She also confirmed that all the interrogatory was filmed, and that an officer told her that he will make sure that the film is put on the internet, and that next time he will himself make sure to kill her with his own hands if she doesn’t give up her political opinions and her activities as a student in secondary schools against the Moroccan occupation.

After five hours torture, the torturers left Nguia alone in the dark at about 2 o’clock in the morning, completely naked. She had to walk and fortunately found a Saharawi family to help her and take her to El Aaiun to her family house.

It should be recalled that this is not the first time Nguia is arrested and tortured, she had many bad experiences with the Moroccan police since she was 14, but she had always refused to submit to the colonisers will, and is always heading demonstrations and confrontations with the Moroccan authorities in the occupied city of El Aaiun.

Last August, Nguia El Haouassi was prevented along with five other Saharawi youth from travelling to Oxford, London, where they were expected to participate to a youth debate about the conflict in Western Sahara.The six Saharawi students were then arrested, beaten and forcibly deported in police cars from the airport of Agadir to El Aaiun.

Amnesty International registered the case then, but no further action was undertaken by international organisations to protect these young students who had been threatened and intimidated by the Moroccan police, who will certainly take revenge of them later, Saharawi human rights defenders estimate.

THE INTERNATIONAL CIVIL COURAGE PRIZE FOR AMINETOU HAIDAR

The Saharawi Women would like to express to Mrs. Haidar their deepest congratulations for the prize that an american organization is going to award her in recognition of her peaceful struggle for peace and justice in the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.
Former Saharawi political prisoner and human rights defender, Aminatou Haidar, will be rewarded a 2009 Civil Courage Prize, as the champion of non-violent resistance in Western Sahara, in an Award Ceremony that will be held in New York City on October 20, 2009, Train Foundation announced Monday.

According to a statement released by the Organization, Ms. Haidar is a courageous campaigner for self-determination of Western Sahara, as well as against forced "disappearances" and abuses of prisoners of conscience.

Regularly referred to as the "Saharawi Gandhi," Ms. Haidar is one of Western Sahara’s most prominent human rights defenders.Her peaceful efforts have been met with increased police aggression and brutality. In 1987, at the age of 21, Ms. Haidar was one of 700 peaceful protestors arrested for participating in a rally in support of a referendum. Later she was "disappeared" without charge or trial and held in secret detention centres for four years, where she and 17 other Saharawi women were tortured.

In 2005, the Moroccan police detained and beaten her after another peaceful demonstration. She was released after 7 months, thanks to international pressure form groups like Amnesty International and European Parliament.Since then, Ms. Haidar has travelled the globe to expose the Moroccan military’s heavy-handed approach and to plead for the Saharawi People’s right to self-determination.

Her efforts helped change the Moroccan government’s violent tactics for dispersing pro-independence demonstrations. Unfortunately, the torture and harassment of Saharawi human rights defenders continues.Ms. Haidar was born in 1967 in El Aaiun, Western Sahara. She is the mother of two children and holds a baccalaureate in Modern Literature.

She has been awarded the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the 2007 Silver Rose Award (Austria), and the 2006 Juan Maria Bandres Human Rights Award (Spain). She was nominated by the European Parliament to the Andrei Sakarov Human Rights Award. Amnesty International (USA Branch) nominated her for the Ginetta Sagan Fund Award. She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, the statement added.

The international Civil Courage Prize, has been sponsored, Since 2000, by the Train Foundation (formerly the Northcote Parkinson Fund), established by the Hon. John Train in 1987, honours extraordinary individuals whose acts, undertaken deliberately, over time, have demonstrated "steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk." The Train Foundation will continue this initiative in cooperation with like-minded organizations world-wide.

SOULTANA KHEYA RETURNS TO HER HOMELAND

The saharawi Women would like to express their great happiness for the young saharawi human rights activist´s return, Soultana Kheya, to her homeland after two long year of medical treatment overseas.

Yesterday, tuesday, August 18th, took and airplane and landed in the occupied El Aaiún´s Airport where she was received as a hero by great number of colleagues, friends and family.

Soultana Kheya is considered an example of brave woman because because since her chidhood she was always struggling for justice and peace for the saharawi people.

She was seriously injuried in a peaceful demonstration organized by the saharawi university student in the moroccan city of Marrakech and where the moroccan army brutally repressed the demonstration and Soultana Kheya lost her right-eye.

Althought that the moroccan authorities tried to block the entrance to some saharawis in the Aaiún´s Airport, a lot of saharawi women and gentlemen received her at the terminal and she put her saharawi national flag in her neck as always she does.

The moroccan soldiers continued to controlled all their movements and sorrounded the Bugaga´s family´s house in El-Aaiún´s downtown, where a great number of saharawi human rights activists organized a great popular welcoming to these heroic daughter of the saharawi people who sacrificed her life for the freedom and justice of her people.

SAHARAWI WOMEN´S REPRESENTATIVE VISITS AUSTRALIA

Fatma Mahfoud, known also as Fatimel-lu, whom is Member of the International Relations Commission of the our women´s organizationa: National Union of Saharawi Women, visited Australia, August, to tell the story of the Western Sahara conflict from a Saharawi woman’s point of view.

During her visit to Melbourne Fatma met with members of the Victorian Parliamentary Amnesty Group, with members of the Upper House of Victorian State Parliament, with councillors from the municipality of the Yarra and with a group of NGOs based in Melbourne. She also participated in a public meeting and a screening of a documentary held at Kino Cinema.

During her visit to Sydney Fatima Mahfoudh participated along with the Saharawi representative to Australia in a seminar held at Macquarie University on Western Sahara. The seminar was attended by many students and lecturers of the university.The Saharawi women representative spoke during a round table organised at Toxteth in Sydney on Western Sahara. Among other speakers during the meeting were the former President of NSW Legislative Council, Dr. Meredith Burgmann and the Polisario Representative to Australia.

In her speech during the meeting Fatima Mahfoud explained that Saharawi women are respected and acknowledged as playing significant leadership roles in Saharawi society. In particular they are crucial to the effective functioning of the refugee camps.

There are women ministers and many women in senior positions within the structures of the government who have power and authority. She also under that literacy rates in the Saharawi refugee camps are amongst the highest in Africa.

THE SAHARAWI WOMEN HAVE A LOT OF HOPE IN THE RECENT PEACE-TALKS

The Saharawi Women and the great majority of the people of Western Sahara have a lot of hope in the very Peace-Talks that has taken place in the Austrian city of Duernstein between the two belligerant in the conflict of the last colony in the african continent: Morocco and POLISARO Front (liberation movement recognized all over the world as thesole representative of the people of Western Sahara).
Polisario Front and Morocco have agreed to the publication of statement, read to the press by Christopher Ross concluding the meeting between the two parties in the Austrian town of Duernstein, on August 10 and 11, that the Polisario Front and Morocco have renewed their determination to continue negotiations as soon as possible.The discussions took place only between the delegations of Polisario Front and Morocco and covered the assessment of rounds of negotiations in Manhasset, how to implement resolution 1871 of the Security Council and confidence measures, which are fundamental issue of human rights.

These discussions took place in "an atmosphere of sincere commitment, openness and mutual respect", according to the statement.
Both parties in conflict, the Polisario Front and Morocco reiterated their determination to continue negotiations as soon as possible, and the personal Envoy will fix the date and venue of the next meeting in consultation with the parties, the same source added.

Delegations of neighbouring countries, Algeria and Mauritania, were also present at the opening and closing sessions and were consulted separately during the talks.

Following these meetings, the United Nations Secretary General Personal Envoy, Mr. Christopher Ross and delegations would like to thank the Government of the Republic of Austria for its generous hospitality.

The british newspaper "The Guardian" has just published a very interesting article written by the Saharawi Leader, Emhamed Khaddad. Under the tittle of "We seek no revenge – only Peace" the also Saharawi Coordinator with MINURSO says in his article:
The people of Western Sahara stand prepared to engage with Morocco and to enter open discussions about our joint future.A new round of talks between the kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front of Western Sahara are under way in Vienna, Austria. These talks, characterised as informal by the personal envoy of the UN secretary general, Christopher Ross, are the latest attempt to bring peace and security to Western Sahara and to the wider Maghreb region.

We enter them with an unwavering and genuine commitment to finding a just, mutually acceptable and democratic solution. Will our Moroccan counterparts adopt the same approach?In every circumstance, peace comes at a cost. Somehow, somewhere, there must be a compromise and someone, generally everyone, must be prepared to search for common ground and to yield to the higher ideals found there. For the people of Western Sahara, the price of peace is high. We have been occupied for over three decades, following an illegal annexation by the Moroccan kingdom. We have seen our natural resources become unethical trade boons to the Moroccan economy while our people languish in refugee camps, unable, or too afraid, to return home.Yet, rather than seek to exercise a sense of revenge or frustration, we stand prepared to engage with Morocco and to enter open discussions about our joint future. This is long-established policy. In our statement to the UN security council in 2007, we stated we would guarantee "the rights and obligations of the Moroccan population in Western Sahara". We also put on the public record that our readiness "to participate with Morocco and the countries of the region in the maintenance of peace, stability and security for the whole region.

"The people of Western Sahara remain committed to the self-determination process initiated by the UN nearly 50 years ago, and have backed ever since via various resolutions and statements. For instance, we recall the security council resolved in 2002 to express "its readiness to consider any approach which provides for self-determination". It is not clear how or where Morocco’s proposal for autonomy within the Moroccan state fits in with this basic agenda.

A unilateral solution to a three-decade-long conflict, as is proposed by Morocco, is not only farcical, it is an option the community of democratic nations cannot countenance.The people of Western Sahara have been clear that we are willing to work with the Moroccan monarchy and will act without recrimination in relation to Moroccans now living in Western Sahara. We are aware we do not choose our neighbours and so we are destined to share a border. This is a form of realpolitik that makes sense at all levels. We do not seek any victories over Morocco, we only seek parity. We aim to co-operate in economic and security matters, as any decent neighbour would be expected to do.For Morocco, the benefits of good relations with a free and democratic Western Sahara are immense.

The massive costs of its military occupation have been estimated at 3% of Morocco’s GDP. Analysts suggest the military costs in keeping some 150,000 troops in the occupied territories alone is over $153bn (£92.3bn) since 1975, or around $12m (£7.2m) for every day it has occupied Western Sahara. As a result of this extraordinary outlay, Morocco has the world’s fifth highest proportional spend on its military. Moreover, the long-touted Maghreb union, which has faltered for decades on the back of the Western Saharan dispute, would at last be free of this considerable obstacle to better relations.

Quite apart from the damaging moral position Morocco maintains in Western Sahara, ending this money drain must surely be a priority for Rabat and its often impoverished people, as must the prospect of awakening the sleeping giant of North African economic unity. The UN’s way is the only way forward. A referendum on self-determination, a fundamental mechanism for all UN-mandated colonies – as Western Sahara is – is the only viable means of engendering anything like a sustainable common ground. The future of the Sahrawi people must be in their own hands, not in any institution and it is certainly not the right of an invading power, maintaining an illegal and unjust regime.

As we enter these talks we favour the open-palm approach of US president Barack Obama. We are willing to pay the price of peace as an investment in our future. That is our stated agenda going into the Vienna talks. The people of Western Sahara deserve nothing less from us, for it is peace and freedom we crave most of all.

INTERESTING CONFERENCE VIA SATELITE ON THE ROOTS OF THE WESTERN SAHARA CONFLICT

Via an Internet connection from California, US, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar, Sahrawi researcher and specialist in peace studies and conflict resolution, presented today a paper at the conflict resolution course organised by the UK-based organisation, Talk Together, in Oxford. Students from different countries participated in the session.

Entitled “Mapping of the Conflict in Western Sahara”, the paper presents a roadmap of the conflict in Western Sahara by analysing its history and context, primary parties, core issues and the positions and interests of the parties involved as well as the conflict dynamics.

In determining the nature of the conflict, Dr. Sidi Mohamed made it clear that the “conflict in Western Sahara is not a societal, communal, ethnic, religious or class conflict. Rather, it is an international conflict of a political nature, and a decolonisation issue that has been on the list of the United Nations since the 60s”.
In his analysis of the root causes of the conflict, Dr. Sidi Mohamed underlined that the direct, structural cause that underlies the ongoing conflict in Western Sahara between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, the sole and legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, is Morocco’s military invasion and annexation of the territory in 1975.

The origins of this action, however, lie in the expansionist ideology of the “Greater Morocco” and the subsequent territorial claims that the Moroccan regime has laid on its neighbours. In conclusion, Dr. Sidi Mohamed made it very clear that a peaceful, just and lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara necessarily entails the exercise by the Sahrawi people of their internationally recognised right to self-determination through a negotiated, democratic and free process in keeping with international law and practice.

“In this process, they could decide their political future, either to be independent, integrate into Morocco or settle for another arrangement. In any case, the final word should be theirs”, he added. He also argued that the success of the UN-led negotiation process would depend not only on achieving a mutually acceptable solution in line with international legality, but also on the ability of the two parties to think seriously about their relations in the post-conflict context.

This process of cooperative thinking will imply, among other things, determining the mutual guarantees in all vital areas, which each party will be willing to grant to the other with a view to achieving not only a win-win solution, but also one that will address the core issues around which the conflict has developed. “The proposal presented by the Frente POLISARIO to the UN in April 2007 contains key elements to be considered in this regard”, concluded Dr. Sidi Mohamed. Despite significant resistance, an innovative conflict resolution course has launched in Oxford last Thursday 6. Students from nine different countries embarked on the intensive immersion course, without two groups of students who were prevented from travelling from Morocco on Wednesday. Students from the disputed territory of Western Sahara were stopped at Agadir airport in Morocco on Wednesday. They stayed there to protest at the block on their journey and embarked on a hunger strike. On Thursday around 18.00 local time they were forcibly removed from the airport and transported in a convoy of police cars, passing through to Gulmin 200km south at 20:30, and on to El Aaiun where they were taken to a police station, interrogated and intimidated.

Their mobile phones had previously been removed, and they were questioned about their contacts and messages. They were also asked about their involvement in Talk Together, and motivation for taking part.The students chose to go to the family home of Rabab Amidane, winner of Norway Students’ Peace Prize earlier this year.

Their supporters met them with slogans, to which the police objected. The latest information is that the students are in the house, which is surrounded by police. Another group of students, from Morocco itself, has also been unable to travel. According to the Moroccan embassy in London, the group of seven students suddenly all developed “family problems” immediately prior to boarding the flight, which prevented them from travelling to Oxford.

AMNESTY INTENTIONAL CONDEMNS THE MOROCCAN ATTITUDE AGAINST SIX YOUNG SAHARAWIS

Amnesty International issued a press release about the six young Saharawis recently prevented from travelling to London, assaulted by police and forcibly removed in cars to the occupied capital of Western Sahara, El Aaiun.Campaigners supporting the six Saharawi youn women and men chose to name them "the Oxford-Six", and are willing to continue putting pressures on Morocco to allow them to participate to a youth dialogue organsied by UK organisation, Talk Together, that will tackle the problem of Western Sahara in London.Here is the complete text of Amnesty International’s press release:

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT
Date: 7 August 2009 Morocco/ Western Sahara:

Sahrawis prevented from travelling and punished for their stance Amnesty International is concerned by reports that Moroccan security officials forcibly removed six young Sahrawis from Agadir’s Al Massira airport on 6 August 2009 and then assaulted them, after refusing them permission to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) on 5 August.

The organization is calling on the authorities to launch an immediate investigation into the beatings and forced removal of the six, who include three young women, and to explain why they were refused permission to travel to the UK to participate in a programme intended to foster reconciliation between young people from different backgrounds.

The six are reported to have been assaulted by officials at three different locations - outside Agadir’s Al Massira airport, at a border police station near Laayoune, and again at the Laayoune home of one of the six. Amnesty International wrote to Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa on 6 August to express concern that the six Sahrawis from Western Sahara and another group of young people from Morocco had both been prevented from travelling for what appear to be politically-motivated reasons.
In its letter, Amnesty International drew attention to Morocco’s obligation, under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to respect the right of individuals to leave a country, including their own, and called on the government to lift the ban and allow the two groups to travel to the UK immediately and without further impediment.

The six Sahrawis - named as Mimouna Amidan, Mohamed Da’noun, Nguia ElHaouasi, Mohamed Fadel El’asri, Choummad Razouk and Hayat Rguibi, whose ages range between 17 and 24 years - are reported to have been forcibly removed from Al Massira airport shortly after 5 pm on 6 August. They were scheduled to travel to London on 5 August to take part in the Youths Talk Together about Western Sahara, a programme organized by Talk Together, a UK-based non-profit initiative. The programme aimed to bring together young people from Morocco and Western Sahara, the Tindouf camps in Algeria, Norway and the UK for a period of two weeks (5-19 August 2009) to discuss issues affecting their daily lives and political concerns. The six young Sahrawis were scheduled to take Royal Air Maroc flight AT422 from Agadir to Casablanca at 11:30 am on 5 August in order to travel on to London later that afternoon. However, when they arrived at the departures hall of Agadir Al Massira airport, they were informed by plain-clothed security officials that they were not permitted to travel.

The moroccan officials did not disclose the reason or legal basis for this prohibition, stating simply that they were acting "under instructions from above", but castigated the students as "separatists and members of the Polisario". The six students were all in possession of valid travel documents and visas for the UK. The six Sahrawis remained at the airport and went on hunger strike to protest the authorities’ action but after about 30 hours were forcibly removed by a combined force of security officials said to have included members of the police, the Royal Gendarmerie and the Auxiliary Forces. After being escorted from the airport, the students were beaten, had their belongings including their mobile phones temporarily confiscated, and were forced into a vehicle and driven to Laayoune, about 350 kilometres south of Agadir.

The vehicle was reportedly accompanied by cars containing members of the Moroccan Royale Gendarmerie. On the way, the six were taken to a border police station and questioned, including about the Youths Talk Together about Western Sahara programme and their contacts with international organizations, and are said to have been beaten and insulted. They were then beaten again by security officials when they arrived at the home of Mimouna Amidan at about 3:30 am on 7 August, where they were greeted by family members who carried flags of the Polisario Front and chanted slogans in favour of the independence of Western Sahara. Some of their relatives are also reported to have been assaulted. Mohamed Fadel El’asri and others sustained minor injuries as a result and security officials are now reported to be staking out the home of Mimouna Amidan. Background Seven young Moroccans and their group leader, who were due to attend the same programme in the UK, were prevented by Moroccan security authorities from taking the August 5 Air Arabia flight 3O491 from Casablanca to Stansted, UK, also without being informed of the reason or legal grounds for the authorities’ action.Amnesty International is concerned that the Moroccan authorities’ refusal to allow these two groups of young people from travelling abroad to take part in the Youths Talk Together about Western Sahara programme is part of a wider pattern of curbs imposed by the Moroccan authorities on the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression concerning issues that they deem politically-sensitive, such as the role and status of the monarchy, national security and the status of Western Sahara. Human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and others continue to face intimidation and even prosecution when they transcend certain "red lines", which include expressing views in favour of the independence of Western Sahara.

On numerous occasions, Amnesty International has called on the Moroccan authorities to uphold their obligations under Article 9 of the Moroccan Constitution and Article 19 of ICCPR, which guarantee the right to freedom of expression. Working to protect human rights worldwide

BRITISH NGO´S WORRIED ABOUT THE FATE OF SIX YOUNG SAHARAWIS WHOM WERE GOING TO TRAVEL TO LONDON FOR ATTENDING AN EVENT

The Saharawi Women would like to express their solidarity with the six young saharawis whom were invited by British institutions to attend an importent event in the british capital and condemn the action taken by the moroccan police agains these six young saharawis.
Western Sahara Campaign UK and Free Western Sahara network jointly issued a press release to express concern about the Moroccan authorities prevention of six Saharawi young people from boarding their flight to London, where they were to participate to a peaceful dialogue on the conflict of Western Sahara.

Here is the press release: 6/8/09 Western Saharan hunger-strike students “risk everything” to get to Oxford Campaigners today expressed concern about the fate of six Saharawi students who were due to fly to London yesterday, August 4th, but were prevented from boarding their plane by Moroccan police.

The students from the disputed territory of Western Sahara were enroute to England as part of an EU / British Council sponsored initiative to increase understanding between Moroccans and Western Saharans but were marched off the plane and across the runway at Agadir airport.

The students have been given no reason for being detained and have gone on hunger-strike in the airport terminal in protest despite growing fears for their safety.

The students aged between 17 and 24 are from occupied Western Sahara and were travelling together with students from Morocco where they were all due to attend a two week residential course in Oxford exploring ways of resolving a conflict that has gone on for over 34 years.

The Moroccan students pulled out from travelling to England yesterday, all of them citing family problems for their sudden withdrawal.

The course run by the British-based organisation, Talk Together, aims to take young people from either side of an ongoing conflict and challenge them to generate new ways forward. Organiser Andrew Brown said today:“It would be a huge disappointment if participants were to be blocked from attending a project that aims to confront prejudice, foster understanding, and find new solutions”. As well as being a disappointment for all those involved in the two years of organising the project the situation also represents a genuine danger for the students.

Last year reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International expressed concerns about human rights violations by the Moroccan state against Saharawis who take part in non-violent protests.

These have regularly been violently broken up by Moroccan forces and numerous people have been arrested, tortured or ‘disappeared’.

One of the hunger-strikers, Amaidane Maimouna, 17, understands the risk they are taking but says that they are determined to continue with their protest for as long as it takes. “Either we will go to the UK or we will go to hospital” she says, “There is no third way”.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara said:“With representatives of Morocco and the Polisario Front meeting next week in Vienna to discuss the resumption of negotiations it would be a cruel irony if these young people from both sides of this terrible conflict were to miss out on an opportunity to share ideas and develop greater understanding.”

A FAMOUS BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST WRITTES ON THE STRUGGLE OF SAHARAWI PEOPLE

The saharawi women would like to express their deepest thanks to our dear friend Stefan Simanowitz for his continous actions of solidarity with our people and we congrratulate him for his article that was published by several british media. Under the tittle of: "Sahara: Film Screenings in the Devil´s Garden" the author says:

Nineteen-year-old Ibrahim Hussein Leibeit shifts his weight in obvious discomfort. The stump of his leg, blown off below the knee by a landmine on 10 April, just three weeks ago, is yet to heal. ‘The pain is horrible,’ he tells me. ‘But today it is possible for me to think about other things.’ Leibeit is a refugee. He was born and raised in the isolated camps in south western Algeria, where an estimated 165,000 Saharawi people who fled their native Western Sahara have lived for over three decades. Western Sahara, ‘Africa’s last colony’, was divided between Morocco and Mauritania by the Spanish when they withdrew in 1976 following the mass mobilization by the Moroccans known as ‘the Green March’. The preceding year the International Court of Justice had rejected Moroccan and Mauritanian claims to sovereignty over the territory, effectively recognizing the Saharawis’ right to independence.

In February 1976, the Saharawi independence movement, the Polisario Front, declared the creation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. A 16-year war ensued between the Moroccans and the Polisario Front, the Mauritanians having withdrawn in 1979. In 1991, the fighting came to end and under the terms of a 1991 UN ceasefire agreement, a referendum for self-determination was promised. However, this has been continually blocked by Morocco, leaving the Saharawi to live in four large camps in the inhospitable Algerian desert.

The remotest of camps Home to nearly 30,000 refugees, Dakhla, named after the beautiful coastal city in Western Sahara, is the most remote of the camps, located 175 kilometers away from the nearest city, Tindouf. It has no paved roads and is entirely dependent on outside supplies of food and water. In the summer months, temperatures on the hammada desert plain regularly top 120 degrees. With sandstorms, little vegetation and no sources of food or water, it is little wonder that the area is known locally as ‘The Devil’s Garden’. And yet, incredibly, for a week each May, this desolate refugee camp plays host to the Sahara International Film Festival, a gala of screenings, workshops and concerts attended by an array of internationally acclaimed actors and film-makers.

Now in its sixth year, the festival was set up by award-winning Peruvian documentary film-maker, Javier Corcuera, and aims to both entertain and educate the refugees as well as raising awareness internationally of the plight of the Saharawi people. There are over 500 international participants in attendance, mainly Spaniards, who flew into Tindouf in two charter planes and travelled to the sprawling ochre-coloured camp in a convoy of vehicles. Dakhla itself is clean and well organized, with wide sandy streets lined with houses and tents forming neat family compounds. The festival site is in a spacious area in the centre of the camp and includes a multiplex-sized outdoor screen attached to the side of an articulated lorry.

The central screen is surrounded by tents for workshops, exhibitions and indoor screenings as well as numerous stalls. The programme includes over 40 films from around the world. The themes mainly explore diverse experiences of struggle and hope, but there is some lighter entertainment and even an animated film which holds enraptured the capacity crowd of refugee children. Audiovisual workshops run by the London-based charity Sandblast, provide Saharawi refugees with an opportunity to learn about all aspects of film-making as well as create their own video messages, which are put online and can be seen by their extended families in Western Sahara, from whom they have been separated for over 33 years. The festival is gaining renown, helped by the support of luminaries such as Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodovar.

This year a number of well-known people from the entertainment industry were there, including actors Helena Anaya (Sex and Lucia), Eduardo Noriega (Vantage Point) and Oscar-nominated film director, Javier Fesser. Rumours, however, that Benicio del Toro and football legend Diego Maradona might turn up, prove to be untrue. ‘We are mainly B and C-listers,’ Noriega laughs. ‘Last year we had a proper A-lister in Javier Bardem.’ Bardem’s visit helped the festival garner publicity, which ensured that the festival even secured a half-page spread in OK! magazine and helped campaigners in Spain to gather 250,000 signatories (to date) petitioning the Spanish Government to act to support the Saharawris’ demand for self-determination.Real change The celebrities, like all visitors to the festival, stay with Saharawi families, sharing their homes and their food. Living alongside the refugees gives visitors an indelible insight into the conditions under which the refugees live and motivates many participants to get involved in the campaign to lobby their respective governments to put political pressure on the Morocco over the situation in Western Sahara. The campaign in Spain is growing steadily, boosted by a sense of betrayal felt towards Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s new socialist government, which failed to reverse the long-held Spanish policy toward Morocco. However, campaigners recognize that to affect real change the focus of attention cannot just be on the Spanish Government. With Morocco recently named by the US as a major non-NATO ally, and with many Western governments and companies involved in lucrative trade deals with the Moroccans, action has not been high on the international political agenda. Large reserves of phosphate, vast fishing grounds and potential offshore reserves of oil and gas mean that the Western Sahara is not a possession that the Moroccans will relinquish lightly.Privately, a Polisario representative admits concern about the rising level of militancy among some young Saharawis. After waiting with patient rage while countless UN resolutions have been passed and ignored, many are losing faith in the diplomatic process. Indeed, Ibrahim Hussein Leibeit is one such young man. He had been taking part in a march to the 1553 mile-long fortified barrier known as ‘the wall’ built by the Moroccans to stop the Saharawis from returning to their land.

In a symbolic gesture, Ibrahim was attempting to get close enough to the wall to throw a pebble to the other side when he trod on the landmine. He is rapidly becoming something of a hero to the Saharawi cause, a symbol of their defiance. Ibrahim has no regrets. ‘I would gladly lose my other leg if it would mean my country could be free,’ he says with earnest.Emotionally charged At a dusty red carpet ceremony on the final day, the decision of the popular jury is announced and the White Camel award for best picture is picked up by producer Albert Noriega for the 2008 Steven Soderbergh film, Che, Guerilla.

The atmosphere is emotionally charged as participants and organizers, some waving flags of the Saharawi nation, take to the stage in a final act of solidarity with the refugees. After the obligatory photo-calls, the international participants board the waiting fleet of Landcruisers in buoyant mood. But as our convoy heads back across the expanse of empty desert the mood starts to change and thoughts turn to those we have left behind. The further we drive, the more apparent it becomes just how isolated and abandoned the refugees are. During the 16-year war, captured Moroccan prisoners would not be held behind walls or barbed-wire fences. Instead they would be corralled into open compounds in the desert.

Prisoners were free to leave at anytime. But in the Sahara there is nowhere to go. Although conditions in the refugee camps are by no means wretched, with all basic needs taken care of by international aid agencies, Dakhla is essentially a desert prison. Despite a tangible undercurrent of anger and frustration, the camp has not become a slough of despond. Indeed, Y. Lamine Baali, Polisario’s UK representative, tells me that what fuels Saharawri determination to carry on is a strong sense of injustice. A word I hear a lot in Dakhla is ‘karama’. I ask Baali what it means. It is an Arabic word for strength and dignity, he explains. ‘Karama is the essence of our existence,’ he tells me. ‘The illegal occupation of our homeland is a terrible affront to our karama. When you hurt people in this way you threaten their whole existence.’Postscript: Return to action I touch down in London, dusty and somewhat dazed, but with a rare clarity of purpose.

The next day at work I take my boss aside and hand her my letter of resignation. Whilst staying in refugee camp in Dakhla, I realized that the lack of international awareness of the Saharawis’ struggle makes their desperate situation feel even more hopeless than it already is. And so I have resolved to give up my day job and work with the Free Western Sahara Campaign to help move the story of the Saharawi refugees off the culture pages of a few magazines reporting on the film festival and on to the international pages of all newspapers, where it belongs.

Next year, it is hoped that there will be direct flights to Tindouf from London, Paris and LA filled with actors, film-makers and musicians as well as ordinary people wanting to be part of the festival and show their solidarity with the Saharawi.

In this way the festival will become even more of an international event, putting pressure on political decision-makers at the highest level and reminding the world of an otherwise forgotten conflict.

Stefan Simanowitz is a journalist, broadcaster and human rights campaigner.

If you would like to help the Saharawi people or get involved in next year’s film festival visit www.freesahara.ning.com or email freesaharacampaign@gmail.com

The campaign has been officially launched in the Houses of Parliament at midday on 12 June, and had been preceded by a delegation to No.10 Downing Street.

This article was previously published in The New Internationalist.