The 2011 International Conference on the Struggle of Saharawi Women for Freedom opened in Abuja Nigeria Tuesday September 27, with a yellow card to Moroccan authorities that their time is up in the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, where the government of the North African Arab nation has continued to oppress, torture imprison and assassinate Saharawi people, especially the heroic women, veterans and survivors of the Polissario war spear-heading the dogged struggle to end domination of an African country by another. The day before the opening of the confab, a mass of women from all walks of life and many African and non-African countries from the Civil Society, the professions and variegated groups, had converged in the city on a huge road show which culminated in a picketing of the Embassy of Morocco with placards asking for a stop to the atrocities in the Western Sahara, which have subsisted for 35 years unabated. Addressing the opening of the confab which ends Wednesday September 28 with a Communiqué, WAELE/ARCELFA’s Founder/President and Chief Hostess of the event, Otunba (Dr.) Basirat Nahibi, recalled how the world pressurized Sudanese President Oumar Al Bashir to respect the January 9, 2005 Peace Agreement and hold a Referendum in Southern Sudan against all odds January 9, 2010, which led to the emergence of Southern Sudan as the 193rd member of the United Nations, and wondered: “Why then is the case of Western Sahara different? Is it because they do not have oil as in the case of Southern Sudan?”
Underscoring the significance of this continent-wide and even global boost for the Saharawi Women’s struggle for freedom, being spear-headed this time around by women, Otunba Nahibi declared: “Gone are the days when African women (were) indifferent to the suffering of our Saharawi brothers and sisters in bondage. Let this conference be the catalyst that the international community needs to galvanize global action in heralding the death knell of the last colony (on) our beloved continent.” The conference is being attended by no less than two prominent martyrs and leaders of the Sahrawi Women’s Struggle for Freedom, Mrs. Fatma Mehdi, Secretary-General of the Saharawi Women Union and Aminatou Haidar, Saharawi Human Rights Defender and Political Activist, who said she was ashamed to even state the manner of indignities to which Saharawi women were subjected by Morocco’s agents, while the Saharawi President was represented by Mohammed Khaddan. The keynote address at the opening was given by no other than former Representative of the United Nations’ Secretary-General to the Western Sahara, American diplomat Ambassador Frank Ruddy, 50-year of diplomatic work in African and the one who conducted a Referendum on Western Sahara (he was also new envoy just posted to Malabo when Nigeria reared to act against reported slave labour by her citizens on the island!) Apologetic on behalf of past Republican administrations in the US, Ruddy let drop the confession as to where his heart was, even as he conducted the referendum which was botched with the connivance of the UN (“what is the UN Charter among friends?”) and while the Moroccan King was a great friend of his (American) President! Nigeria’s ASUU leader Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie and NLC President Waheed Omar renewed their know support for the Saharawis, while in signature, unequivocal terms, immediate past WABA President, activist Lagos lawyer Femi Falana, announced that time was out for hypocritical statements and positions on the Saharawi issue, adding that his colleagues in the law were ready to collaborate with others, even as they are already preparing to appoint a Special Prosecutor “to file a case against all other criminals against humanity, as Morocco will be fought in and outside Abuja until the S.A.D.R people are free.” Re-echoing the Pan – Africanist late President Nkrumah of Ghana as did NLC President Omar earlier, Falana said Africa and indeed the world could not be said to be free if any part of it was still in bondage.
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