Saharawi Women express their deepest congratulations to the whole people of the Africa´s last colony for the celebration of the Saharawi National Day.
As every year, on October 12th, the whole people of Western Sahara has conmemorated yesterday one of his most important holidays: the National Unity Day.
The Saharawi people has celebrated Wednesday the double anniversaries 36th of the Declaration of National Unity in 1975 and first of the establishment of Gdeim Izik camp on 2010, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz, along with members of the National Secretariat and SADR government, in addition to national and foreign delegations.
In his speech on the occasion, Mr. Babia Shia, minister of transport and chairman of the preparatory committee, stressed that the celebration of the National Unity Day “is an opportunity to evoke the sacrifices of the parents in order to close ranks and abort the colonial attempts to split the Saharawi society, as well as to meet the legitimate demands of our people for freedom and independence.”
The ceremony was marked by presenting testimonies of eyewitnesses who attended the historic meeting in Ein Bentili on October 12, 1975. These testimonies confirmed the importance of the event in formulating the unity and cohesion of the Saharawi people in face of the colonial attempts aiming to suppress the Saharawi identity, reaffirming adherence of the Saharawis to the Frente Polisario “as a sole and legitimate representative of the Saharawi people.”
The event, which was held Wednesday morning at the February 27th School (Saharawi refugee camps), was attended by foreign delegations participating in the annual International Encounter of Art in Western Sahara (acronym ARTIFARITI), delegation comprising 40 human rights activists from the occupied Western Sahara and representatives of national, Algerian and Spanish media. (SPS)
It is important to remember that on October 12, 1975, the national liberation movement, Polisario Front gathered a large number of Saharawi tribal elders in a conference in Ain Ben Tili to rally the tribes against impending Moroccan and Mauritanian invasion. The timing was intended to predate the October 16 Green March that staked Morocco's claim to what was then Spanish Sahara. The meeting resulted in a declaration of support from the tribes to Polisario, including by many from the pro-Spanish PUNS party and the Djema'a. As a result of the Ain Ben Tili gathering, a conference by the Djema'a was organized in Guelta Zemmur on November 28, where the Djema'a dissolved itself after declaring support to Polisario.
A delegation of 40 Sahrawi human rights activists representing the Sahrawi occupied territories, south of Morocco and university arrived Tuesday in the Saharawi refugee camps to take part in the festivities commemorating the double anniversary of National Unity Day and the establishment of Gdeim Izik camp .
“This anniversary is being held this year under exceptional circumstances on the light of regional and international developments, which reiterated the adherence of the Saharawi people to the national unity and to the Polisario Front as “a sole legitimate representative of the Saharawi people,” the human rights activist and former Saharawi political prisoner, Hamadi Nasiri, told SPS.
“Our presence here is to reaffirm commitment to our people and their struggle for national liberation and to abort the Moroccan attempts aiming to divide the Sahrawi people,” added Nasiri.
The Saharawi female activist, Ghalia Joumani, noted that coincidence of the anniversary of National Unity and Gdeim Izik camp “is a strong message to the international community that there are people still determined to recover their usurped rights.”
