A Spaniard and a Moroccan about Western Sahara

Today, holding a Polish beer, I have come to the sad conclusion I never wanted to believe in: The Western Sahara conflict will never see the solution the Saharawi people deserve. Finally daring to touch the subject, speaking to a Moroccan, however, I have to recognize it just happened to occur. He hardly let me speak. UN resolutions, the existence of black prisons or why the MINURSO lacks authority to deal with Human Rights are some of the questions I was trying to raise with him. However, everything always finished up focussing on the Polisario Front. According to this fellow student of mine, both the Polisario Front and Algeria are the two main culprits causing that there is no end to the conflict, although using the word “conflict” might perhaps lead to exaggerating things, as he did no more than allege the nomadic character of these people.

Trying to touch controversial subjects with somebody from abroad may hurt a lot of their sensibility. One has to bite one’s tongue, and that is what I made up my mind to quite frequently, throughout the evening, as the only thing he reaffirmed was that Saharawis were awarded many more grants studying and offered more possibilities than Moroccans thanks to the Moroccan Government. What’s more, he invited me to get to know “the other side” in El Aaiún, as this is – according to him – one of the most wonderful cities of this our world”, something they must have known when they stole it from the Saharawis, in the same way they started to and still exploit their resources.

Concluding the conversation, I just resigned myself in order to avoid a conflict. This Moroccan admits that in that referendum, due to be held according to UN and MINURSO, total independence is one of the options to be offered by Morocco, something still to be confirmed, as we all know that up to now there is only one option on offer: an autonomy. And what about the resources available within the Saharawis’ territories? He was directing the conversation and always concluding that Algeria and the Polisario are mainly responsible for the situation. And he never recognized that the Saharawi people or – this being the same – children, adults and the elderly struggling to make ends meet or just surviving or dying in the hammada (the hell, as the refugee camp area is also called) are the victims of undecided politicians in various countries, including Morocco and Spain, hardly interested at all in those people’s nightmare. After all, why should they worry about an almost negligible number of nearly 200.000 inhabitants?

I am able to maintain dialogues and listen to different opinions on this matter, but today I can say that the Western Sahara conflict will unfortunately never offer any solution, as many countries do not want this. But today, more than ever: Free Sahara!

La Jaula Dorada Polaca,  August 30, 2012