War

[Montuno]

España vuelve a abandonar el Sáhara :

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lav...ahara.amp.html

ANÁLISIS

El Sáhara Occidental es la única colonia africana que no ha tenido derecho a la autodeterminación

Dos niños en un campo de refugiados del Sahara Occidental.

Manuel Lorenzo / Terceros
XavierMas de Xaxàs

Barcelona

19/03/2022 00:55Actualizado a 19/03/2022 10:19

El Sáhara Occidental es la única colonia africana que no ha tenido derecho a la autodeterminación, y parece que no lo tendrá. El apoyo de Argelia y de España no ha sido suficiente para conseguirlo, mientras que la ONU no tiene fuerza para imponer a Marruecos un referéndum sobre el futuro de este territorio, especialmente desde que EE.UU. reconoció en el 2020 que era marroquí.

A cambio de la autodeterminación, Marruecos ofrece una amplia autonomía a sus “provincias del sur”, eufemismo con el que designa al territorio saharaui que ocupa de forma ilegal desde la salida de España en 1975. Washington cree que es una propuesta “seria, creíble y realista” para solucionar el conflicto, y desde ayer Madrid está de acuerdo.

Madrid prefiere apoyar a Marruecos y EE.UU., mientras que Argelia piensa en el gas que venderá

España quiere recuperar la sintonía diplomática con Marruecos, muy deteriorada desde hace casi un año, cuando accedió a que el líder del Frente Polisario, el brazo armado de la resistencia saharaui, se tratara en Logroño de la covid. A cambio, podrá proteger mejor sus intereses económicos el reino alauí. España es su primer socio comercial, preeminencia que, sin embargo, nunca ha sabido trasladar a la relación política.

Argelia, sostén del Polisario, se opone a la autonomía y apoya la resistencia armada. El alto el fuego de 1991 saltó por los aires hace dos años. Los saharauis tienen razón en apuntar que solo servía para asentar el statu quo, es decir, para que Rabat siguiera marroquinizando el Sáhara.

Argelia es una república populista y militarizada. Marruecos es una monarquía absolutista y conservadora. El Polisario es una organización revolucionaria de inspiración marxista.

Marruecos y Argelia, con las relaciones rotas desde agosto, pugnan por la hegemonía en el Magreb, así como por el control de los fosfatos y los bancos de pesca del Sáhara. Los saharauis, rehenes de esta disputa económica, ideológica y estratégica, nunca han sido dueños de su destino. Sus opciones son terribles: pueden seguir malviviendo en el desierto argelino sin opciones de ser un país o pueden regresar a Marruecos, donde, a pesar de lo que diga Estados Unidos, serán ciudadanos de segunda clase.

España, que ya los abandonó en 1975, vuelve a hacerlo ahora. Considera que debe hacerlo. No solo para mejorar la sintonía con Marruecos sino también para apoyar a EE.UU. y tener un papel clave en la nueva estrategia energética de la UE que, de alguna manera, deberá sustituir el gas ruso por el argelino. La nomenklatura militar en Argel hace cuentas y, aunque proteste en público, se beneficiará en privado.

Participa en el Debate Las relaciones entre España y Marruecos

PARTICIPACIÓN

 

[Montuno]

Podemos bets on a referendum as the "only solution" for the autonomy of the Sahara

18 March 2022 - 6:16 p.m.

Podemos has rejected Morocco's proposal for the autonomy of the Sahara , which Pedro Sánchez has supported this Friday. The organization has defended a referendum as the "only solution" to "respect the self-determination of the Saharawi people", according to party sources.
This Friday, the President of the Government has changed Spain's historical position regarding the Sahara and has issued a letter to the King of Morocco in which he describes the country's proposal as the "most serious, realistic and credible" to solve the conflict.
"We cannot share this proposal because the autonomist plan that Rabat defends supposes abandoning the position of neutrality and the consensus of the United Nations resolutions", they have indicated from the party chaired by Ione Belarra. “This is a position that would de facto reject the 'mutual agreement', since neither the Polisario nor Algeria would accept this solution”, they say.
The General Secretary of United We Can and Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra, has stressed that Spain "must not deviate from international law". Through Twitter, Belarra has recalled the UN resolutions and has said that the conflict requires a "political, fair, lasting and acceptable solution for all parties."

The MEP of United We Can also Idoia Villanueva has shared a message on her Twitter account along the same lines, indicating that in order to solve "decades of non-compliance with Western Sahara", it is necessary to "implement international law and United Nations relations ”, which go through holding a public consultation.

 

[Montuno]

This is what the UN resolutions on the Sahara say, defended by various parties on the left

Among them Podemos, a partner of the PSOE Government.​

The HuffPost Staff— EFE​

03/18/2022 11:28pm CET​

​

United Nations Assembly.ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES


The Government of Pedro Sánchez has taken a diplomatic turn in its relations with Morocco by supporting, although without saying so explicitly, the Moroccan proposal for the autonomy of Western Sahara .

A proposal that Morocco presented in 2007 to the United Nations and that supposes, de facto, to bury any prospect of independence of the former Spanish colony, which would remain under the designs of Rabat, with only some of its own powers.

This proposal has been rejected for years by the Polisario Front, which calls for a referendum that includes total self-determination.

That is what several parties on the Spanish left are also asking for, such as Podemos , Sánchez's partner in the coalition government, which demands compliance with the United Nations resolutions.

But what resolutions are they talking about?

There are several that have been approved in the last 35 years since MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara) was created in 1988 with the agreement of Morocco and the Polisario for a ceasefire to enter into force and the beginning of a process that culminated in a referendum. It is what was known as the Arrangement Plan , which has been extended over time until today, without being carried out successfully.

During this time, we have seen numerous resolutions passed. One of the most important is that of April 1991 , in which the full support of the United Nations is expressed for "the organization and supervision" under this mission of "a referendum on self-determination of the people of Western Sahara."

“One of the UN resolutions reiterated “its commitment to hold, without further delay, a free, clean and impartial referendum for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara””
​

Four years later, in 1995 , another UN Security Council resolution called on the parties to “achieve a just and lasting solution to the issue” and called for the Settlement Plan to be applied “without delay and fully”.

​

In one of its points, this resolution reiterated "its commitment to hold, without further delay, a free, clean and impartial referendum for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara" and urged the parties to identify the voters to participate in it.

In 2003, the so-called Baker Plan, proposed by former United States Secretary of State James Baker, the new mediator in the conflict, was endorsed by the Security Council as the "optimal political solution based on the agreement between the two parties."

This plan was defined as a "peace plan for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara", but it also failed.

At first, it was rejected by the Polisario because it did not contemplate independence and later, it suggested another one that was discarded this time by Rabat because it did include that option. In 2004 Baker resigned.

They all point the same way, that of the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, something that is far from the Moroccan proposal, accepted by Spain this Friday.


https://www.huffingtonpost.es/entry...WV5STFYSDZ1Skk3dmxtM052SjlMY2V5ME1fZzVLVzdJeQ..

 

[Montuno]

Two Polisario Front militiamen killed in a Moroccan drone attack

Archive - Militiamen of the Polisario Front - STR/DPA - ARCHIVE


MADRID, March 13. (EUROPA PRESS) -
Two members of the Polisario Front militias have died in an attack by a Moroccan drone that fired on them when they tried to approach the positions of the Moroccan Army on the wall erected by Morocco in Western Sahara.
The deceased would be SAS and HOF, as reported by the Yabiladi news portal, which explains that the incident occurred on Saturday in the Um Driga region.
The two belonged to the 3rd Military Region of the Polisario militias, based in Miyek, a town located in the part of Western Sahara controlled by the Polisario Front.

On Friday there was another attack by a Moroccan drone against Polisario troops in Agunite, according to sources from the Saharawi separatist group who did not specify the victims. This source has assured that the drone had civilian targets, specifically a school and several water wells.
The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975 despite the resistance of the Polisario Front, with whom it remained at war until 1991, when both parties signed a ceasefire with a view to holding a self-determination referendum, but Differences over the preparation of the census and the inclusion or not of Moroccan settlers have so far prevented it from being called.

https://www.europapress.es/internaci...313220156.html

 

[Montuno]

INTERNATIONAL

The Sahara conflict for those who have never cared about the Sahara

The breaking of the ceasefire reached in 1991 between Morocco and the Polisario Front rescues a conflict with which Spain has an enormous outstanding debt.​

By carmen rengel​

11/21/2020 10:15am CET​

A Saharawi woman and children walk past a flag in a refugee camp in Samra, Algeria, in 2003.ANDREA COMAS / REUTERS


Western Sahara remains without solutions. The only colonial territory that remains unliberated in Africa, abandoned by Spain and occupied by Morocco , awaits a referendum in which its citizens decide on its independence. The years go by, it's been 45 since it ceased to be another province of our country, and there is still no consultation or sovereignty or anything like that.

Rabat enjoys the current status quo , which allows it to continue exploiting an economically and strategically very valuable territory, and Madrid avoids the issue for not having headaches with its neighbor to the south. The UN , powerless, has deployed a mission that has never held the endorsement for which it was created.

These are the keys to understanding a conflict that affects Spaniards by right, who today live under Moroccan occupation or in refugee camps, in Algerian exile, and which it seems that no one has an interest in resolving.


When does it all start? :

To understand what is happening, we must go back to the year 1884, when Spain occupies Western Sahara, in the context of the War in Africa . That strip of land of 260,000 square kilometers, with little more than half a million inhabitants, rich in phosphate deposits and with a rich fishing coastline, was of great interest . Between 1958 and 1976, the area was officially considered a Spanish province, number 53. Those were decades of peaceful coexistence between the Spaniards displaced to the area, those born in it, and the local Saharawis, who were issued their documentation as Spaniards. of full right, as valid as that of a citizen of Burgos or a citizen of Seville.

In the 1960s, a movement began to forge that was committed to the independence of the metropolis, in a general context of the end of colonialism in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, even sponsored by the United Nations. Political and social movements in this sense are congealing, forcing Spain to recognize the right of the Saharawis to decide on their future.

For example, on November 2, 1975, the still Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón visited El Aaiún , considered the capital of the territory, and said clearly: “Spain will keep its commitments and will try to keep the peace (...) . We wish to protect the legitimate rights of the Saharawi population, since our mission in the world and in history demands it”.

That independence hope culminates on May 10, 1973 with the celebration of a congress in which the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia Hamra and Río de Oro or Polisario Front , which today holds the Saharawi Government, would be born.

On October 16, 1975, when Spain was still in charge in the area, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued a ruling affirming that there were no links of sovereignty between the Sahara and Morocco, even though the heat of the independence movements led the then king Alaouite, Hassan II (father of the current monarch, Mohamed VI ), would have begun to say that Western Sahara had "always" been part of his nation. The High Court also insists that "it was not a territory without an owner" at the time of being colonized by Spain.

On November 6, 1975, Morocco invaded the Sahara in what we know as the Green March , in which it mobilized more than 350,000 Moroccans, who entered the area on foot and with banners and flags. Rabat sold it as a peaceful protest, but in reality it was a forced entry into the territory, immediately settled with police and military forces. That date is now a national holiday and is defended in the nationalist imaginary as the recovery of what had been lost in the past.

This massive entry of Moroccans forced a large part of the Saharawi civilian population, especially women, the elderly and children, to flee to Algeria, the neighboring country, little friend of Morocco. There they settled in the desert, in the Tindouf area . Since then, some 170,000 people have been in the camps. In this imaginary, so different from that of the Moroccans, the hope stands out that one day they would recover their land, which belonged to no one else.


The march of Spain :

Given that staying in the area already caused more problems than benefits, on November 14, Spain signs its departure from Western Sahara, in a document called the Tripartite Agreements of Madrid , with Morocco and Mauritania . Through this article, both countries are given the land that had been a Spanish colony, Rabat was given the north and center of Western Sahara and Mauritania, the south.

This agreement was never recognized by the UN, which even declared it null and void in 2002, which is why it still classifies the Sahara as a "territory awaiting decolonization" -one of the 17 remaining in the world- and understands that the power administrator is Spain. A label ratified by the then judge of the National High Court and today Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska , in 2014.

Betrayed, abandoned, the Saharawi decided to react and on February 27, 1976 formally proclaimed the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) , currently recognized by 82 states. The Waali Mustafa Sayed was proclaimed its first president. Formally, that day he went to war with Morocco and Mauritania, with the support of Algeria, South Africa and Cuba.

The next day, Lieutenant Colonel Valdés, the last Spanish governor in the area, lowered the flag for the last time.

In November of that year, the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed the right to free self-determination and independence of the Saharawi people. In its resolution, it deplores the seriousness of the state of the people, due to the persistent occupation of Morocco, and demands that Rabat asks it to put an end to it.


The war and the promises :

On August 5, 1979, a peace agreement was signed between the SADR and Mauritania, in Algiers. This implied the withdrawal of Mauritanian troops and the end of the occupation by this country. Morocco not only does not take an example, does not agree to peace, but also undertakes a second invasion of the territory.

Just that year, by the way, the Holidays in Peace program began in Spain , promoted by the Communist Party, which every summer brings children to our country, trying to spare them the worst summer months in desert camps.

The 1980s pass, years in which Morocco begins the construction of six defensive walls, which are more than 2,700 kilometers long, with the intention of further blocking the Saharawis: in addition to stopping Polisario incursions, they make the population divided with a physical stagnation impossible to overcome. Rabat not only tries to gain a foothold in the area, but also responds angrily, for example, to the first major international recognition of the Saharawi cause, when in February 1982 the SADR began to form part of the Organization for African Unity , with the endorsement diplomat from 26 countries. Morocco is leaving this body.

The war between Saharawis and Moroccans remained in force until 1991, when a ceasefire was achieved on September 6 and the United Nations Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara, known as Minurso , was created . The agreement between both parties includes, in addition to the cessation of hostilities, the exchange of prisoners, the repatriation of refugees and an endorsement so that the Saharawis could freely choose their future, a consultation that would be carried out under the supervision of Minurso. To date, it has not been carried out.

Map of the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO).MINURSO / UN



The 'status quo' :

The Saharawi remains in 2020 a divided people. Its citizens are under Moroccan occupation or in the precarious Algerian camps. Some suffer constant human rights violations, denounced by international NGOs and the UN, or subjected to a miserable life in the desert.

For years, United Nations resolutions have accumulated on their right to sovereignty and the right to endorsement. "We continue to wait peacefully for international legality and what was decided in 1991 to be complied with," is one of the most frequently repeated phrases in the Polisario Front's communiqués.

Although these rights are there, recognized, they have never been applied, in a dynamic of dead paper and oblivion reminiscent of the Palestinian cause . In 2001, the last resolution of the Security Council was agreed upon, showing its “full support” for the agreements adopted by the parties for the “holding of a free, fair and impartial referendum on the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”. However, since then, during practically the entire reign of Mohamed VI, the subsequent appeals have been bland, incomplete and even forgetful about the issue of the consultation, which outrages the Saharawis.

In 2006, the UN encouraged the two sides to start direct talks, without preconditions. In 2007, one and the other presented their proposals to New York: the Polisario obviously continued to propose a referendum on self-determination, while Morocco mentioned for the first time the granting of autonomy for the territory, although under its command, of course. In this proposal, the Moroccan State retains exclusive jurisdiction in religious and constitutional issues and those related to the figure of the king, national security, foreign relations and the judiciary. The Polisario considered that this offer was even worse than the autonomy plan presented by the Spanish State in 1974, which also came to nothing. No progress has been made with these proposals.

Since then, the UN resolutions do not even mention autonomy, but they do always include a phrase that Rabat loves: "Morocco's serious and credible efforts to advance the process towards a solution." A round of applause, a pat on the back, which together with inaction perpetuates the current situation of paralysis.

Protest in favor of the Saharawis in Madrid, on November 12, 2016.
FRANCISCO SECO / ASSOCIATED PRESS


And why hasn't progress been made with the referendum in these years? Well, for two reasons, basically. A policy, which is the presence in the UN Security Council of two permanent members : France (former colonial power in Morocco, with excellent relations with Rabat) and the US (economic and defensive partner of the Moroccans). Added to this is the influence of Morocco on its continent, because it has been weaving a first-rate economic, diplomatic and religious network, underpinned by its return, three years ago, to the African Union, just to put spokes in the wheel to the cause of his adversary. In contrast, the Polisario Front only has support from Algeria, South Africa and Russia.

And there is another economic reason: to the goodness of the geostrategic position of Western Sahara, with its 1,100 kilometers of coastline, are added its natural resources (on land, phosphates, basic in the production of fertilizers; in the sea, fishing) . Since 1975, Morocco has been investing in the infrastructure of what it considers its "provinces of the south". It currently administers and controls 80% of the territory. In 2018, the Front managed to get the Luxembourg Court of the EU to rule that the fishing agreement between the European Union and Morocco did not apply to the Sahara, because that territory "is not part of Morocco." However, in 2019 the European Parliament approved the fishing agreement with Morocco that includes Western Sahara. Same mistake.

The Polisario has been demanding for years that, at least, the UN mission take charge of monitoring compliance with basic human rights in the area. There is no one to watch over, examine and denounce those violations that they denounce, which range from massive and unjustified arrests and police mistreatment. It is not a strange demand, since among the 16 peace missions that the organization has, only Minurso lacks the powers to evaluate this situation.


the last crash :

All this history has taken us to the last clash: Saharawi civilians gathered in the Guerguerat area , in the south-west of the strip, an enclave in which there is no control of anyone and that Rabat had begun to use to transport goods to Mauritania. , doing business. Tired, the Saharawis who live in the area blocked a road and prevented the trucks from passing, which provoked the reaction of the Army and the Police.

The Moroccan Army entered the Guerguerat demilitarized zone on November 13 and tried to expel the group of about 50 people. This time, the Polisario Front intervened and both forces exchanged fire, although no injuries were reported. It was understood from the occupied side that it was an attack on civilians in a peaceful protest, a more serious episode than the daily one.

Days later, this week, the Front has assured that it has attacked various Moroccan military bases, causing fatalities. Rabat denies it, says that there are no casualties. The Polisario has broken the ceasefire and declared a state of war, but neither does Morocco want to say anything about that, pretending to be normal. For the time being, he has avoided the word "war." On Monday, King Mohamed VI assured that his country maintained its "commitment" to the ceasefire in Western Sahara, although he issued a warning: "It will react with the greatest severity to any threat against its security and the peace of its citizens" .


The situation is not only different now, after decades of resistance, because the agreement has been formally broken, but also because of the accumulated boredom behind it and that has aroused it. The young Saharawis, who have grown up with the desire to return, are committed to taking steps to break the stalemate. That is why it is understood that many of them have enlisted these days, also ready to fight with weapons.

The future of the area is, today, uncertain.


What does Spain say? :

The administering power, Spain, does not get involved. To say that it has been put in profile is soft. The country is divided: on the one hand, there is what beats in the street, where there is a clear feeling of affection and closeness to the Saharawi cause, by memory and by ties. On the other hand, the interests of the Government as a partner of Morocco, of enormous weight.

Defending the endorsement or inspection of human rights, which are intermediate steps without asking for the self-determination of Western Sahara, is not in Moncloa's plans, because it could anger his ally in Rabat. And the stakes are high: right now, with migrant arrivals on the Canary Islands on the rise, Morocco's role as a watchdog is essential. They can open or close the faucet of the boats, just with the Sahara as one of the main departure points for the boats to the west. The same happens with the control of drug trafficking, towards the Canary Islands and, above all, towards the Strait of Gibraltar.

For the moment, after the latest hostilities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assured "support the efforts of the Secretary General of the United Nations to guarantee respect for the ceasefire in Western Sahara agreed and supervised by MINURSO". The Government has highlighted "the importance of stability in this strategic region, a key axis between Africa and Europe" and has urged the parties to resume negotiations towards a solution "mutually acceptable according to the parameters repeatedly established by resolutions".


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carmen rengel



https://www.huffingtonpost.es/entry/...b66cd4ad41f808

 

[buzzmobile]

"To Berlin"

Looks like a hard landing.

 

[buzzmobile]

For the record, GI Joke has no magazine in his rifle. Clips are made to quick load magazines.

That could be a Final Jeopardy answer.

Now a musical interlude:

 

[h.h.]

Looks like a hard landing.

Sad really. Putin sacrificing Russians for a worthless goal based on lies. You’d think some of his keyboard warriors would be upset. Their only concern is the quality of my dope or if they have to wear clean chonies.

 

[Montuno]

History of Western Sahara :

Western Sahara has never become an independent country, nor a clear entity established in that territory due to various factors such as the actions carried out on this region by the Moroccan government since the last quarter of the 20th century or the small population In 1975, according to the Spanish census, there were 70,000 inhabitants in that region, which gives an idea of ​​its low number of inhabitants in historical terms (even today, with 2 inhabitants per square kilometer, it is still one of the five territories with the lowest population density in the world). Due to this, in the Middle Ages , this area of ​​the Sahara was only a transit route for trans- Saharan trade .

prehispanic periodEditSee also: Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
Almoravid Empire , 11th–12th centuries .


The increasing desertification of the Sahara desert , prior to the introduction of the camel (early 1st millennium), caused the virtual isolation of the region. The introduction of the dromedary , around the 3rd century AD. C. , meant a revolution in livestock and in communications through the desert, so that the territory of what is now Western Sahara became part of one of the main trade routes in the world, transporting salt and gold between northern Africa and West Africa.
Islam arrived in the area in the 8th century and was immediately successful. The remoteness of the caliphate facilitated the independence of the region. The Almoravids , a group of strict interpreters of the Koran , who emerged from this region, controlled North Africa (1053-1147) and even al-Andalus , on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar .
Until then the population, although Muslim , remained Berber ; But at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Maqil Arabs emigrated from Libya to the west and the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf rejected them south of the Draa , so they occupied territories corresponding to what are now Western Sahara and Mauritania , giving rise to the Hassani tribes that prevailed over the Sanhaya Berbers in the 14th century , and with them their Arabic dialect, Hassania .
The French conquests in Mauritania pushed the followers of the Muslim leader Ma el Ainin (1838-1910) to Saguía el Hamra and Draa , who in 1898-1902 founded a city in present-day Smara as a center for trade and religious study . In addition to facing the French in the south, he intervened in the affairs of Morocco , altered as a result of the 1906 Treaty of Algeciras , being expelled by the French in 1910. His son and successor, Ahmed al-Hiba , was attacked by a column Mauritanian French that partially destroyed Smara in 1912. Al-Hibahe proclaimed himself sultan (known as the Blue Sultan) and after the Franco-Moroccan treaty of 1912, which had clauses against him, he entered Marrakech , but in 1913-1919 he was expelled by the French and died.

The Spanish SaharaEdit Engraving published in January 1885 in La Ilustracion Española y Americana illustrating the work of the Spanish Society of Africanists led by Emilio Bonelli . Provisional settlement in the Río de Oro Peninsula .


Main articles: Spanish West Africa and Spanish Sahara .
The region located between Cape Bojador and Cape Blanco was claimed by Spain in 1884, during the Berlin conference (establishment of a factory in the Dakhla peninsula and dependencies in the Bay of Cintra and Cape Blanco at the end of 1884 by Emilio Bonelli ). In 1885, the construction of Villa Cisneros began and the establishment of factories in Río de Oro and Cabo Blanco . The Spanish continued their advance inland and north of Cape Bojador.
Despite the success of the negotiations with Ahmed uld Mohamed uld el Aidda , sultan of Adrar el-Tmarr and the most respected Saharawi chief in the area, who was able to sign a letter of protectorate with Spain, the lack of notification from the government of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta during the Berlin Conference left the agreements on a dead letter, so the possibility of establishing Spanish sovereignty over a territory of approximately 500,000 km² was lost. [SUP][ 1 ][/SUP] The Iyil salt pans later came under French control after the Treaty of Pariswhich delimited the borders between the colonial territories of Spain and France both in Western Sahara and in the Gulf of Guinea .
In the face of friction with France, a series of agreements reached in 1900 ( Treaty of Paris ), 1904 and 1920 delimited the areas of influence of both countries, setting the northern limit of Western Sahara at parallel 27º 40' N. Spain divided its possession into two independent administrative districts, Río de Oro, to the south, and Saguía el Hamra , to the north, which were united in 1958 to form the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara .
Río de Oro was the first territory that Spain controlled in the area. In 1884 Emilio Bonelli , with 7,500 pesetas extracted from State funds thanks to a presidential privilege that then President Antonio Cánovas del Castillo had in accordance with the regulations of the time, inspected the area, where on November 4 he founded Villa Cisneros , which would become their capital. The then King Alfonso XII carried out a royal enactment over the territory on December 26, 1884. La Güera , initially a separate colony, was annexed to the Río de Oro in 1924.
Later, the territory of Saguía el Hamra was annexed to Río de Oro. It was recognized as Spain by France in 1912. It occupied the area between Cape Bojador and parallel 27º 40' N. The main population centers were Smara, considered a holy city , and El Aaiún (which could be translated as Las Fuentes) which was founded by Antonio de Oro in 1938 on a small native settlement and which in 1940 became the capital of the province, thus relegating Villa Cisneros.
The southern zone of the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco , known as Cabo Juby —agreement with France in 1912— and located to the north of Saguía el Hamra and between parallel 27º 40' N and the Draa River valley , was a region historically populated by Saharawis , and that was under Iberian control since the taking of Francisco Bens on June 29, 1916. [SUP][ 2 ][/SUP] In 1934, in the middle of the Second Republic , the territory began to be known as Spanish Sahara after a friendly agreement between Saharawi tribes and the Republican administration. [SUP][ 3[/SUP] ]
Stamp of 1924.


In 1949, Manuel Alía Medina , a Spanish geologist, discovered in Bucraa the largest phosphate deposits in the world.

the end of the provinceEdit The Spanish Sahara (1956).


Following its independence from France, Morocco claimed the territory of Western Sahara as part of its " Greater Morocco ". In 1967, the UN recommended the decolonization of the territory, while shortly after, Mauritania also joined Moroccan territorial claims.
Meanwhile, nationalist agitation began in Western Sahara. In 1968, the Advanced Organization for the Liberation of Saguía el Hamra and Río de Oro was created under the leadership of Sidi Brahim Basiri . The repression of a nationalist outbreak in El Ayoun on June 17, 1970 ended with some deaths, dozens of injuries and hundreds of detainees. Basiri was arrested and was never heard from again. The most widespread hypothesis is that a Spanish army patrol took him out of jail to assassinate him and then bury him inside the territory. Shortly after, on May 10, 1973, the Polisario Front ( Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguía el Hamra and Río de Oro) was created.), which began the armed struggle against Spain. His first action took place on May 20 of that year with 17 combatants who only had five weapons. The armed clashes would take place during the following months.
In the early 1970s, faced with the wishes of Morocco and Mauritania to annex the territory, the Spanish government began to consider the possibility of autonomy, drafting a statute of autonomy and creating at the end of 1974 a pro-Spanish party, the Saharawi National Union Party (PUNS). There was an assembly of notables, the Djema'a , with limited government capabilities. Finally, it communicated to the UN the intention to hold a self-determination referendum in 1975, who thus ordered it in its resolution 3458 B of December 10, 1975.
In 1974, Spain announced its plans to grant greater autonomy to the Saharawis and to hold a referendum in the spring of 1975. Morocco opposed the Spanish project, while the UN forced Spain to suspend the referendum and go to the International Court of Justice. Justice of The Hague , which ruled in favor of self-determination.
On August 21, 1975, the United States Department of State gave the green light to a secret strategic project of the CIA , financed by Saudi Arabia , to seize the province of Spanish Sahara from Spain, the Sahara being a vital territory since the geostrategic point, rich in phosphates, iron, oil and gas, which the United States did not want to leave in the hands of Spain due to the Franco regime . [SUP][ citation needed ][/SUP]
On October 6, the Spanish Army Intelligence services informed Franco of the US plans for Western Sahara and asked him to act accordingly. On October 21, Juan Carlos de Borbón , prince of Spain and heir to the dictator, refused to accept the leadership in Spain on an interim basis, since he was seeking total power to act in Western Sahara, which he obtained shortly after. With the risk of a war between Spain and Morocco, Juan Carlos I asked for help from Henry Kissinger , the US Secretary of State, and he accepted the mediation requested by the monarch, interceding with Hassan II of Morocco., with which in the following hours a secret pact was signed by which Juan Carlos undertook to hand over the Spanish Sahara to Morocco in exchange for full US political support for his head of state. [SUP][ 4[/SUP] ]
King Hassan II of Morocco, not in accordance with what was established by the UN, organized the so-called green march (October 16, 1975). Meanwhile, the Spanish administration organized Operation Golondrina, an operation to evacuate the Spanish from the territory. Thus, the greatest betrayal of Spain to the Spanish and Saharawi citizens (at that time also Spanish citizens) would be carried out. They would even take the corpses from the cemeteries. On November 2, 1975, the then Prince of Spain, Juan Carlos de Borbón, then Acting Head of State , visited the Spanish troops deployed in the Spanish Sahara, assuring them of the full support of the government in their defense of the territory and the people. Saharan. Four days later, on November 6, 1975, some300,000 unarmed Moroccans concentrated in the Moroccan city of Tarfaya , near the border, entered Western Sahara. Shortly before (October 31), Moroccan troops had crossed the northeastern border of Western Sahara and had clashed with troops from the Polisario Front.
In this climate of tension, aggravated by the death throes of the dictator Francisco Franco in Spain, Morocco, Mauritania and Spain (represented by the then Prince Juan Carlos), signed an agreement in Madrid (November 14, 1975) by which Spain undertook to put an end to its presence in the Sahara on February 28, 1976 and until then to share the administration of the territory of Western Sahara with Mauritania and Morocco. This agreement had the frontal opposition of Algeria and the Polisario Front. Under pressure from the Green March, the Spanish garrisons had withdrawn to El Aaiún, Smara and Villa Cisneros.
Mauritanian and Moroccan troops began to occupy the cities of Western Sahara (Smara, November 27; El Ayoun, December 11; La Güera, December 20; Villa Cisneros, January 9). The Saharawis began to leave the cities (November 1975-February 1976) to settle in the desert. Following the Moroccan bombing of the camps, they would eventually end up in refugee camps in Algeria.
On February 26, 1976, the last Spanish soldiers left Western Sahara. That same night, when the Moroccan troops had already entered the territory, the Polisario Front proclaimed the constitution of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). On April 14, Mauritania and Morocco signed an agreement in Rabat dividing up the country: the northernmost two-thirds for Morocco and the remaining third for Mauritania.
When the Polisario Front declared war on Morocco, the latter was losing the war against the former, but the United States, France, Spain and Saudi Arabia, thanks to Hassan II's relations with Henry Kissinger (the then United States National Security Adviser States) and with the Saud dynasty of Saudi Arabia, intervened to help Morocco seize Saharawi territory. [SUP][ 4[/SUP] ]

Until todayEdit Warriors of the Polisario Front .


Polisario Front Warriors .


The Polisario guerrillas, based in Algeria, launched, between 1976 and 1978, continuous attacks against Moroccan and Mauritanian troops in Western Sahara (even attacking the capital of Mauritania). As a result of this war of attrition, Mauritania renounced its territorial claims in the Sahara and in 1979, signed peace with the Polisario Front ( Algiers Agreement ). However, its place was taken by Morocco, which proclaimed its sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara.
It was after the abandonment of Mauritania that the SADR achieved its greatest international recognition. Formally admitted to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1982, it achieved full status in 1984 (which led to its abandonment by Morocco). By 1985, it had already been officially recognized by 61 countries. That year, the United Nations urged negotiations between the parties and the holding of a referendum in Western Sahara with the prior withdrawal of Moroccan troops.
However, on the ground, the military operations began to go wrong for the Polisario Front, with the construction by Morocco of a defensive line in the middle of the desert. In August 1980, Morocco began the construction of the wall, which divided the territory of Western Sahara from north to south. Completed in April 1987, it measures 2,720 kilometers, protecting the phosphate deposits of Bucraa , El Aaiún and Smara, made of sand at least 2 meters high, it was surrounded by minefields, it has fortresses every 5 km and was protected by more than 100 000 soldiers. [SUP][ 5[/SUP] ]
Finally, in August 1988, Morocco and the Polisario Front gave their approval to a peace plan drawn up by the UN and the OAU, which proposed a ceasefire and control of the territory of the Sahara by a United Nations mission, which would prepare the holding of a referendum on the future of the territory.
Talks began in 1989, but difficulties soon arose, especially due to discrepancies over the census that was to be used in the consultation. The Polisario Front maintains that the base of the census should be the Spanish census of 1974, while Morocco maintains that the referendum must contemplate the current inhabitants of the territory. In this way, the referendum was postponed. On April 29, 1991, the United Nations Security Council, in its resolution 690, decided to establish the mission for the referendum ( MINURSO , United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara), which was deployed in the territory that same year, whose objective is, in addition to preparing the consultation, to supervise the ceasefire. Although the consultation is scheduled for 1992, it did not take place due to discrepancies about the census. The nineties passed between attempts to draw up a census for the referendum, between continuous discrepancies between both parties. Meanwhile, Hassan II of Morocco decreed the division of Western Sahara into provinces, equivalent to the Moroccan ones. In 1999, the first electoral census was published (with more than 86,000 voters). However, the situation remained stagnant.
In January 2000 the new census was completed, but again disagreements between Morocco and the Polisario Front prevented the referendum from being held. That year, Morocco expressed its intention to negotiate with the Polisario Front the granting of a certain autonomy to Western Sahara, but closing the door to any referendum. In January 2003, the UN special envoy, the former US secretary of state, James Baker , met with representatives of both parties, proposing a program ( Baker Plan II) that included a broad autonomy of Western Sahara within Morocco as a phase prior to the holding of a referendum on the final status of the territory within a period of four years. Both Morocco and the Polisario rejected the proposal in March. However, the Polisario Front changed its mind in July, accepting the plan. Not so Morocco, which continued to maintain the Moroccan nature of the Sahara and its rejection of the option of independence. To favor its acceptance, it was accepted to include the possibility of broad autonomy within the options of the referendum. MINURSO's mandate was extended (in resolution 1570 of October 28, 2004, the Security Councilextended MINURSO's mandate until April 30, 2005), but to date no solution has been reached nor, of course, has any consultation been held. Meanwhile, the Saharawi refugees remained in the Algerian desert, mainly in the refugee camps in the province of Tindouf .
The UN president, Kofi Annan , even said at the end of his mandate that the Sahara conflict had a very difficult solution. UN member states have so far not been able to enforce UN resolutions. The referendum seems to be delayed sine die .
In 2005, the main urban centers of Western Sahara became the scene of serious protests against the Moroccan occupation. On May 25, 2005, the Moroccan police broke up the peaceful demonstration in support of independence and the Polisario Front. In November 2010, the Moroccan police dissolved a protest camp on the outskirts of El Ayoun, after which a series of protests by the Saharawi population began in the city itself, with the subsequent intervention of the Moroccan authorities.
On February 28, 2015, 39 years after Spain abandoned the territory, the Polisario Front makes public an ultimatum for April in which Christopher Ross , the current special envoy of the UN Secretary General for MINURSO, must present to the Council of Security a report on the situation in Western Sahara. If this deadline is not met, the Polisario Front reserves the right to use all the means it deems appropriate to defend its rights and here, it is clear, there is the possibility of taking up arms again. [SUP][ 6[/SUP] ]
On November 14, 2020, Brahim Gali, president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), announced that they considered the 1991 ceasefire with Morocco broken and declared a state of war following the movements of the Moroccan army in the previous days, [SUP][ 7 ][/SUP] which had been deployed in Guerguerat , in the extreme south of the SADR, to put an end to the peaceful protest that Saharawi demonstrators from the Polisario Front had been holding for three weeks. [SUP][ 8 ][/SUP] The protesters demanded the closure of the Guerguerat border crossing, illegal according to the Polisario Front, and that the UN fulfill the 1988 commitment to hold a self-determination referendum for Western Sahara.

See alsoEdit

• Years of Lead (Morocco)
• Western Sahara War
• Madrid tripartite agreement

ReferencesEdit

• ↑ Rodríguez Esteban, Antonio, José (2008). Commemoration of the Cervera-Quiroga-Rizzo scientific expedition to Western Sahara in 1886 . Higher Council for Scientific Research . ISBN 9788400096878.
• ↑ Bens Argandoña, Francisco (2016). Twenty-Two Years in the Desert: My Memoirs and Three Expeditions into the Sahara . Athenaica University Editions. ISBN 9788416770335 .
• ↑ [1]
• ^ [SUP]a [/SUP][SUP]b[/SUP] "The Spanish Royal House secretly agreed with Kissinger to deliver the Sahara to Morocco in exchange for the Crown." . Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
• ↑ Map of the conflict in Western Sahara
• ↑ Delgado, Eugenio G. (February 28, 2015). "Western Sahara prepares for war: the Polisario prepares an ultimatum for April" . 20 minutes . Retrieved February 28, 2015 .
• ^ "President Brahim Gali announces end of ceasefire commitment" . Delegation of the Polisario Front for Spain . Retrieved November 15, 2020 .
• ^ "The Saharan Republic returns to enter the war against Morocco" . VilaWeb (in Catalan) . Retrieved November 15, 2020 .

external linksEdit

• The border as international law (in French)
• Occidental Sahara. History of a land 1509-2004
• Spanish forces deployed in Western Sahara
• Western Sahara and Maghreb geopolitics
• The Marine Corps during the IFNI and Sahara war and the decolonization of the territories
• History I ("Spain in Africa: Spanish science in Western Sahara, 1860-1976") on Vimeo
• History II ("Spain in Africa: Spanish science in Western Sahara, 1860-1976") on Vimeo
• Spain in Africa: Spanish science in Western Sahara, 1860-1976

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hist...ara_Occidental

 

[buzzmobile]

Sad really. Putin sacrificing Russians for a worthless goal based on lies. You’d think some of his keyboard warriors would be upset. Their only concern is the quality of my dope or if they have to wear clean chonies.

Repeating history

Ira Chernus PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

BRING BACK THE BODY COUNT

Ira Chernus
"We don’t do body counts," says America’s soldier-in-chief, Tommy Franks. That’s a damn shame.
During the Vietnam war, the body count was served up every day on the evening news. While Americans ate dinner, they watched a graphic visual scorecard: how many Americans had died that day, how many South Vietnamese, and how many Communists. At the time, it seemed the height of dehumanized violence. Compared to Tommy Franks’ new way of war, though, the old way looks very humane indeed.
True, the body count turned human beings into abstract numbers. But it required soldiers to say to the world, "Look everyone. I killed human beings today. This is exactly how many I killed. I am obliged to count each and every one." It demanded that the killers look at what they had done, think about it (however briefly), and acknowledge their deed. It was a way of taking responsibility.
Today’s killers avoid that responsibility. They perpetuate the fiction so many Americans want to believe—that no real people die in war, that it’s just an exciting video game. It’s not merely the dead who disappear; it’s the act of killing itself. When the victim’s family holds up a picture, U.S. soldiers or journalists can simply reply "Who’s that? We have no record of such a person. In fact, we have no records at all. We kill and move on. No time to keep records. No inclination. No reason."
This is not just a matter of new technology. There was plenty of long-distance impersonal killing in Vietnam too. But back then, the U.S. military at least went through the motions of going in to see what they had done. True, the investigations were often cursory and the numbers often fictional. No matter how inaccurate the numbers were, though, the message to the public every day was that each body should be counted. At some level, at least, each individual life seemed to matter.
The difference between Vietnam and Iraq lies partly in overall strategy. In Vietnam, there was no territory to be conquered and occupied. If U.S. forces seized an area, they knew that sooner or later the Viet Cong would take it back. The only way to measure "victory" was by killing more of them than they killed of us. In Iraq, the goal is control of place. U.S. forces can "take" Basra or Nassiriya and call it a victory, without ever thinking about how many Iraqis had to be killed in the process. So the body count matters less.
However, the end of body counts can not be explained simply by the difference in strategy. The old-fashioned body counts disappeared during the first war against Iraq, when the goal was still defined by territory: pushing Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
So It’s much more likely that "we don’t do body counts" because Vietnam proved how embarrassing they could be. As the U.S. public turned against that war, the body count became a symbol of everything that was inhumane and irrational about that war. The Pentagon fears that the same might happen if the Iraq war bogs down. How much simpler to deny the inhumanity and irrationality of war by denying the obvious fact of slaughter.
Perhaps, though, that is unfair to the Pentagon’s news managers. Perhaps they just think it indecent to let any reminder of blood and guts appear on screen. Why trouble the conscience, or the digestion, of good American folk who eat dinner while they watch the war news? Don’t we have enough to worry about without that?
What I worry about is a world where thousands can be killed and no one is responsible, where deaths are erased from history as soon as they happen. The body count was more than an act of responsibility. It was a permanent record. It made each death a historical fact. You can go back and graph those Vietnam deaths from day to day, month to month, year to year. That turns the victims into nameless, faceless abstractions. But it least it confirms for ever and ever that they lived and died, because someone took the time to kill and count them.
In Iraq, it is as if the killing never happened. When a human being’s death is erased from history, so is their life. Life and death together vanish without a trace.
The body count has one other virtue. It is enemy soldiers, not civilians, who are officially counted. Antiwar activists rightly warn about civilian slaughter, and watch the toll rise at www.iraqbodycount.org. It is easy to forget that the vast majority of Iraqi dead will be soldiers. Most of them were pressed into service, either by brute force or economic necessity. As the whole world has been telling us for months, there is no good reason for this war, no good reason for those hapless Iraqi foot-soldiers to die. They are victims of brutal U.S. injustice, just as much as the civilians. They deserve just as much to be counted
So let us bring back the body count. If we must kill, let us kill as one human being to another, recognizing the full humanity of our victims. Without a body count, our nation becomes more of a robotic killing machine. As we dehumanize Iraqis, we slip even further into our own dehumanization. Let us bring back the body count. if only to recover our own sense of responsibility to the world’s people, to history, to our own humanity.

 

[Montuno]

http://www.mundoarabe.org/sahara_occidental_historia.htm

WESTERN SAHARA : History of a land
(1509-2004):
______________________

	1509 Legitimation of the right of Spain to settle in a coastal strip of the Sahara after an agreement with Portugal.
	1884 A Spanish expedition arrives at the coastal lands of Morocco to verify its occupation. The following year Spain sends its first garrison to the Sahara area.
	1886 The Spanish Geographic Society organizes an expedition to the Adran Temar area, which concludes with an agreement with the sultan that recognizes Spanish sovereignty over the Río de Oro region. Colonization begins based on specific agreements with local leaders.
	1900 Signing of the Treaty of Paris, between Spain and France, which reduces the extension of the territory occupied by Spain by half.
	1920 The application of the Treaty of Paris establishes the definitive limits of the Spanish Protectorate.
	1934 The notables of the Saharawi tribes sign a friendly submission by virtue of which it begins to be known as "Spanish Sahara", which includes Ifni. Spanish occupation of the city of Smara.
	1957/58 The Sahara becomes a province of the Spanish protectorate, which causes attacks by the Sahara Liberation Front. On the other hand, after having entered the UN in 1955, Spain must begin the decolonization process. In 58 Start of the silenced war of Ifni between Spain and Morocco, which lasts until the following year. The Angra de Cintra agreements set the limits of the Spanish Sahara and establish the cession to Morocco of the northern territories of the Río de Oro area.
	1966 The UN Decolonization Committee studies the self-determination of the Sahara and in 1967 Spain agrees to organize a referendum to determine the autonomy of the Sahara. Creation of the General Assembly of the Sahara (Yamma).
	1969 Transfer of the city of Ifni to Morocco.
	1970 The repression of a nationalist outbreak in the capital of the Sahara, El-Aaiun, ends with 40 dead. The struggle for self-determination was born, led by the Advanced Organization for the Liberation of the Sahara, from which the Polisario Front later emerged.
	1973 Declaration of Algiers, which calls for the end of the Spanish colonial presence in the Sahara. Birth of the Polisario Front, which after ten days commits its first armed action. In 1974, Spain announced that a referendum for the self-determination of Western Sahara would be held in the first half of 1975, but it did not take place.
	1975 October - The International Court of Justice in The Hague condemns the claims of Mauritania and Morocco over Western Sahara and does not recognize the right to self-determination of the area. November 6 Beginning of the Green March, in which some 350,000 people from Morocco cross the border of Western Sahara to recover their territory. Wise operation orchestrated by Hassan II taking advantage of Franco's terminal state and offering promises in exchange that were never fulfilled. November 14- Signing of the Madrid Agreement between Spain (which undertakes to decolonize the Sahara), Morocco and Mauritania, from which the Polisario Front is left out.
	1976 February- Spain cedes the Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania and withdraws its last soldiers. Proclamation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The Polisario Front declares war on Mauritania and Morocco. April- Morocco and Mauritania share the Sahara: two thirds for the former and the rest for the latter. Saharawi refugees settle in camps in the Algerian desert region of Tindouf. The incessant guerrilla activity of the Polisario Front ends up expelling Mauritania in 1979.
	1981 June- Morocco accepts the holding of a self-determination referendum for Western Sahara, which has not yet taken place. November- The UN Decolonization Commission approves a resolution for self-determination, in support of the ceasefire and the holding of direct negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
	1988 August- Moroccans and Saharawis give their approval to a peace plan drawn up by the UN and the OAU that plans a ceasefire and control of the territory by MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara), that would prepare the holding of the referendum. September- The UN General Assembly approves the peace plan.
	1991 April- United Nations approves a resolution detailing the schedule of the support plan and creates MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara). May- September 6 of that year is established as the date for the ceasefire and January 26, 1992 for the referendum. Both are accepted by both parties. September- The ceasefire comes into force with the support of the MINURSO military (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) present in El-Aaiun. A few days later, the Polisario Front denounces the first Moroccan violations against this ceasefire.
	1992 January- The planned referendum is not held and the self-determination process is blocked due to problems in preparing the voting census. The controversy over the Saharawi population is one of the most controversial points that successively stalls the process. September- The Moroccanization of Western Sahara increases due to the inability of the UN to maintain the Peace Plan. Hassan II announces the regionalization of the area.
	1994 After arduous negotiations during the year 93, Morocco and the Polisario Front reach an agreement and establish criteria for the identification of voters. This process soon begins to suffer constant interruptions. The Polisario Front maintains that the Spanish colonial figures should prevail while Morocco intends to double the number of voters because if it does not have a larger census, it would lose the referendum.
	1997 The UN, which in 1996 had decided to suspend the process for the self-determination referendum and reduce the number of soldiers sent to the area, appoints James Baker as UN special representative for Western Sahara and is entrusted with the responsibility of relaunching the process. The complicated identification of voters begins again.
	2000 The UN Security Council suspends the referendum scheduled for July 2000 and Morocco expresses its intention to negotiate with the Polisario Front to grant it some autonomy, but closes the doors to the referendum.
	2001 Morocco insists on the infeasibility of the referendum and on the advisability of accepting the Framework Agreement on the Statute of the Sahara, the so-called Baker Plan, which grants a certain autonomy to the area but under its sovereignty. The project provides for the election of an Executive Council, with broad powers, and a Legislative Council, appointed by all the inhabitants of the territory who have resided until 2000. In the fourth year, the Executive Council would be elected again by the Legislative Council and the resulting Council would deal with the Moroccan Government the final status of the territory, under two conditions: first, that the option of independence is expressly prohibited, and second, that the electorate include every citizen installed in the Sahara one year before the vote. The Polisario Front rejects this option and insists on the referendum as the only way out. King Mohamed VI traveled, on the 26th anniversary of the Green March, to the Sahara to reaffirm his sovereignty over the area. The gesture of the monarch is received with indignation by the Saharawis.
	2002 February- Algeria rejects the Baker Plan and proposes to the UN that it administer Western Sahara. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, proposes four options to solve the conflict in Western Sahara: 1. Continue with the Settlement Plan, which includes the self-determination referendum. 2. Continue with the Framework Agreement, although with slight modifications with respect to the original plan. 3. Begin negotiations for the partition of the territory. 4. Withdrawal of MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) The UN Security Council extended, first in February and later in April, the mandate of MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara). July- The last day of that month was set to make a decision about the future of the Sahara, but the UN Security Council decided to extend MINURSO until January 2003 with the aim of drawing up a proposal for a solution to the conflict that attempts satisfy the parties more than the existing ones.
	2003 January- James Baker, Kofi Annan's personal envoy for the Sahara, presents a plan for the future of the former Spanish colony known as the 'New Baker Plan'. This plan provides for the Saharawi territory to become Moroccan autonomy for at least the next four years, holding regional elections at the beginning of that period. After that time, there would be a self-determination referendum, on the year 2007 or 2008, in which the Saharawis will be able to decide their future. This proposal did not convince any of the parties, since Morocco sees it as an implicit acceptance of the Saharawi right to self-determination, and the Saharawis think that their proposals will be diluted over time in favor of Rabat. In July, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved resolution 1495, in which it expresses its "support" for the latest proposal on the Sahara by the UN envoy, James Baker. In addition, it extended until January 31, 2004 the mandate of the UN Mission for Western Sahara (MINURSO) in order to give Morocco time to study the Baker plan.
	2004 The United Nations Security Council extends the MINURSO mission in the Sahara until April. Moratinos, the Spanish Foreign Minister, assured in August that Spain "will vote again in favor of the Baker plan" in the United Nations Security Council, which will meet before October, if the new proposed resolution "shares the spirit" of the which was voted on in April.

 

[Montuno]

The United States discovers the role of Juan Carlos de Borbón in the delivery of Western Sahara to Morocco

Documents declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States uncover the role played by Juan Carlos de Borbón in the delivery of Western Sahara to Morocco
By
Jose Antonio Gomez-

08/08/2019 eleven


Juan Carlos de Bourbon in El Aaiun

A United Nations legal report ratifies the fact that Western Sahara is not administered by Morocco, but that the administering power is Spain .
Therefore, according to the UN, is Morocco occupying Spanish territory ? You can consult the report HERE


The Kingdom of Spain , headed by its Head of State , has a responsibility towards Western Sahara that goes beyond the sentimental because, legally, the territory continues to belong to Spain and not to Morocco . There is an aspect that has been overlooked in our country: the UN declared null and void the Madrid Agreements of 1975 signed by Juan Carlos de Borbón by which the administration of the Sahara was ceded to Morocco and Mauritania . This nullity is what causes the territory to still be among the sixteen non-autonomous territories supervised by the UN Special Committee on Decolonization.
However, Spain's responsibility in handing over Western Sahara to Morocco goes further. The media ecsaharaui.com has studied the documents declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States in which the role played by Juan Carlos de Borbón in an event contrary to international law is uncovered. The decision adopted by the CIA to declassify almost a million documents has revealed many aspects of this fact.

In 1979, Morocco was losing the war against the Polisario Front until several countries, including Spain, decided to help Hassan II: the United States, France, Spain and Saudi Arabia. All this was possible thanks to the good relations of the Moroccan king with Henry Kissinger, national security adviser of the United States and with the Saud of Saudi Arabia.
According to El Confidencial Saharaui, in August 1975, the US State Department approved a secret CIA project financed by Saudi Arabia to seize Western Sahara from Spain. In the midst of the Cold War, the territory was vital from a geostrategic point of view and, above all, because of the natural resources available to it. In October of the same year, Spanish military intelligence informed Franco of the US plan.
Once Hassan II announced the Green March, after the UN Court of Justice rejected Morocco's claims over the Sahara, Juan Carlos de Borbón, still a prince but heir to the dictator, refused to accept a new interim Head of State because , among other things, claimed to have absolute powers over the Sahara.
After the failed trip of José Solís to Rabat, where he was unable to stop the Green March, Juan Carlos de Borbón took over the Head of State. He expressed concern about the situation in the Sahara, especially since the Portuguese Carnation Revolution was still too recent and he did not want something similar to happen after Franco's death.
In his first Council of Ministers, Juan Carlos de Borbón stated his intention to take charge of the situation in the Sahara, but he did not inform the Government of Arias Navarro that he had sent Manual Prado and Colón de Carvajal to Washington to speak with Henry Kissinger and try to avoid a colonial war that could result in a revolution for which he lost his crown. According to El Confidencial Saharaui, Kissinger agreed to mediate with Hassan II and a secret pact was signed by which Juan Carlos de Borbón would hand over the Sahara to Morocco in exchange for the full political support of the United States for his Head of State.
After the Green March, on November 12, 1975, the Madrid Declaration was produced by which the Sahara was handed over to Morocco and Mauritania.
No one knew anything about this whole process, controlled by the CIA and the United States Department of State. Juan Carlos de Borbón pulled the strings through the men he trusted.
Since 1979, Morocco has occupied and administered the territory despite not appearing as an administering power on the UN list , since the United Nations has never considered it as such. This was established in 2002 by a legal report signed by Hans Corell, Deputy Secretary General for Legal Affairs of the United Nations. Therefore, Western Sahara remains Spanish territory. Legally and based on international law, Spain is the administering power and, therefore, is allowing a foreign nation to illegally occupy the territory.


https://diario16.com/estados-unidos...la-entrega-del-sahara-occidental-a-marruecos/

 

[Montuno]

eleven' The infamous role of Juan Carlos I in the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.

The infamous role of Juan Carlos I in the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara:​

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2020

Madrid, November 02, 2020. -(ECSAHARAUI)
By Lehbib Abdelhay-Chronicle



These days are the 45th anniversary of the Green March, or the military invasion of Western Sahara. The infamous role of Juan Carlos I, the tripartite agreements in Madrid and the departure of Spain from its province 53, events that led to the Sahara War that lasted 16 years.

​

In August 1973 a declaration of intent said "Spain is committed to the self-determination of the Sahara". By then, the already exhausted Franco regime had more than enough of the colony. The Polisario Front had started its guerrilla war and the Franco administration was trying to carry its responsibility to the UN to abandon what had become a problem and so that its image would not be too damaged.

In 1974, under the auspices of the United Nations, Spain decides to hold a referendum in Western Sahara for the self-determination of the Saharawi people, then Morocco, fearful of the result of the referendum, requests the support of the General Assembly of the United Nations so that not be celebrated Trying to equate the case with the decolonization of Sidi Ifni and its return to Morocco.

Faced with this hypothetical situation, the United Nations consults the International Court of Justice on the following questions:
''Was Western Sahara, at the time of its colonization by Spain, a territory without an owner (terra nullius)?''
''What links What legal rights existed between Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco and the Mauritanian complex?''
On October 16, 1975, the International Court of Justice ruled (full text, case 61, page 146), the result was:
By 13 votes against 3 it was determined that at the time of its colonization by Spain it was not an ownerless territory.

By 14 votes against 2 it was determined that there were certain links of subordination and land rights between some tribes that lived in Western Sahara and the Sultan of Morocco, but there were NO links of sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco. Morocco or the Mauritanian complex.
The conclusion is that the self-determination referendum should be held.
You can see the document of the resolution of the International Court of Justice by clicking HERE.

The King of Morocco, Hassan II, interprets it differently. Recognizing that "there were certain links of subordination and land rights between some tribes and the Sultan of Morocco" but forgetting "there were NO links of sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian complex" and of “at the time of its colonization by Spain it was not a territory without an owner” (the owners were the Saharawis themselves).
Thus, bypassing all UN propositions, he organizes a massive movement of Moroccan citizens forced to invade Western Sahara, known as the ''Green March''.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE GREEN MARCH :

1st. On August 21, 1975, the US State Department gives the green light to a secret strategic project of the CIA, financed by Saudi Arabia, to seize the former province of the Sahara (270,000 square km) from Spain. A vital territory from a geostrategic point of view, rich in phosphates, iron, oil and gas, which the US is not willing to leave in the hands of Spain given the situation in which the Franco regime finds itself. The plan is to invade the area through a march of some 300,000 Moroccan citizens (Green March), who would pose as former inhabitants of the area.
2nd. On October 6, 1975, the intelligence services of the Spanish Army inform Franco, already very ill, of the US plans in relation to Western Sahara and ask him to act accordingly.

3rd. On October 16, 1975, the Green March is announced by Hasan II, at the same time that the International Court of Justice of the UN rejects the claims of Morocco over that territory. Hassan II declares without any shame: “We have to start a green march from the North of Morocco to the South and from the East to the West. We have, dear people, to rise up as one man, with order and organization to go to the Sahara and meet our brothers there.''
4th. On October 21, 1975, Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón, heir to the dictator, refused to accept the interim head of state. He wants full powers to be able to act in Western Sahara.

5th. On October 22, 1975, the President of the Spanish Government, Arias Navarro, with Franco's knowledge, sends Minister José Solís to Rabat to try to stop the Moroccan order, promising negotiations on the subject as soon as the dictator's situation improves.
6th. On October 26, 1975, the Green March begins in Moroccan territory. All operational planning and logistical organization of the plan has been carried out by North American technicians.

7º. On October 31, 1975, Juan Carlos de Borbón became head of the Spanish State. He is very concerned about the situation in the Sahara, since he is very aware of the Portuguese case.
You don't want the situation to overwhelm you. Finally, the Spanish monarch officially assumed the head of state on October 31 after refusing to do so a week before. That same day he convened a Council of Ministers and got down to work. His contacts with his Moroccan counterpart were constant. Until then, according to Stabler, "the government was still hesitant" due to the lack of leadership and, above all, the increase in Moroccan pressure. Rabat sent the first group of "green marchers" to the Sahara on October 30, and not on November 6, the official start date of the Green March, to block a possible intervention by Algeria against the invasion.

8th. On October 31, 1975, the prince presides over a Council of Ministers in La Zarzuela. Priority issue: the Sahara. Juan Carlos expresses his iron determination to take charge of the situation. However, he does not tell those gathered that he has already sent his right-hand man, Manuel Prado y Colón de Carvajal, to Washington to request the help of Henry Kissinger. He is aware that a colonial war with Morocco at that time could precipitate events in the style of what happened in Portugal and that he could lose his crown before wearing it.
The US Secretary of State accepts the mediation requested by the new head of the Spanish State, intercedes with Hassan II and in the following hours a secret pact is signed by which Juan Carlos agrees to deliver the Spanish Sahara to Morocco in exchange for full support American politician in his next career as King of Spain.

9th. On November 2, 1975, Juan Carlos de Borbón visits the Spanish troops in El Aaiun on a surprise trip. He is in secret dealings with the Americans for the delivery of the territory, but he has no qualms about appearing with the military (whom he will betray in the following hours as well as the Spanish people, the Saharawis and the UN itself) In this center, in the course of a well-spread friendship with the military, he even allows himself to say to the officers of the troops stationed there: "Spain will not take a step back, it will fulfill all its commitments, it will respect the right of the Saharawis to be free" and also , he says“Do not doubt that your commander in chief will be here, with all of you, as soon as the first shot is fired”.

10th. On November 6, 1975, the Green March invades the former Spanish African province. By virtue of the secret pact (high treason) between Kissinger, Hassan II and the traitorous new head of the Spanish State. The frontier minefields have been cleared and the Spanish legionnaires prudently withdrawn. Spain even allows itself the shamelessness of sending the Minister of the Presidency to pay a courtesy visit to the Moroccan Green March camps.
The UN, uncomfortable and not knowing what is happening, urges Hassan II to withdraw and respect international law. While Spain looks the other way because the prince has enough to secure his crown and the Alaouite monarch does not pay the slightest attention.

11th. On November 9, 1975, Hassan II considers all his objectives in the Sahara to have been achieved and, pending the talks in Madrid, he withdraws the Green March camps to Tarfaya. Algeria protests and withdraws its ambassador from Rabat. The Saharawis, betrayed by Spain, cling to the armed struggle.

12th. On November 12, 1975, the Madrid Conference begins between Spain, Morocco and Mauritania, directed and controlled by the US in the shadows.

13th. On November 14, 1975, the famous Madrid Declaration on the Sahara was produced. For it, the entire northern part of the former Spanish province is handed over to Morocco: 200,000 square kilometers of great geostrategic importance, very rich in all kinds of minerals, gas and oil (discovered by North American oil companies and in strategic reserve). Mauritania (which will immediately abandon them for the benefit of its powerful neighbor to the north) is transferred 70,000 square kilometers from the south, the poorest and most unproductive. The Cortes and the Spanish people know nothing of the matter. Everything has been woven behind the scenes, with the CIA, the US State Department and the Moroccan secret services as masters of an embarrassing ceremony in which Prince Juan Carlos has pulled his strings through his trusted men: Navy ,

While the Government of the stunned Arias Navarro, with Franco dying and his political future looming, limited himself to acting as a guest in the greatest political and military embarrassment of Spain in all its history. Because, effectively, this country had never betrayed its own citizens in such a perverse way (the Saharawis were in 1975), it had humiliated itself in such a way before a people weaker than it, secretly agreeing on its surrender, and cowardly abandoned the battlefield without firing a single shot and then delivering barracks and weapons to his enemy.

The Emeritus Kings of Spain together with Hassan II.

THE TRIPARTITE AGREEMENTS OF MADRID.

In Madrid, on November 14, 1975 and meeting the delegations that legitimately represent the Governments of Spain, Morocco and Mauritania, manifest themselves in agreement with the following principles:

1st) Spain ratifies its resolution -repeatedly stated before the UN- to decolonize the territory of Western Sahara, putting an end to the responsibilities and powers it has
over said territory as the Administering Power.

2º) In accordance with the previous determination and in accordance with the negotiations advocated by the United Nations with the affected parties, Spain will immediately proceed to institute a temporary Administration in the territory in which Morocco and Mauritania will participate in collaboration with the Yemaá and the which the responsibilities and powers referred to in the preceding paragraph will be transferred. Consequently, it is agreed to designate two Deputy Governors, at the proposal of Morocco and Mauritania, in order to assist the Governor General of the territory in his functions. The termination of the Spanish presence in the territory will take effect definitively, before February 28, 1976.
3rd) The opinion of the Saharawi population, expressed through the Yemaá, will be respected.

4º) The three countries will inform the Secretary General of the United Nations of what is established in this document as a result of the negotiations held in accordance with article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations.

5) The three intervening countries declare that they have reached the above conclusions in the best spirit of understanding, brotherhood and respect for the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and as the best contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security.

6º) This document will enter into force on the same day that the “Sahara Decolonization Law” is published in the Official State Gazette, which authorizes the Spanish Government to acquire the commitments that are conditionally contained in this document.

See HERE.

CARLOS ARIAS NAVARRO - AHMED OSMAN - HAMDI MOUKNASS.
The approval document of the Tripartite Agreements of Madrid can be seen by clicking HERE.

On February 26, 1976, Spain withdraws its troops and abandons the Saharawi population, which becomes Moroccan domain.


Today will be the 45th anniversary of that act of cowardice, of that nonsense, of that vile abandonment by Spain of an entire people protected by its laws and international protection, and this country (Spain) continues to be trapped in its own shame, in its incredible laziness, in a policy of insurmountable panic in the face of the Moroccan satrap who not only allows himself to repeatedly ignore the resolutions of the highest body of universal jurisdiction (the UN) but also dares to permanently pressure and blackmail the Spanish leaders based on undoubtedly due to the permanent support it receives from US imperialism and the recognized Spanish military weakness.

Although periodically and timidly the Spanish institutions, pressured by the left-wing parliamentary groups and more than anything to cover a quite shameful file, allow themselves to recognize the responsibility that the Spanish Government still carries today in the Saharawi conflict.

https://www.ecsaharaui.com/

 

[Montuno]

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE IN UKRAINE
The fighting reaches the center of Mariupol and Ukraine loses control of the Azov Sea

The city, a symbol of Russian brutality against civilians, connects Crimea with eastern Ukraine. Russia raises tension in the west by announcing the launch of a hypersonic missile 100 kilometers from the border with NATO

A woman stands in front of a residential building destroyed by Russian bombing in Mariupol.ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO (REUTERS)

THE COUNTRY
19 MAR 2022 - 12:56 CET​

The Ukrainian government lost access to the Sea of ​​Azov on Friday night after Russian troops tightened their control over the main sea port, in the city of Mariupol., besieged and suffocated for more than two weeks by the Army of Vladimir Putin. "The invaders have been partially successful in the Donetsk operational district, temporarily depriving Ukraine of access to the Azov Sea," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. “There is nothing left of the city center. There is not a small piece of land that does not have signs of war”, the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, told the BBC hours before, who reported that the Russian troops had already reached the center of the city, in which more than 80% of residential buildings are damaged or destroyed and where the population is without water or electricity.

MORE INFORMATIONFollow the latest news of the war in Ukraine, live

The enclave is an essential piece for Moscow to link the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, with the pro-Russian separatist zone of Donbas, in the east of the country. Russia warned on Friday that its forces were "tightening the noose" around battered Mariupol.

​

Street-to-street fighting in the center of Mariupol is preventing the rescue of the "hundreds of people" trapped in the air shelter installed in the basement of the city theater, which was brutally bombed by Russian troops last Wednesday. Boychenko has assured this Saturday in statements to the BBC that the rescue teams will only be able to continue removing debris and helping the survivors to get out if there is a pause in the fighting. "There are tanks, artillery shelling, and all kinds of weapons are being fired in the area," he said after warning that the Ukrainian forces are doing everything possible to maintain their position, but that "the enemy forces" are, " unfortunately”, more numerous than theirs.
Boychenko has not given an estimate of how many people they have managed to rescue in the last 24 hours from the ruins of the theater - used as a refuge by hundreds of Mariupol residents since the Russian military offensive intensified more than two weeks ago. On Friday, the authorities reported that 130 people had managed to get out and that more than 1,000 were still trapped in that basement, which resisted the attack. Moscow denies that its forces are targeting civilian targets. It also denies that they have carried out an airstrike on the Mariupol theater and blames the Ukrainian forces for blowing it up as a "bloody provocation".

Advance
active

Advance
previous

Control
Russian

Town
fenced

controlled
by the russians

Combat
recent

recent bombardment

BELARUS

RUSSIA

Chernigov

sumi

Brovary

Kyiv

Lviv

Kharkiv

UKRAINE

Dnipro

Deliatin

Zaporizhia

Krivoy Rog

MOLD.

Volnovakha

Mikolaiv

Melitopol

Kherson

Odessa

Mariupol

ROMANIA

CRIMEA

Black Sea

annexed by
Russia in 2014

250km

Note: What is control? Maintain physical influence over an area to prevent its use by the enemy. It can be achieved by occupying it or overpowering it with weapons. It does not imply governance or legitimacy. Sources: Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project (for advances and controlled areas); UK Intelligence (fenced cities); EL PAÍS and other sources (combats and bombardments).


The UK Ministry of Defense warned this Saturday that Russia “has been forced to change its operations and is now seeking a strategy of attrition. This will surely mean the indiscriminate use of force that will increase the number of civilian victims, the destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure and the intensification of the humanitarian crisis”, they point out in their intelligence report on the situation in the war in Ukraine. “The Kremlin has so far failed in its original goals. It has been shocked by the scale and ferocity of the Ukrainian resistance,” he says.

The body of a person killed as a result of attacks by Russian troops in the port city of Mariupol.ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO (REUTERS)
Mariupol
​​​​​​has become a symbol of the cruelty of Russian troops against civilians in Ukraine. According to municipal data, at least 350,000 residents (before the war, the city had about 450,000 inhabitants) continue to hide in warehouses and basements "before the continuous bombardment by the Russian occupation forces" who launch, on average, "from 50 to 100 aerial bombs per day”, while the Red Cross has been forced to leave the city. For the first time this week, some 30,000 civilians were evacuated. Its population has had to improvise fires in the street to cook and has buried the dead in mass graves due to the large number of deaths. The city has been one of the main targets of attacks by Russian soldiers for days, that on several occasions have prevented the promise of facilitating humanitarian corridors to allow the population to leave. The city was already the scene last week of aattack on a mother-child hospital.


offensive in the west :

For days now, Russia has expanded its attacks to the western part of the country as well. This Saturday the Ministry of Defense has assured that it has used Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to destroy a Ukrainian underground warehouse “containing missiles and aviation ammunition”, in Deliatin, in western Ukraine. The facilities, 108 kilometers from the border with Romania, a member of NATO, have been "destroyed", according to the Russian defense spokesman, Igor Konashénkov.
This technology, which Russia has had since 2018, has the ability to avoid anti-aircraft defenses and is launched from a fighter. The hypersonic level reaches a speed of at least five times the speed of sound, more than 6,000 kilometers per hour. There are two types, gliders and cruisers. Both can be maneuvered to change their path in flight, and are virtually unstoppable at low flight.

This Friday, the objective was what until now had been one of the safest areas in Ukraine and the main passage for those fleeing the war. The Russian Army launched several missiles on the airport of the city of Lviv, 70 kilometers from Poland -a member country of NATO and the EU-, although without causing fatalities, in what was the first bombing in the main city of the west of the country since the war began and the first non-military target. The Lviv region itself had been targeted by Russian missiles in recent days . Last Sunday, at least 35 people were killed in the attack on a military base in Yavoriv, about 40 kilometers from Lviv, and on Friday of last week another six people lost their lives in the bombing of an air base in Lutsk, 87 kilometers from Poland.
Lviv is the main transit point through which some three million people have fled the war as refugees to other countries. “This attack confirms that [the Russians] are not at war with the Ukrainian Army, they are at war with the people, the women, the children, the refugees. There is nothing sacred for them”, denounced the head of the Lviv regional military administration, Maksym Kozytsky, who considered it “a blow” to a “humanitarian refuge”.

https://elpais.com/internacional/202...r-de-azov.html

 

[Montuno]

​​​​​Yolanda ​​​Díaz, Ione Belarra, Alberto Garzón and Irene Montero distance themselves from Pedro Sánchez and support the Saharawi cause.

Yolanda Díaz, Ione Belarra, Alberto Garzón and Irene Montero distance themselves from Pedro Sánchez and support the Saharawi cause :

SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2022

The Polisario delegate has said that Pedro Sánchez has succumbed "before the pressure and blackmail" of Morocco by supporting Moroccan autonomy over Western Sahara.

Contramutis.-

Madrid (ESC). - Yolanda Díaz, Second Vice President of the Government of Spain and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, has expressed her support for the Saharawi people after learning of the turn given by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, regarding Spain's position on Western Sahara by consider the proposal for Moroccan autonomy as “the most serious, credible and realistic basis for the resolution of this dispute”.

The Moroccan Royal Cabinet has reported through a statement that Pedro Sánchez sent a letter to King Mohamed VI that "recognizes the importance of the Sahara issue for Morocco", highlighting that "the two countries are inextricably linked by affection, a history , a geography, interests and a shared friendship”.

Shortly after learning of this information released from Rabat, the second vice president, through a tweet, reaffirmed her commitment "to the defense of the Saharawi people and to the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council."

To this she added that “any solution to the conflict must go through dialogue and respect for the democratic will of the Saharawi people. I'll keep working on it."

The General Secretary of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra, has spoken and written on Twitter that the conflict in Western Sahara requires a "just, lasting and acceptable political solution for all parties" in accordance with the Resolutions of the Security Council that "provides for the self-determination of the Saharawi people." “Spain must not deviate from international law”, she has stated.

For the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, from Podemos, «the United Nations Security Council is crystalline regarding the conflict in Western Sahara. He speaks of a "just, lasting and acceptable political solution for all parties" including "the self-determination of the Saharawi people" Spain must continue on this path».

The Minister of Consumer Affairs and federal coordinator of the United Left, Alberto Garzón, has also stated: «The Saharawi people have been victims for a long time, and you cannot look the other way. The Saharawi people have the right to express how they want their future to be through a free referendum, as established in 1995 by the United Nations Security Council».

Polisario Front: Pedro Sánchez succumbs to Moroccan blackmail.

The reaction of the Polisario Front has also been immediate. His representative for Spain, Abdullah Arabi, has declared that Spain has "succumbed to the pressure and permanent blackmail of Morocco", by accepting the Moroccan proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara as a basis for resolving the conflict.

According to Arabi's statements broadcast by Saharawi Television and collected by Cadena SER, it is about pressure "that Morocco has been exerting insistently with the sole objective of trying to condition the position of the Government of Spain with respect to Western Sahara".

"We believe that the Government of Spain has made a mistake and has paid a toll to restore relations with Morocco", he stressed.

Arabi has assured that it is a position that "does not correspond to the legal and political responsibility of Spain" in the conflict in the Sahara and that the "only possible solution" is the one chosen by the people of the Sahara.

The head of the Polisario in Spain has recalled that this is an issue that remains on the UN agenda as an "unfinished decolonization" process, so it is a "question of decolonization."

"And the sole purpose of any decolonization process is the free exercise of the right of the Saharawi people to their right to self-determination."

Arabi has assured that he is not against good relations between Morocco and Spain, as long as it is not "to the detriment of the legitimate and just claims of the Saharawi people".

In other statements, to Europa Press, the Polisario delegate has said that Pedro Sánchez has succumbed "to pressure and blackmail" from Morocco as a "toll" to resume the damaged political and diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Arabi has said that the Spanish government has been "constantly trying to please Morocco" for years, playing with an "ambiguity" that, in his opinion, does not correspond to it as "administrating power" of a territory pending decolonization.

For Arabi, the fact that Spain now recognizes the Moroccan autonomy plan as the most realistic option to resolve the future of the former colony reveals the "hypocrisy" of the Government when it speaks of "defending international legality."

Speaking to Agencia EFE, the Polisario Front delegate believes that the Spanish government has yielded to pressure from Morocco to change its official position with respect to Western Sahara in exchange for resuming bilateral relations. For this reason, he believes that Spain cannot continue to play a role in the peace process after taking sides with one of the parties.

Other statements have been added to those of Yolanda Diaz and Ione Belarra, such as that of the Mas País deputy Iñigo Errejón, who considers that "there is no reasonable explanation or valid reason for our country to move away from what is the correct position: the of UN resolutions. He considers that "Spain cannot fall prey to the blackmail of the Moroccan monarchy" and affirms that they will continue to support "the just vindication of the Saharawi people."

The Popular Party, for its part, has requested the appearance of Sánchez in Congress to explain "the change in the Government's position" and has described as "intolerable" that the new position has not been agreed with the first opposition party. He also asked if Algeria had been informed of this decision.

The PP, in a statement, considers that Spain "has a responsibility and an explicit mandate from the United Nations" with Western Sahara and demands seriousness and prudence in everything that has to do with foreign policy.

https://www.ecsaharaui.com/2022/03/y...a-alberto.html

 

[entropical]

Perhaps you couldn’t read the report I linked.

It seems that you have decided not to find out that there are extreme right wing elements fighting on the separatist side as well.

I suppose the truth isn’t for everyone.

Please continue to regale us with your definitely not propaganda Odysee links.

”Extreme rightwing elements” lol, sure buddy - still not Nazis. That said, I do not pretend like you that what I posts is something other than propaganda - that is, the dissemination of information intended to promote a political point of view. I like Odysee because they do not censor like Youtube, Bitchute etc.

 

[Volcanna]

It absolutely stops transmission but you don't want to believe that because it doesn't fit your narrative. It stops transmission by preventing you from getting it. Now granted with the latest variants it has changed enough that some people who have been vaccinated can still get it. Hell the latest variant can even re-infect people who developed natural immunity because they caught it before and survived and made their own antibodies in the process. That's because so many idiots like yourself avoided getting vaccinated, because nobody was ever really forcing you like you try to make it sound, and that provided a vector of infection that gave the virus the time and unprotected hosts to mutate into ever more dangerous and contagious forms of the original virus.

Hahahah. Okay man. That’s why breakthroughs are super rare.

 

[Three Berries]

That's not what the idiots that showed up in Dallas say.

Only an idiot would believe idiots.

 

[armedoldhippy]

so he´s fighting himself?

and LOSING! how embarrassing...and this is the Boogeyman we were supposed to be frightened by? THAT is embarrassing as well. finding out that the monster under your bed is a French Poodle...

 

[armedoldhippy]

LOL! nope. i'd vote to toss The Chump out with a faulty parachute though. 99.9% LOL! THAT high of a % don't even like bacon... stupid shit.