Thousands stage pro-Polisario protest in Madrid
In the pages of international injustice, Morocco has earned a prominent place. With their eyes on phosphate, fish and oil reserves, the U.S. and Europe have tacitly supported the decades long suppression of the country’s southern region, home to the ethnically distinct Sahrawi people. The north African nation has also been a prime location for renditions and torture, while it routinely suppresses free speech.
We should be pressing Rabat to hold a long-promised referendum on Sahrawi self-determination. This has been promised since 1991, but repeatedly postponed. Now Morocco claims that it is not needed, partly due to the settlement of Moroccan colonists in the south, a process that recalls Israeli policies in Palestinian lands.
There isn’t much outcry on behalf of Western Sahara, but these protests show that the movement on its behalf continues.
Nov 15, 2008, MADRID (AFP) — Thousands of people marched across central Madrid Saturday to back demands by the Polisario Front for self-determination for the people of the Western Sahara.
The protesters, more than 8,000 according to organisers, marched behind a banner reading “For a free and independent Sahara. No to the sale of arms to Morocco. Let’s avoid another war.”
A statement signed by several Spanish artists and read out at the gathering called on the Madrid government “not to look the other way” and “assume its historical responsibility” toward the people of the Western Sahara.
Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony which was annexed in 1975 by Morocco. The Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, wants independence for the territory on the northwest African coast.
After 16 years of war, a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario was declared in 1991. But Rabat repeatedly pushed back a promised self-determination referendum and since 2002 has insisted such a plebiscite is not necessary.
The Polisario and Morocco have held four rounds of fruitless, UN-sponsored talks in the New York suburb of Manhasset on the issue since June 2007, but a date for a fifth round has yet to be been set.
Spain has gradually moved toward a position on the issue which is more favourable to Morocco, after having backed for years UN calls for a referendum on independence for the territory.
Some demonstrators at Saturday’s protest condemned Spain’s Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, shouting “Zapatero listen, the Sahara is not for sale.”
Source: AFP, gnn.tv
Via: gnn.tv
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