Brief recent history/The refugees

BRIEF RECENT HISTORY

Due east from the tourist beaches of the Canary Islands, 165,000 refugees live on an inhospitable plain in the Sahara desert. Temperatures range from the scorching to the freezing, water is scarce, access to the outside world is difficult. Yet for 30 years the people of Western Sahara have been forced to live here, struggling to return to a homeland where they can determine their own future.

On 31 October 1975, Morocco and Mauritania invaded Western Sahara as Spain (the former colonial power) looked on. The Saharawi people were expelled from their homes by force, including the use of napalm. Most fled to the Algerian desert.

Mauritania withdrew its claim to Western Sahara in 1979 and left. But Morocco stayed. The Saharawi people declared their own Republic in exile, which has been recognised by more than 90 other states. Yet the world still refuses to uphold international law and bring the Occupation to an end.

The Saharawi liberation movement, known as the Polisario Front, fought the Moroccan army for 16 years, reclaiming a small section of their country. In response Morocco built a 1,000-mile long wall, heavily fortified and mined, which divides the Saharawi refugees from those who still live in the Occupied Territories. In 1991 the United Nations brokered a ceasefire and agreed to organise a referendum in which the Saharawi people could vote on the future of Western Sahara. Yet 20 years later they are still waiting for the vote to take place.

Despite the International Court of Justice ruling that the Saharawi people have a right to self-determination, the political process has stalled. Morocco refuses to agree to a referendum plan, and Western powers have turned their backs on Western Sahara.




THE REFUGEES

Today, approximately 165000 Sahrawis live in refugee camps in the vicinity of the Algerian town Tindouf, near the Western Sahara border.

The camps are located in a part of Sahara that has not been inhabited in the past. In the summer the temperatures exceed 50 degrees C. and during winter it is often below freezing. The harsh conditions make the population entirely dependent on international humanitarian aid. In spite of the difficulties, however, the population has managed in a formidable way.

Polisario decided at an early stage that they did not want to make use of international support personnel inside the camps. International aid is therefore organized and distributed by the refugees themselves. International observers characterize the camps as the best organized refugee camps in the world.

Regrettably, in recent years the international aid has been gradually diminished. This makes it increasingly more difficult to uphold acceptable living conditions, causing malnutrition. The Norwegian government is an important donor of humanitarian aid, through its support to the aid organisation Norwegian Church Aid.

Altogether, there are 4 Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, all named after specific locations inside the occupied territory. In each of the camps one generally finds that the inhabitants come from the same areas in the occupied territory.

(These two texts are both excerpts taken from the brilliant The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara's website: www.vest-sahara.no - for more information on recent history and the refugees, check out these pages respectively http://www.vest-sahara.no/index.php?cat=51&art=0 and http://www.vest-sahara.no/index.php?cat=88&art=0 The website is in Norwegian, English, Spanish and French.)