El Fórum Canario Saharaui denuncia la ruptura del alto el fuego en el Sáhara Occidental por parte del Frente Polisario
With respect to the recent events in relation to the Western Sahara dispute at the Guerguerat border crossing, the Saharawi Canary Islands Forum has shown total rejection of the Polisario Front's attitude.
As the Saharawi Forum pointed out in an official communiqué, since October 21 this year a large group of Saharawis, at the behest of the Polisario Front leadership, has been blocking the border crossing for Western Sahara in the southern area bordering with Mauritania, at the so-called Guerguerat crossing, from where the Mauritanian city of Nouadhibou is accessed. There, they destroyed the road, opening a ditch in the asphalt and creating a barricade. Hundreds of lorries and people have had their freedom of movement interrupted, with the consequent damage to them and to free trade, as this is a route of great regional and international interest.
In the official note, the Canary Islands Saharan Forum itself stated that, subsequently, on Friday 13 November, an intervention was carried out by the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces, “according to clear rules of engagement prescribing to avoid any contact with civilians” and to evade any kind of belligerent intention. The aim of this operation was merely to establish a security cordon to allow passage along the road and thus clear the blockade, given the seriousness of the situation, which was dragging on indefinitely.
During this operation, the armed polisario militia opened fire on the Royal Armed Forces, who fired back and forced the militiamen to flee,There has been no human damage and the Polisario bandits run away as soon as the Moroccan army intervened to build sand barriers to prevent the Polisario and their supporters from returning to the area. After the intervention of the Royal Armed Forces, “the polisario militiamen voluntarily set fire to the tent camp pitched in the buffer zone and fled in Jeeps and trucks towards the East and South, under the eyes of MINURSO observers”.
At the time of the intervention, 208 trucks were blocked on both sides of the border. Of these, many were from Spanish companies, especially from Galicia, whose fleet operates in Mauritania, with the consequent damage to their interests. The Moroccan authorities, in view of the seriousness of the events triggered by Polisario and in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire, declared that these actions were a flagrant violation of the UN Security Council resolutions and the appeals of its secretary general to preserve the free movement of civilians and trade on that border.
It should be stressed that this border crossing is repeatedly used by the Polisario Front as a place of conflict and source of tension whenever it needs to draw international attention or divert it from other issues, with the consequent media focus and headlines that rekindle the flame of armed confrontation. The reason for this is none other than the constant loss of credibility of its leaders-already in the midst of gerontocracy-among its refugee population, resulting in the loss of support for its cause at international level. And the various internal setbacks, in which the new Saharawi Peace Movement, which has recently been established, is claiming a share of the leadership in order to reach a peaceful solution to the dispute that Polisario has been unable, or unwilling, to find beyond the aforementioned referendum.
It is no coincidence that the situation experienced in 2017 should be pointed out, when tension in the region escalated and, despite repeated appeals from the UN and its secretary general, António Guterres, Polisario refused for months to withdraw from the area, something it finally had no choice but to do, after raising tension in the area to unforeseen limits under the orders of Secretary General Brahim Ghali.
Nevertheless, it should be stressed that for the time being there are only Polisario communiqués and a great deal of noise on social networks, but few proven facts. Indeed, despite the fact that President of SADR, Brahim Ghali, officially declared the breaking of the ceasefire signed in 1991 in one of these communiqués, calling for measures to be taken to implement the state of war, Morocco has opted for prudence, and while Polisario reports having attacked the FAR on several fronts of the wall and in the south in the Guerguerat area, the official Moroccan media do not consider these attacks, or even deny them.
Likewise, the Saharawi Canary Islands Forum wishes to recall the well-proven warlike predilections of the aforementioned Brahim Ghali. Back in the 80s, when the Polisario guerrillas were waging the most virulent terrorist attacks on Canary Islands' boats and fishing boats operating in Saharan waters, Ghali himself was responsible for the attacks as Minister of Defence of the self-proclaimed SADR. It is no coincidence, therefore, that he has been fond of this type of skirmish since he has been in charge of Polisario.
Finally, in view of the lack of specific and verifiable information available, and given the opacity of the situation, the Saharawi Forum of the Canary Islands wishes to call on citizens interested in the future of this conflict to take responsibility, as well as on some digital media-both in the region of the conflict and in Spain-and social media accounts which, it believes, are giving too much fuel to this question owing to the use of old photographs and videos, leading to disinformation, hoaxes and 'fake news'.
These factors have maximised the incidents up to a total war scenario, talking about deaths, injuries, various attacks, etc. As it is well known, this has a multiplying effect on social networks, where the territorial integrity of our islands has even been endangered in an alarmist and manipulative manner. The normal and responsible thing to do in a case like this is to wait until news is received from agencies, media and reliable sources, fleeing from the cesspool that social networks sometimes are.
In view of this situation, and for all the above reasons, the Saharawi Canary Islands Forum hopes that sanity will prevail among the leaders of the Polisario, that they will respond to the requests of the United Nations, and that they will distance themselves from any belligerent option. This, in addition to having been caused by their blocking of the Guerguerat pass, would only end in a tragedy for the population they claim to defend, which would finally put an end to any possibility of a peaceful settlement between the parties. An arrangement which, particularly since the current leader, Brahim Ghali, is in power, only seems to want to achieve by returning to arms.
