The Polisario and Brahim Ghali as problems

On 16 February, the Spanish associations of victims of terrorism asked, in a statement, the parliamentary groups in the Congress of Deputies to immediately stop the bill on "granting Spanish nationality to Saharawis born under Spanish sovereignty" presented by "Unidas Podemos UP, EH Bildu and Nueva Canarias". By means of this proposal it is allowed "to grant to the leaders of the Polisario Front and Saharawi descendants, as is the case of the bloodthirsty president Brahim Ghali, lifetime pensions at the expense of the budgets and public treasury of the Spaniards".

It is regrettable that in the statement there is confusion and amalgamation between the people of the former Spanish Sahara and the nefarious military political group, involved in piracy and terrorism, called the Polisario Front, which falsely claims to be the sole representative of the Saharawi population.

The deep indignation and revulsion expressed by the Spanish Associations of Victims of Terrorism and especially ACAVITE, the Canarian Association of Victims of Terrorism, which represents victims of piracy and terrorism committed by the Polisario, is totally understandable. Moreover, the current Secretary General Brahim Ghali is considered the main responsible; he planned and ordered these terrorist and piracy acts in his capacity as "Minister of Defence", a position he held within this political-military organisation armed by the military regime of Algiers and Gaddafi's Libya.

The Saharawis have nothing to do with the Polisario organisation, nor is it fair to saddle them with responsibility for the criminal and cruel acts committed by a political-military organisation created by the regime of the rogue Gaddafi of Libya and Boumedian of Algeria.  It is unfair to conflate a peaceful population with a terrorist organisation. The vast majority of the Saharawi population is in their own land, in the former Spanish Sahara or the current Moroccan Western Sahara, leading a normal life. The political-military organisation of the Polisario and its pseudo-republic, installed in Algerian territory and under Algerian sovereignty, and controlling the Tindouf camps under the auspices of the military plot of Algiers, is another matter. Camps where a part of the Saharawi population lives in misery, suffering daily, along with other Saharawi natives and others from other regions of the Greater Sahara, such as Mauritania or Mali. On this inhospitable locality, the military regime of Algiers - who seized power in Algeria - installed on its territory, under its sovereignty, its responsibility and its control the Polisario gangs, together with its virtual republic "SADR", presenting the inhabitants of these camps as a "Saharawi people". (1)

Therefore, without going into the assessment of the bill as a whole, presented in the Congress of Deputies and which the Associations of Victims of Terrorism in Spain reject, I will limit myself to highlight, first of all, as a preliminary question, a deficiency in the text of the bill that creates precisely the confusion between the people of Western Sahara and the Polisario Front. A serious confusion of sufficient depth to constitute a cause for indignation, alarm and rejection, not only for the Associations of Victims of Terrorism in Spain, but also for the same Saharawi population living in the territory and also a reason to open a new conflict with Morocco. 

I am referring to article 2 of the aforementioned bill, which is truly alarming. The article refers to the means of proof of Saharawi status, born before 26 February 1976 in the former Spanish Sahara. It refers in letter A) to the Spanish National Identity Card, which, even if it is out of date, is a means of proof, while in letter B) it refers as a means of proof to the certificate of registration in the census for the Referendum of Western Sahara issued by the United Nations. But in letter C) it says: "Birth certificate issued by the Saharawi authorities in the refugee camps in Tindouf and legalised by the Representation of the Polisario Front in Spain". 

The Saharawi locality of Tindouf, to which the text refers, is an Algerian territory and, therefore, the only local Saharawi authority in that locality, including the refugee camps, are the Algerian authorities and public international law is clear in this respect.

On the other hand, this initiative tacitly recognises SADR and grants its representatives in Madrid prerogatives and functions that fall under diplomatic and consular law, which are regulated by the Vienna Convention of 18 April 1961 on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention of 24 April 1963 on Consular Relations.

Moreover, Article 2 (C) of the draft law not only disregards the rules of international law, but also ignores the involvement of the Polisario in terrorist activities, with hundreds of Spaniards among its victims. Some victims of terrorism have been posthumously decorated and their names are published in the BOE, while others have not yet been granted pensions for victims, as the president of ACAVITE, Lucía Jiménez, points out in the aforementioned letter. 

The "Saharawi authorities of the refugee camps in Tindouf", to which the article refers, are "authorities" located in an Algerian locality and under Algerian sovereignty, from where the terrorist groups of the Polisario left to commit their acts of piracy and terrorism against people and goods of Spanish nationality. They also returned to the same locality with the booty made up of hostages kidnapped after sinking their boats and murdering their comrades. Neither Algeria, the main responsible party, nor its Polisario have to this day asked for forgiveness, nor expressed repentance, nor shown any willingness to compensate and repair the damage committed by their terrorist acts. Is it the intention to entrust them with the power to issue truthful and credible certificates?

This misplaced trust is unacceptable, and the anger and revulsion of the associations of the victims of terrorism, who oppose this proposed law, is understandable. Also, and this is the worst thing, Morocco's imminent reaction to this tacit, twisted and twisted recognition of the authority of the Polisario and SADR. I cannot imagine how Morocco can be asked in the future to cooperate with us on terrorism, when our position on this sensitive issue of terrorism is à la carte. A selective behaviour in which ETA, GRAPO, IMPAYAC, Islamist fundamentalism are considered as terrorists and only the terrorism of the Polisario Front is excluded.    

Polisario, since its birth on 10 May 1975, is essentially anti-Spanish and in its founding manifesto declares that it "opts for revolutionary violence and armed struggle" with the aim of separating from Spain. Its first military operations were directed against members of the Spanish army and the first terrorist acts have been against innocent Spanish citizens.

The head of this terrorism is the current secretary general, who calls himself Brahim Ghali, and who also has other names and surnames. He has multiple entities and several passports, with different dates of birth and different places of birth. These characteristics are very typical of armed gangs and criminals involved in organised crime and terrorism. This circumstance became evident when this subject became infected with COVID, fraudulently entering Spain with a falsified diplomatic passport, with the false Algerian identity of Ben Betouch, silencing his Spanish nationality, recovered in 2004 and kept secret. Because being Spanish is incompatible with the condition that the military plot in Algiers seeks to present him to international opinion as a sovereign president of his SADR, with its capital in Algerian territory. But Ghali's opportunism, and as a precautionary measure, had his plan B, that of secretly wearing on his sleeve the Spanish nationality that he freely repudiated and recovered in unknown circumstances.    

Without going into the rest of the text of the proposed law, we are really faced with a major botched job that poses more problems than solutions.

(1) The legal rigour of the UN avoids using the expression "Saharawi people" in its documents, which is used by the media sympathetic to Algeria and its Polisario. Instead, it uses the expression "population of Western Sahara" or "people of Western Sahara". The Secretary-General made this clear in a document addressed to Algeria. See UN report S/2001/613 (Annex III. Analysis of Algeria's memorandum. Point 6).