Thousands demonstrated yesterday in the Spanish capital, Madrid, against the Moroccan genocidal aggression this week against West Sahara. More precise numbers are not known to me at the moment but Sahara Libre claims it was larger than the one at the general strike of September 29.
Major unions and all political parties but the ruling PSOE (yes, the conservative PP also supported the demo) were there. Famous actors Javier Bardem and Rosa María Sardá read a manifesto at the demonstration closure at the Puerta del Sol plaza, demanding the Spanish government a responsible attitude and stopping all weapon sales to Morocco. They also demanded from the UN and the EU a strong intervention that prevents the massacres and guarantees the right of West Sahara to decide its destiny.
People cheered slogans such as Morocco guilty, Spain responsible, If this is not fixed, war, war, war, Zapatero traitor and Sahara free. Police impeded them from reaching to the ruling party's offices at Ferraz street.
According to the UN, Spain is still the administrator power, as decolonization was not properly executed. West Sahara was a province of Spain, just like Guadalajara or León, until 1975, when the ailing fascist regime pacted an illegitimate deal with Morocco and Mauritana, allowing them to divide the country. Resistance by the POLISARIO Front and widespread recognition of the Sahrawi Republic by the African Union and its member states forced Mauritania to retreat and take the Sahrawi side instead soon after. Morocco then unilaterally annexed the former Mauritanian-occupied area.
A 20-year long truce exists between the POLISARIO Front and Morocco under UN auspices but, as often happens with these protracted peace processes, this has only served Morocco to consolidate its occupation bringing little benefits, if any, to Sahrawis. The strongest pressure in this matter is exerted by Algeria that not only hosts the huge refugee camp of Tindouf, where the government in exile resides, but has also closed all road borders with Morocco, disrupting its economy to a large extent. However all this dependence on Algeria also places the Sahrawi resistance subordinate to the wider interests of this country. Morocco claims also a good deal of Algerian territory in the Sahara. In the past it also claimed all Mauritania and parts of Mali. Moroccan official maps show no borders by the Sahara towards Algeria.
However in the truce, Sahrawis have forged a large nonviolent movement, whose best known figure is Aminatu Haidar, known as the Sahrawi Gandhi.
Sources for the demo: Al Jazeera, Gara.
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