Tags : Western Sahara, Frente Polisario, Spanish colonialism, Morocco, armed struggle,
51 years after the creation of the Polisario Front… several achievements on the path of the struggle for liberation
The Sahrawi people celebrate, Friday, the 51st anniversary of the creation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia El-Hamra and Oued Ed-Dahab (Polisario Front), in a context marked by unprecedented international and regional changes, having led to a more broad popular support for the objectives and ideals of the Front which has accomplished several achievements on the ground as part of the establishment of a liberation project which has given new life to the Sahrawi question at all levels.
After decades of peaceful resistance, repeatedly repressed by the Spanish colonial authorities, and within the framework of the recognition by the United Nations (UN) of the legitimacy of its struggle for self-determination and freedom, the people Saharawi became aware of the imperative to intensify the fight within the framework of a national liberation movement and to opt for the armed struggle for liberation. Thus, the Polisario Front was created on May 10, 1973, to become the sole legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.
From its creation, the Polisario Front initiated a pivotal stage in the history of the struggle of the Sahrawi people by deciding, on May 20, 1973, to launch the armed struggle, to affirm the people’s attachment to their just cause and announce the breaking with a period of colonial domination, thus establishing itself as a model of struggle among liberation movements around the world aspiring to free themselves from the colonial yoke.
The anniversary of the creation of the Front comes, 51 years after a continuous struggle on all fronts, where the pain of the Sahrawis mixed with their hopes, determined to move forward to wrest their independence, declared to the APS, the Advisor to the Sahrawi President, Bachir Moustapha Seyed.
For Mr. Bachir, this anniversary « constitutes an important stop for the struggle, stemming from the immutable conviction that sacrifices are essential to liberate the country and realize the dream of the Sahrawi people, that of building their independent and sovereign State and completing the process of decolonization of Africa.
The record of more than half a century of resistance and struggle on all fronts represents, in the eyes of the Sahrawi Advisor, « an important achievement for the Sahrawi people, under the leadership of the Polisario front, in the light of the great achievements accomplished on the military scene, the consolidation of the foundations of the modern Sahrawi State with all its institutions and the broadening of the field of national struggle, especially since the Sahrawi Republic is a founding member of the African Union (AU) , an incontestable national, regional and international reality and a State having established numerous relationships throughout the world.
The Sahrawi people continue today, under the leadership of the Polisario Front, their struggle, targeting the positions and entrenchments of the soldiers of the Moroccan occupier, since the decision to resume the armed struggle, on November 13, 2020, in response to Morocco’s flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement, until the recovery of national sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara.
« Despite the great difference in numbers and equipment in the past and present, the Polisario Front has managed to liberate large parts of the Sahrawi territory during certain periods of the armed struggle and continues its march to recover its sovereignty over the rest of its land,” continued the same official.
Among the most important achievements, he said, is « the defeat of the Moroccan plan aimed at imposing a permanent occupation of Sahrawi lands, particularly after the defeats suffered due to the continuous bombings targeting the occupier’s entrenchments. Moroccan, thus demonstrating that the Sahrawi side has surpassed the Moroccan war machine, as evidenced by the battles of Ezzag and Tan-Tan, among others.
The Polisario’s decision to resume the armed struggle has given new life to the Sahrawi question on the diplomatic and media levels.
The decision announced by the Polisario Front on October 30, 2019, following the adoption of resolution 2494 (2019) by the Security Council, concerning the review of its participation in the United Nations peace process, constitutes a decision crucial where the Sahrawi people decided to take the reins and definitively break with a process whose objective is to maintain the status quo, as affirmed by the representative of the Polisario Front to the United Nations and coordinator with the United Nations Mission United for the organization of a referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Ambassador Sidi Mohamed Omar.
The ambassador stressed that the continuation of the armed struggle and its repercussions on the ground have given « new life to the Sahrawi question on the diplomatic and international media scene in a particular way, having been treated from different angles by the mass media , Arab and foreign, thus breaking the international silence accompanying the situation of +No war, no peace+ for almost three decades.
According to the Sahrawi diplomat, this resolution consolidated, at the UN level, the position of the Sahrawi party, being a just and necessary resolution in the face of the intransigence of the Moroccan occupying state, and in the face of the incapacity of the Security Council to impose respect for the implementation of the peace plan, just as it disoriented the occupying State and other parties who were banking on blocking the process.
“There is no doubt that the recognition by the UN Secretary General in his reports since October 2021, of + the resumption of hostilities + in Western Sahara and the concern expressed since that date by the Security Council in its resolutions regarding +l collapse of the ceasefire +, formally refute the propaganda of the occupying State aimed at deceiving its public opinion concerning the reality of the war it provoked and the heavy human and material losses inflicted by the continuous attacks of the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) », added Mr. Sidi Omar.
“Since its creation, the main mission of the Polisario Front has been, he maintained, to lead the process of the liberation struggle of the Sahrawi people and to defend, tirelessly, their national aspirations and their inalienable, non-negotiable and inalienable right to self-determination and independence, and to extend its sovereignty over the entire territory of the Sahrawi Republic.
APS
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