Western Sahara is the last territory in Africa recognised by the United Nations as non-self-governing.
Spanish colonial occupation was ended in 1975 by the struggle of the Polisario Front. However, independence was denied by a secret agreement between Spain and Morocco for a Moroccan invasion.
Since the invasion about half the Saharawi population have lived in refugee camps on the border with Algeria while the remainder living under Moroccan occupation are becoming outnumbered by Moroccan settlers.
Western Sahara's right to independence is recognised by the African Union. Since 1991, there has been a UN-sponsored ceasefire between Moroccan and Saharawi forces, part of a peace process that would supposedly lead to a referendum on independence, although 24 years later this still has not happened.
Meanwhile, Morocco continues to abuse the Saharawi population and plunder Western Sahara's natural resources.
The first International Conference on Natural Resources and Western Sahara was held in Melbourne on March 19-20. A keynote speaker was Sultana Khaya (pictured), head of the Saharawi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Natural Resources in the coastal city of Boujdour. Her speech is below.
***
I have come all this long way to inform you about the suffering of my people and the most abhorrent abuses committed against them by a foreign occupation seeking to impose its will by annexing our country by force. A large number of our people were driven out to live as refugees, and many continue to live under occupation and are subjected to systematic violations of their basic rights including their right to self-determination.
I have come leaving behind women being subjected to the most serious abuses at the hands of the Moroccan police, paramilitary forces and the civilian and military intelligence forces — DST and DGED. Such barbarities are deplorable in our Saharawi nomadic culture because women are highly esteemed as the basis of society.
I will not dwell on the history of the hardly known tragedies in an isolated part of north-west Africa, where people were buried alive in mass graves or thrown off helicopters. Water sources were poisoned, and livestock were destroyed in the context of a war of extermination whose objective was to wipe out the people and expropriate their land.
As you already know the reason behind this criminal war, I shall present only an overview of the natural resources of my country [and the] infrastructure created to facilitate the transfer of these assets to Morocco to be exported to different countries around the world.
Several international reports indicate that Western Sahara is endowed with great mineral wealth and potentially great oil and natural gas reserves.
The country has about 400 billion tons of iron, according to the head of the Saharawi National Mining Authority, Ghali Zubair. It has precious minerals, such as diamonds, nickel, and phosphate and is also renowned for its rich fisheries.
Western Sahara's fisheries yield profits worth billions of US dollars a year for the occupying state, while Saharawis receive nothing from these resources.
I am honoured to be the head of the Saharawi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Natural Resources in the coastal city of Boujdour, which is about 200km south of the occupied capital city of El Aaiún. Along the coast of my city, the US-based Kosmos Energy drilled its first exploratory well offshore.
As Saharawis, indigenous people of the region, we consider that this is an act carried out against our will. We have never been consulted about the environmental risks involved in the exploration activities and the drilling. Neither have we been consulted about the related economic and social matters — not least that the bulk of the inhabitants of the city endure not only poverty and unemployment but also persecution, detention and torture on a daily basis.
Although we sent several communications to the company and tried to establish contact with its managers to refute the reports published on its website, the company commenced its activities in defiance of UN resolutions and the advisory opinion of the former UN Legal Counsel, Hans Corell. In an article published in the winter 2015 issue of the International Judicial Monitor, Corell confirmed that the activities carried out by international companies or their subsidiaries in the area are contrary to international law.
The largest phosphate mine in my country has enormous reserves that are about 7% of the world’s reserves. Furthermore, it is high quality and is easy to transport. However, there are only a few Saharawis working in the mine compared to Moroccan settlers.
Neither my compatriots who have been living in refugee camps for almost four decades nor those who still live in the territories under Moroccan occupation benefit from the revenues from the exploitation of these resources. Quite the contrary, they suffer intimidation, deportation, detention, abduction and extrajudicial assassination.
During the past four months, for instance, a Saharawi prisoner of conscience died in jail in the occupied city of Dakhla, and, in September last year and January this year, three Saharawi prisoners also died.
There is also the case of the young Saharawi who was stabbed by Moroccan settlers. Instead of arresting the assailants, the Moroccan authorities detained the victim who was severely tortured at the police station and then taken to the hospital where he passed away.
Because of her participation in the peaceful uprising against the Moroccan occupation, a pregnant Saharawi woman was abducted and tortured, and she eventually aborted her baby.
I do not want to take much of your time, but I just want to underline that the claims made by the Moroccan authorities about establishing infrastructure in the occupied territories are belied by the realities on the ground.
We do not have a single university or a specialised institute. Hospitals hardly exist and, despite their poverty and destitution, Saharawis always have to travel 700km to get to the nearest specialised and equipped hospital in Morocco.
Except for a coastal road that was built to inundate the region with fish-transporting trucks, there is hardly any network of roads compared to the revenues extracted by Morocco, which are worth millions of US dollars.
Some international entities are seeking to maintain their interests in disregard for the norms of international law. We only ask for security and stability, but with full respect for the right of our people to self-determination and sovereignty over their natural resources that are being plundered in broad daylight.
We therefore count on your support in our civilised and responsible struggle to stop all forms of abuses committed by Morocco — an authoritarian regime whose actions threaten peace and security in the whole region.
Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.