By Carlos Aznárez and María Torrellas December 12, 2020
While the war in Western Sahara continues in all its virulence, the vast majority of the hegemonic media conceals its existence or at most, gives information from the perspective of favoring the corrupt and genocidal monarchy of Morocco. Hence the need to resort to the sources of those who are fighting for the liberation of those territories, and for that reason, we again interviewed the representative of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the Polisario Front for Latin America, Mohamed Ali Muley Ahmed.
How is the offensive of the Saharawi Popular Army developing at this stage of the struggle (we are approaching a month of fighting) since in the last few days the bombing of the Moroccan military posts along the wall by the Polisario Front has been intensifying?
In total there have been 12 locations of the wall and in each place, there have been a few attacks, along the wall, to the north, to the center, and to the south. There is no stability, no peace for the Moroccan invaders and I imagine that things will get worse. We are on the 26th day, if I am not mistaken, and it is the day of the most intense attacks. This gives us an indication that this is going to get worse. At a time when Morocco continues to be intransigent, it is endangering not only the lives of the Saharawis but also the lives of Moroccans. We have been announcing that the whole of Western Sahara is a war zone and anyone who wants to save his or her life must leave. Right now the Moroccan Prime Minister said that this is not so, they are avoiding talking about war, but this is war! Since November 14 there is war in the Sahara, it is going to be a more bloody war and it is not going to stop until Morocco takes two-thirds of the Saharan Republic.
What’s behind the wall? We assume small defense posts on the part of Morocco, but are there any towns and cities near the wall?
Close to the wall there are no cities, the wall is piles of stone and sand and before you get to the Saharan side to get to the wall, you have to go through a minefield, then there is a fence, then fences and fortifications then comes the wall itself, where there are sophisticated radars. The design and implementation of the “wall of shame”, is done by Israeli experts, are those who have made the operation, the design itself and the construction of everything. Obviously with Moroccan labor but the experts who directed this are Israelis. So that’s what the wall is, there are no cities close to the wall, but what has reached us is that more soldiers are coming. In the fortifications there are infantry troops, artillery, there’s everything. They want to turn the illegal gap into a border crossing that will unite them with Mauritania, starting from the fact that Morocco never reaches Mauritania because we are the ones who have a border with the Mauritanians. They are trying to avoid this, to say that there is no war and to seek, through foreign pressure from countries and some powers, some form of a new ceasefire. This illusion would allow them to continue perpetuating themselves in the Saharan territory, without the recognition of the referendum that allows us self-determination as a people. They want to avoid the referendum and we, at this time, believe that the only solution to this prolonged conflict is to hold the referendum.
Recently there was a report in which Morocco reportedly pointed out that the president of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) condemned the Polisario Front and condemned the attacks and accused them of being terrorists. This information was later denied by the OAU itself and has provoked a big controversy.
Yes, it is fake news, the Moroccans have the theory that they beat you or they beat you. But since the Moroccan regime rarely uses the truth, we are facing a moment when if Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, were to raise his head he would die of fright because Moroccans are more Goebbels than Goebbels himself. It is incredible; the president of the African Union is the president of South Africa, one of the countries that supports the Sahrawi Republic unconditionally. The OAU was founded by the Saharawi Republic together with other African countries. Thus, it is the organization that supports us unconditionally and recognizes the borders inherited from Spanish colonialism in the Saharan territory and is the one that is pointing at Morocco as the culprit in these increased hostilities. A communiqué presented by the Kingdom of Lesotho supported by several countries among which is South Africa, where its president is now the president of the African Union, has come out and it is a lie. But this week the summit of the African Union was held and the president of the African Union spoke on the subject, saying he was concerned about the situation in Morocco and affirmed that the just solution is to hold, as urgently as possible, a referendum under the auspices of the United Nations and the OAU.
You said earlier that Morocco is trying by all means not to let it be known that there is a war. And of course, we are seeing this because the information censorship of the media that is not informing is absolutely shameless. Here in Latin America and in Argentina, they are not reporting about what is happening. The same thing is happening in Europe. How do you see the media’s treatment of the issue?
In Morocco, internally, the Moroccan press is not independent. No one can deviate from the official discourse, the ones who do go to jail. And the newspaper is closed, we have seen this in many cases. They have allies and they have countries that apparently are allies, but in reality, they are blackmailed. The Spanish government is continually being blackmailed by Morocco. There is illegal migration when it wants Morocco, there is hashish smuggling, Morocco is the greatest producer and distributor of hashish in the world. It is certain that the country is financed with the money from that drug. And not only that but if there is really a factory of terrorists who are covered with the veil of Islam, that is Morocco, it is a machine in making terrorists. The Sahel, a large part of the factions there, is a Moroccan invention financed by Moroccan drugs. One must recognize Morocco’s ability to know how to silence, to know how to exchange the truth for a lie with amazing ease. And who do they try to sell it to? The Spanish press, with the French press, with their own press, and in Latin America they have politicians and journalists who they have bought, for example, the president of the Latin American Parliaments in Lima. It is pathetic how they defend the regime at any cost. The regime of Morocco is a regime of terror, living in the Middle Ages. In Morocco there are no citizens, they are subjects who are obligated to kiss the hand of the King, while they live in the most tremendous misery, while their King has the fourth-largest fortune in Africa and is one of the richest men in the world. It is totally absurd.
There is some information that we would like to discuss with you, which is the relationship between Spain and Morocco. It is clear that Spain continues to reaffirm its carnal relationship with Morocco.
The Spanish people are not friends with Morocco, their rulers and some Spanish politicians are, because the people of Spain know that Morocco is the enemy, not Algeria. Morocco is an uncomfortable neighbor for all its neighbors. Remember that Algeria achieved independence in 1962. They take advantage of moments of weakness of each country, like when they increased their occupation and aggression against the Sahara, at the time when Franco was dying. They need to keep Spain weak to continue to force it to subordinate itself to its own policy. For example, when they want to negotiate with Spain, I repeat, the subject of the wave of immigrants arises, thousands of immigrants can arrive in just one week in the Canary Islands, this happened two weeks ago. They only stopped the day before the arrival of the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Grande Marlasca, to negotiate with his Moroccan counterpart. It is very clear, it is blackmail. The only time that Spain tried to get out of the pressure or the Moroccan or Franco-Moroccan pincer, and this must be recognized regardless of whether we take communion with him, was the last mandate of José María Aznar. It is the truth, in his last term he tried to get out of that pressure. And then in the elections that followed there were several terrorist acts. Who was the author? Who is behind this? We don’t know, but the real perpetrators, those who committed the attacks were all Moroccans, and they all had a problem with drugs. And overnight they became Islamists. I don’t understand how one can sell drugs, sell and traffic and become an Islamist. What is clear is that Morocco is continuing to put pressure on Spain through blackmail
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano, translation North America bureau