Translated by Hamdi Omar Taubali
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Smara refugee camp, 4 March 2011:
My name is Tagiyou Aslama. I was born in 1957. I was born in the Awserd territory in the south of Western Sahara. I started my travels in 1975.
Like any Saharawi, I was living in the desert with my family and we had animals like camels and goats. We were Bedouin people. In the last months of 1975, we heard the news from the POLISARIO Front that the Spanish colonialists were leaving, but when we heard this news (and thought we could get our independence) we heard that the Moroccans were occupying the north of Western Sahara.
We met some Saharawi soldiers from the POLISARIO Front who told us, “Please, you had better go and start your travels because the Moroccans are coming.”
We started our travels, with our families, but after just a little time the Moroccan occupation forces’ planes bombed the Umm Dreiga camp with napalm and phosphorus and now we had some women victims in the … camps.
After that the Moroccan occupation forces bombed the south, the east, the north — any territory of Western Sahara and any Saharawi. We understood that the Moroccans were coming to kill the Saharawi people. We understood the Moroccan army had instructions to kill any Saharawi because these are just Bedouin people that must be dead in a short time.
I forgot to mention that the Moroccans entered Western Sahara through the Madrid Agreement between the governments of Spain, Morocco and Mauritania. The Moroccans invaded from the north and the Mauritanians from the south.
The Moroccans were killing everything and the Mauritanians were too. If the Mauritanian army found some Saharawi Bedouin families, they killed the men, the women and the animals. They killed everything. But the Moroccan forces were stronger. They had air power, unlike the Mauritanian army, and they were bombing and killing everything.
When the Saharawi people started their travels, we did not have many cars, and they were just little cars. So they just took the people who couldn’t walk. Some people carried others (who couldn’t walk) on their backs. Everyone — the women, the children, the men — went from their country to here just by walking. It was very, very difficult.
We had big problems: can you imagine just walking, without a house, without tents, without hospitals, without anything? At night some women gave birth to new babies without any medication, without anything. And nobody could do anything. This was very, very, very difficult.
[…]
It was a very difficult situation, but we continued on our way. And the Moroccan and Mauritanian armies if they found some water, to stop the Saharawi people using it they killed some camels or donkeys and put it in the water to make it undrinkable.
We were walking and walking, and sometimes some planes would fly over and bomb everyone. It was a very difficult situation.
We were concerned about three things: the women, the old people and the children. And when we came to Algeria, we left our families here and every man went back to the war, to fight the Mauritanian and Moroccan armies.
After that everyone from these armies stopped and didn’t come back, because we were fighting them, and we fought very strongly. I was fighting them anywhere, [even] in Mauritania and Morocco. Absolutely! Even in the south of Morocco.
[…]
We fought our way to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, and were fighting there. El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, the POLISARIO President was martyred there.
We concentrated many of our forces in Mauritania. The Mauritanian army was very weak and they needed protection. From Morocco — the Moroccan army deployed troops to Nouakchott and other Mauritanian cities — and from France. French planes, [French airforce] Jaguars, bombed Saharawi soldiers. When we were fighting in Zouerate we caught some French [civilian advisers].
In 1979, Mauritania stopped its war against Western Sahara. They made diplomatic representations to the Saharawi Democratic Republic to stop the war. So we made peace with Mauritania.
After that all our power was directed against the Moroccan army. And any operations we did in the south of Morocco and in Western Sahara, we would have more than 100 Saharawi willing to sacrifice themselves for freedom. So, after that, to continue the war the Moroccan army needed the help of the French and from many countries. And they started building the wall in 1981.
It’s six walls. They started work in 1981 and finished in 1987. It took six years, just to build this shameful project.
This idea — this wall for their protection — couldn’t stop the Saharawi fighting. We entered into the side of the wall and captured some commanders and soldiers of the Moroccan army. For example, in [one] operation we caught … the most senior general of the Moroccan Army in Western Sahara.
We continued the war until 1991. Then the United Nations came into Western Sahara and said: “We will organise a referendum for Western Sahara and we will make self-determination for the Saharawi people.”
But, we are so sorry — nothing happened from this promise. The United Nations sent the MINURSO [peacekeeping force]. This MINURSO come into Western Sahara and they stop between us and the Moroccans, but it’s just bodyguards — like bodyguards for the Moroccan army because we can’t do anything to Morocco but the United Nations didn’t do anything for us and that’s why we think the United Nations and the MINURSO army is just protection for the Moroccan army.
Of course we like peace. We didn’t like the war. We didn’t ask for anything — we just want self-determination, to have a referendum … what’s important for us is just our self-
determination.
determination.
The problem with this peace process with the United Nations … is the United Nations didn’t do anything and the Moroccans don’t care about [the views of] any country in this world. Maybe the Moroccans think they’re above international law. We don’t know. We don’t understand why the United Nations won’t do anything or why the Moroccans don’t care about [the views of] any country in the world, or the international community or the United Nations.
Of course, everybody knows that Moroccans have [powerful] friends … For example, what happened about the [November 2010 massacre at] Gdeim Izik camp in the Saharawi capital, El Aaiun? Although the European Union made a report about Morocco’s massacre, the French cast a veto and said: “No! We won’t do anything for the human rights.”
I’ll give you a simple question. Why did the French veto the United Nations being concerned about human rights in Western Sahara? This is simply an question.
Any Saharawi understands that if the United Nations didn’t come to us we would have continued fighting and would have won our independence or died trying. Morocco does not care about anything in this land. And the United Nations just came for the protection of the Moroccan army.
I could tell you a lot of things about Western Sahara and the Saharawi situation, but I will tell you just this. Of course we like peace, and didn’t like the war. Our children like peace. For example, anyone who has come to the camps from any country in this world didn’t have any problems. We are not like many Arab countries: we do not have Shi’as against Sunnis or any religious [conflict]. We are one people, we have one system of government … we have just the POLISARIO Front, our government and our representatives in the United Nations.
I want to tell you, the population base are making a big impression to the POLISARIO Front to go back to the war. This is just for your information. Secondly, what we want from the United Nations. We extend our hand for peace. But, if the United Nations can’t do something for us — for our referendum, our self-determination — we will say: “Please go out of our country … We are ready to die for our country.”
[…]
I want to thank any people from any country who visit the Saharawi people in the refugee camps and in Western Sahara. I want to thank every organization from any country helping and in solidarity with Western Sahara. I want to say to everyone: please, if you can make a big impression on the Moroccan government to do something for the Saharawi people living in the Occupied Territories …
We have many people in the Moroccan prisons, like the human rights activists who came and visited the refugee camps and when they went back, the Moroccans put them in prison. For example Brahim Dahane, Ahmed Alansari, Ali Salem Tamek … many people are in the Moroccan prisons and nobody talks about them. Nobody does anything for them. No country, no organisation. Nothing. So please, if you can do something for them. It is very important for us.
Secondly, humanitarian aid for the people in the refugee camps is very important for us too.
The children’s situation here in the refugee camps is a very difficult situation. The children’s situation is like their fathers’ and their mothers’, and their brothers’ and everyone, the same situation. But with the children we have a difference between us and them. For example, the children when they want to play, they play anywhere but without any toys or materials for them not like children in other places.
We have just two schools. When we have cold weather it’s very cold for the children and no-one can do anything. In summer, when it’s hot, the children go to school and they just have hot water to drink because they don’t a fridge to keep it cold.
Sometimes our children ask us about many things in our country, like fishing because they have never seen that. They ask, “How is the weather in our country?” because they have never seen that.
We don’t ask for anything. Not us or our children. We want just one thing. If all the world gave us everything in this life — houses, cars, everything — and if the Algerian government said this is your country, you can do anything, we would not forget our country. We want our country! We want to go back to our country! … Nothing will stop us wanting our rights!
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