Western Saharan minister: `Only one solution -- our return to our sovereign homeland'

The Saharawi refugee camps have now existed for close to 33 years in extremely inhumane surroundings. What has led to the Saharawis becoming refugees and what are the challenges facing the Saharawi people?

First, I would like to thank you very much for your visit. It shows us that we are not alone. This is important support that international community can give us.

All along, the Saharawi community has been conscious of its historic responsibility and the sacrifice it has made and still has to make in its fight for national sovereignty. Our sacrifices have been necessary to preserve the history of our people and liberate our territories from Moroccan occupation.

Western Sahara was invaded in 1975, by a monarch who needed to stabilise his throne and expand his territory.

Living as refugees is a disgrace and is marked by scarcity — in all senses of the word. The biggest impact of displacement is on health.

During the first years after the Moroccan invasion, we not only lost many lives during the resistance war but we also had to come to terms with moving away from our natural habitat. We were overwrought with a lack of perspective on how to survive in this new environment, a very hard geographic space without natural life — no vegetation or animals.

We have had no experience in how to live in such inhumane conditions.

We had many deaths in the camps from 1975 to 1983 that were related to the difficulty of adapting psychologically and physiologically to a radically different and highly stressful terrain. To resolve this critical problem we needed to employ all the material resources available to us.

In the face of massive adversity, the main moral, political and sociological task of Saharawi society was to draw strength from the little available to restructure itself and mature against all odds.

And I can confidently say that we managed this task with excellence.

When we started to organise the Saharawi state in the camps, we were conscious that health is one of the main vulnerabilities. That’s why especially the first years of restructuring in the camps, one fifth of Saharawis were employed in the health field, focusing on prevention.

Health prevention today is still one our main political tools.

We started with the promotion of health issues in all its aspects initially, because the only thing we had available at that time was human resources.

Our society, which was predominantly Bedouin and nomadic, had to undergo a brutal change once we arrived at the camps. People had to settle and face unhealthy dietary change.

Saharawi diet was based on milk, meat, malt, rice and some wheat breads. In the camps, which concentrated big social groups in restrictive areas, the refugees suddenly had to survive from emergency food aid, which comprised mainly legumes, adding to the already adverse and stressful circumstances

However, due to our strategy of health prevention, we managed to make some important improvements rather quickly.

Humans never know their capabilities until they reach a point were problems have to be confronted; as much on an individual as a societal level. Saharawi Bedouins’ life is very tough, but they still like this kind of life.

A Saharawi is not very interested in comfort, such as sofas or television. These are not big attractions. The Bedouin adores nature and appreciates coexistence with his animals, like the camels.

We are close to our animals, because they are our means of subsistence.

Our society needed a total reorganisation. We had to create administrations in order to manage every district and municipality of the camps according to their specific necessities.

We decided to prioritise schooling and community health clinics over individual family needs. Sometimes we had three to four families share one tent so there was a tent for each school and clinic available.

Saharawis have had to live for over 30 years on emergency food aid. How are you dealing with the consequences?

The characteristic of any refugee camps is health vulnerability, and nutrition is an important part of that.

We have achieved some very good results. In more than 20 years we have had no type of disease epidemic, even though we have had to live in drastic climatic circumstances where we face massive temperature changes from a high of 58°C in summer to -6°C in winter.

On top of this, our diet is hyper glutei — made up of 95% of carbohydrates — because it is the cheapest and easiest accessible form of aid available for the camps. This diet is highly deficient for our immune system.

It also creates a different human organism to normal. Women and men are born into this state of scarcity — which is impacting especially on the mother but also the child.

We not only develop general health programs, but also diagnostic programs that look at the health risks and causes. We create workshops with all the Saharawi health professionals, and our specialist friends and sympathisers, to arrive at a good scientific diagnosis.

At the moment we are working with Norwegian health professionals on a four-day nutrition seminar. We identified this as a priority because in February we did a nutritional study that looked at levels of anemia and malnutrition, especially in the most vulnerable sectors; women of childbearing age and children under 15.

We found alarmingly high levels of anemia and malnutrition.

These findings compelled all of us involved in health to get together and develop a realistic diagnosis and find realistic solutions. Our problems will persist as long as we are refugees.

However, the only way to minimise the impact is for us to unite our strengths, make the situation as dignified as possible and apply all our knowledge.

What benefits does the high level of Saharawi control and organisation in the camps bring?

Saharawi people live a precarious existence; we are in a place of being or not being. We have only two choices — a sovereign Saharawi state or total dispersion of Saharawis across the world, without a homeland, memories and no responsibility for the future.

We are conscious of this responsibility for our society in its totality; we have to organise ourselves in order to survive. We have to develop the level of organisation in order to meet the challenges coming our way every minute.

We have now lived for quite a few years with neither peace nor war, since the 1991 ceasefire with Morocco. When we were engaged in war, the perspectives were clear, even though we didn’t know how many lives our resistance struggle would cost us.

We were engaged in armed combat in very unequal conditions with a militarily superior Morocco.

It was not only Saharawi society that paid a big price for the caprices of the Moroccan king. Moroccan soldiers were also victims of his Machiavellian mind; they, their families and Moroccan society in fact have paid dearly for the king’s expansionist ambitions.

We noticed an encouraging high participation of women at the recent General Workers’ Union of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Western Saharan trade union organisation) congress, but also more generally women are very visible in public life in the camps.

Our society is a very naturalist society. We share our responsibilities in a collective manner, which includes extended families along ancestral lines. Because of our ways of life, women occupy a critical rank.

In a nomadic society, the woman is everything. The man of the family is itinerate; he is either looking for pastures or is at the markets hundreds of kilometres away and may be absent for weeks.

Once we arrived at our refuge in South West Algeria, women organised the state and constructed the institutions, from the smallest to the biggest. Women have also been combatants during the years of war.

In incredibly harsh conditions, women were both the backbone of the camps and the revolution. In Saharawi society, women are not discriminated against because of their specific physiological make up.

Cuba has educated many Saharawi children. Why is this the case?

Cuba, such a small country with minimal material resources, has extended humanitarian help to many countries. Most importantly, Cubans have helped with education and health.

The Saharawi people are one of those peoples that are eternally grateful to the Cuban people. Only Cuba, on the other side of the word, opened the doors for us and took our kids to educate them into doctors, engineers, lawyers and technicians of all types.

Cuba has also helped with medical support. In 1976, we only had four qualified nurses — a consequence of more then 100 years of Spanish colonial rule. So imagine, in times of war and an extreme refugee situation, we had to make do with only four nurses to try and deal with our health problems!

Now, the leaders, functionaries and youth you see working in the camps are all a result of the support and education provided by Cuba.

Cuba, with the little they have, still shares with others, independently of their obligations in their geographical region, culture, religion or skin colour.

We Saharawis are conscious that it was Cuba that has helped us to walk on our own two feet since the Moroccan invasion.

Western Sahara is Africa’s last colony and the conflict is still unresolved. How can we best give our solidarity to Saharawi people?

There is only one solution to our existence as refugees: our return to our sovereign homeland. There is no other solution.

I can only mention the need to unite all our societies along the lines of peace and true justice. It is this unity, not aggression, that we need so all of us can enjoy happiness instead of destitution and humiliation.

[Margarita Windisch was a member the three-person delegation of Australian trade unionists who attended the 6th Congress of the Western Sahara General Union of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Oro Workers (UGTSARIO) and the International Trade Union Conference in Solidarity with the Western Saharan Workers, in October 2008, in El Aaiun, one of four Saharawi refugee camps in the Hamada desert in south-west Algeria. Windisch is also a leading member of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, a Marxist organisation affiliated to the Socialist Alliance of Australia. This interview first appeared in Green Left Weekly issue #777, December 3, 2008.]

A brief history of the Western Saharan people’s struggle for freedom

Spain colonised Western Sahara and its mostly nomadic people in 1884 claiming it as a protectorate of the Spanish Crown. Spanish rule over Western Sahara was codified in Berlin in 1885, where Africa was carved up among the European powers. The period of Spanish rule was marked by ongoing resistance, revolts and armed clashes with the indigenous population, with its liberation movements being brutally repressed by the Spanish authorities.

A 1966 UN resolution called for Saharawi people’s right to self-determination to be exercised via a referendum which never eventuated. The lack of political developments led to the formation of Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (the Polisario Front) in 1973. Polisario was conceived as a nationalist front with the aim of achieving independence, and encompassed all Saharawi political trends.

Polisario launched a guerrilla war against Spanish rule, fought Mauritania’s occupation of part of Western Sahara (from 1975 to 1979) and Morocco’s occupation from its invasion in 1975 until 1991.

In 1975 Spain relinquished its control of Western Sahara and, contrary to 1966 UN resolution for self-determination, handed Western Sahara over to Mauritania and Morocco (the Madrid Accords). The same year, the Morocco regime organised the ``Green March’’, in which 350,000 Moroccans, brandishing flags and pictures of King Hassan II, invaded Western Sahara in order to settle and ``reclaim the territory’’. This strategic march was supported by 20,000 Moroccan troops, who were met with some armed resistance from Polisario. November 6, the day of the “Green March”, has become a national holiday in Morocco.

Morocco and Mauritania’s war against Polisario was financially supported by the US, France and Spain to the tune of billions of dollars.

Apart from engaging in aerial bombardment, which included napalm and cluster bombs, Morocco started to build a 2500-kilometre-long, heavily mined wall through Western Sahara, dividing almost every Saharawi family. (For a detailed map of Western Sahara and the Moroccan wall, visit http://awsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/wsahara.pdf.)

On February 27, 1976, Polisario proclaimed the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which is a full member state of the African Union.

While Morocco’s occupation is not officially recognised by any other country in the world, around 50 governments recognise the SADR and its government-in-exile, led by the Polisario Front; 13 have suspended relations with Morocco and 22 have cancelled recognition. The SADR was the first country to establish relations with East Timor. The SADR and Polisario currently control 32% of Western Sahara’s territory; the remaining 68% are resource rich and occupied by Morocco.

Ceasefire, referendum and international abandonment

A 1991 ceasefire, overseen by a UN peacekeeping mission, ended the armed conflict but the Saharawi people are still waiting for a UN-sponsored referendum on self-determination that was supposed to take place in 1992. The frustration at the lack of progress and lack of support from the international community for a political solution to the conflict is palpable, especially among Saharawi youth. As SADR health minister Sid'Ahmed Tayeb told the Australian delegation to the October 2008 International Trade Union Conference in Solidarity with the Western Saharan Workers (see http://links.org.au/node/750), “we are living between existence and non-existence”.

* * * *

The Saharawi people have been left to their own devices, due to the fact that Morocco has very powerful allies, such as the US, Spain and France. The Spanish king regularly spends his vacations with the Moroccan king. A landmark advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice in 1975, recognising the right of self-determination by the Saharawi people, was rendered useless because France and the United States blocked the Security Council from enforcing its resolutions. Both governments sought to undermine growing communist and radical Arab nationalist movements during the Cold War by strengthening the reactionary Moroccan monarchy.

In more recent years Morocco has become the darling of the West and is friends with Israel, due to its status as a ``moderate Muslim nation’’ and an important ally in the struggle against Islamist extremism.

In 2006 Morocco proposed an autonomy plan for Western Sahara based on the assumption that Western Sahara was part of Morocco, an assertion that has been rejected on numerous occasions by the UN, the World Court and the African Union (see http://www.gees.org/articulo/2772).

The European Union is currently in negotiations with Morocco on granting it ``Advanced Status’’ relations with its 27-member bloc. Western Sahara has appealed to the European Union not to grant Advanced Status to Morocco unless the occupied part of Western Sahara is excluded from cooperation agreement (see http://www.wsrw.org/index.php?parse_news=single&cat=105&art=924). Granting such status to Morocco while it continues to occupy Western Sahara will give legitimacy to the Moroccan military occupation and its claims over the territory.

Theft of Saharawi natural resources

Many Western governments and companies, including Australia’s, are knowingly engaged in the theft of the Saharawi people’s natural resources, through lucrative trade deals with Morocco. Western Sahara has high-grade phosphate mineral rock, excellent fishing grounds and offshore oil exploration is being conducted (for more information see www.awsa.org or www.wsrw.org).

As a matter of fact, under the 1975 Madrid Accords, Spain was given a 35 per cent stake in the Western Saharan Bu Craa phosphate mine, which is continuing to deliver a profit bonanza to the former colonial power until 2003.

In the game of ``Realpolitik’’ it is of no relevance to Western governments that Morocco has been condemned many times for its torture, disappearance and arrest of Saharawis in Morocco proper and in the occupied territories, as well as for its repression against its own population and trade union activists.

Refugees

Approximately half the Saharawi people live in refugee camps, which have now existed for 33 years, in the Hamada desert near the Algerian military town of Tindouf. Nearly all Saharawi men participated in the resistance war. Apart from some women who joined their menfolk in armed combat, most Saharawi women walked hundreds of kilometres with their children through the desert to escape Morocco’s bombardment and napalm, to reach safe haven in south-west Algeria. There the women miraculously built refugee camps with social institutions out of virtually nothing. The mainly nomadic Saharawi society had to undergo a rapid and massive transformation to adapt to incredibly inhumane conditions and to develop new ways of organising their society in order to survive (for more detailed information, visit http://www.arso.org/05-0.htm#Anchore).

Saharawi refugees have lived on emergency food and humanitarian aid for 33 years, which has resulted in high levels of malnutrition and anaemia. A 2007 UN-funded report found that more than 76% of pregnant women and 68% of children under the age of five suffered from anemia. The 2003 report, Forgotten People: The Saharawis of Western Sahara, by Refugees International states that nearly half of Saharawi kids suffer from anemia, many have stunted growth with 13 per cent are acutely malnourished (http://www.arso.org/01-e03-07.htm).

Due to the harsh terrain of the camp locations, combined with shrinking financial support from donor governments and organisations, supplementing the current food aid with necessary nutrition for a balanced diet is nearly impossible.

At the same time the situation in Saharawi camps is uniquely positive and a testimony to human capabilities in the face of adversity. The Saharawi government, together with foreign specialists, is trying to address these problems to the best of its ability. The SADR government and Polisario run the camps through social and political institutions, giving control, cohesiveness, dignity and hope to its people. The four camps are organised into districts (wilayas) named after towns in Western Sahara: El Aaiun, Smara, Dahkla and Aousserd. Each camp is further divided into villages (daira). There are also two administrative camps (Rabouni and 27 February) that house the government in exile, with police stations, courts and schools.

Health and education are the top priority in the camps, achieving amazing results. There is a national hospital in the 27 February camp; Saharawis have not suffered a major health epidemic for more than 20 years. The literacy rate is over 90 per cent, a complete turnaround from 1975 when 95% of Saharawis could neither read nor write. At the same time, the director the national hospital told us during our visit, they still have not received the allocation of medications for 2008, which has dangerously depleting important stocks. There was no anti-diarrhea medication available at the time for children under five years of age.

Even though temperatures can reach a searing 58 degrees Celsius in summer and fall to minus 6 degrees C in winter, there is no mass exodus from the camps to migrate to Europe, instead an incredibly strong sentiment is expressed about being able to return to their occupied country. Every week young people arrive in the camps, fleeing Morocco’s repression in the occupied territories. Saharawis are excluded from many jobs and educational opportunities and face relentless discrimination and harassment by the Moroccan state. Morocco’s security forces especially target young people, who are spearheading the resistance (intifada). Torture and detention, even of 14-year-old women, is common, as is the disappearance of journalists and other activists. It is just about impossible to be granted entry to the occupied territories, unless you pretend to be a tourist, keen to do a bit of surfing (see http://www.upes.org).

International solidarity

The Saharawi people in the camps, their brothers and sisters in the occupied territories and in the diaspora are desperately hoping for an end to the conflict so they can return to their beloved homeland. Our solidarity is crucial for their right to live as a nation and continue their existence as a distinct people with thousands of years of history.

[This backgrounder was complied thanks to resources provided by ARSO (http://www.arso.org), the Australia Western Sahara Association (http://awsa.org.au) and Western Sahara Resource Watch (http://www.wsrw.org). Margarita Windisch was a member the three-person delegation of Australian trade unionists who attended the 6th Congress of the Western Sahara General Union of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Oro Workers (UGTSARIO) and the International Trade Union Conference in Solidarity with the Western Saharan Workers, in October 2008, in El Aaiun, one of four Saharawi refugee camps in the Hamada desert in south-west Algeria. Windisch is also a leading member of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, a Marxist organisation affiliated to the Socialist Alliance of Australia.]

Western Sahara's struggle for self-determination

In October, a three-member delegation of Australian unionists visited the Western Saharawi refugee camps in the Hamada desert, South West Algeria. Western Sahara has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.

Green Left Weekly's Margarita Windisch spoke with Sid'Ahmed Tayeb, the minister of public health for the exiled Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, in 27 February refugee camp.

The Saharawi refugee camps have now existed for close to 33 years in extremely inhumane surroundings. What has led to the Saharawis becoming refugees and what are the challenges facing the Sahari people?

Firstly, I would like to thank you very much for your visit. It shows us that we are not alone. This is important support that international community can give us.

All along, the Saharawi community has been conscious of its historic responsibility and the sacrifice it has made and still has to make in its fight for national sovereignty. Our sacrifices have been necessary to preserve the history of our people and liberate our territories from Moroccan occupation.

Western Sahara was invaded in 1975, by a monarch who needed to stabilise his throne and expand his territory.

Living as refugees is a disgrace and is marked by scarcity — in all senses of the word. The biggest impact of displacement is on health.

During the first years after the Moroccan invasion, we not only lost many lives during the resistance war but we also had to come to terms with moving away from our natural habitat. We were overwrought with a lack of perspective on how to survive in this new environment, a very hard geographic space without natural life — no vegetation or animals.

We have had no experience in how to live in such inhumane conditions.

We had many deaths in the camps from 1975 to 1983 that were related to the difficulty of adapting psychologically and physiologically to a radically different and highly stressful terrain. To resolve this critical problem we needed to employ all the material resources available to us.

In the face of massive adversity, the main moral, political and sociological task of Saharawi society was to draw strength from the little available to restructure itself and mature against all odds.

And I can confidently say that we managed this task with excellence.

When we started to organise the Saharawi state in the camps, we were conscious that health is one of the main vulnerabilities. That's why especially the first years of restructuring in the camps, one fifth of Saharawis were employed in the health field, focusing on prevention.

Health prevention today is still one our main political tools.

We started with the promotion of health issues in all its aspects initially, because the only thing we had available at that time was human resources.

Our society, which was predominantly Bedouin and nomadic, had to undergo a brutal change once we arrived at the camps. People had to settle and face unhealthy dietary change.

Saharawi diet was based on milk, meat, malt, rice and some wheat breads. In the camps, which concentrated big social groups in restrictive areas, the refugees suddenly had to survive from emergency food aid, which comprised mainly legumes, adding to the already adverse and stressful circumstances

However, due to our strategy of health prevention, we managed to make some important improvements rather quickly.

Humans never know their capabilities until they reach a point were problems have to be confronted; as much on an individual as a societal level. Saharawi Bedouins' life is very tough, but they still like this kind of life.

A Saharawi is not very interested in comfort, such as sofas or television. These are not big attractions. The Bedouin adores nature and appreciates coexistence with his animals, like the camels.

We are close to our animals, because they are our means of subsistence.

Our society needed a total reorganisation. We had to create administrations in order to manage every district and municipality of the camps according to their specific necessities.

We decided to prioritise schooling and community health clinics over individual family needs. Sometimes we had three to four families share one tent so there was a tent for each school and clinic available.

Saharawis have had to live for over 30 years on emergency food aid. How are you dealing with the consequences?

The characteristic of any refugee camps is health vulnerability, and nutrition is an important part of that.

We have achieved some very good results. In more than 20 years we have had no type of disease epidemic, even though we have had to live in drastic climatic circumstances where we face massive temperature changes from a high of 58°C in summer to -6°C in winter.

On top of this, our diet is hyper glutei — made up of 95% of carbohydrates — because it is the cheapest and easiest accessible form of aid available for the camps. This diet is highly deficient for our immune system.

It also creates a different human organism to normal. Women and men are born into this state of scarcity — which is impacting especially on the mother but also the child.

We not only develop general health programs, but also diagnostic programs that look at the health risks and causes. We create workshops with all the Saharawi health professionals, and our specialist friends and sympathisers, to arrive at a good scientific diagnosis.

At the moment we are working with Norwegian health professionals on a four-day nutrition seminar. We identified this as a priority because in February we did a nutritional study that looked at levels of anemia and malnutrition, especially in the most vulnerable sectors; women of childbearing age and children under 15.

We found alarmingly high levels of anemia and malnutrition.

These findings compelled all of us involved in health to get together and develop a realistic diagnosis and find realistic solutions. Our problems will persist as long as we are refugees.

However, the only way to minimise the impact is for us to unite our strengths, make the situation as dignified as possible and apply all our knowledge.

What benefits does the high level of Saharawi control and organisation in the camps bring?

Saharawi people live a precarious existence; we are in a place of being or not being.

We have only got two choices — a sovereign Saharawi state or total dispersion of Saharawis across the world, without a homeland, memories and no responsibility for the future.

We are conscious of this responsibility for our society in its totality; we have to organise ourselves in order to survive. We have to develop the level of organisation in order to meet the challenges coming our way every minute.

We have now lived for quite a few years with neither peace nor war, since the 1991 ceasefire with Morocco. When we were engaged in war, the perspectives were clear, even though we didn't know how many lives our resistance struggle would cost us.

We were engaged in armed combat in very unequal conditions with a militarily superior Morocco.

It was not only Saharawi society that paid a big price for the caprices of the Moroccan king. Moroccan soldiers were also victims of his Machiavellian mind; they, their families and Moroccan society in fact have paid dearly for the king's expansionist ambitions.

We noticed an encouraging high participation of women at the recent General Workers' Union of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Western Saharan trade union organisation) congress, but also more generally women are very visible in public life in the camps.

Our society is a very naturalist society. We share our responsibilities in a collective manner, which includes extended families along ancestral lines. Because of our ways of life, women occupy a critical rank.

In a nomadic society, the woman is everything. The man of the family is itinerate; he is either looking for pastures or is at the markets hundreds of kilometres away and may be absent for weeks.

Once we arrived at our refuge in South West Algeria, women organised the state and constructed the institutions, from the smallest to the biggest. Women have also been combatants during the years of war.

In incredibly harsh conditions, women were both the backbone of the camps and the revolution. In Saharawi society, women are not discriminated against because of their specific physiological make up.

Cuba has educated many Saharawi children. Why is this the case?

Cuba, such a small country with minimal material resources, has extended humanitarian help to many countries. Most importantly, Cubans have helped with education and health.

The Saharawi people are one of those peoples that are eternally grateful to the Cuban people. Only Cuba, on the other side of the word, opened the doors for us and took our kids to educate them into doctors, engineers, lawyers and technicians of all types.

Cuba has also helped with medical support. In 1976, we only had four qualified nurses — a consequence of more then 100 years of Spanish colonial rule. So imagine, in times of war and an extreme refugee situation, we had to make do with only four nurses to try and deal with our health problems!

Now, the leaders, functionaries and youth you see working in the camps are all a result of the support and education provided by Cuba.

Cuba, with the little they have, still shares with others, independently of their obligations in their geographical region, culture, religion or skin colour.

Us Saharawis are conscious that it was Cuba that has helped us to walk on our own two feet since the Moroccan invasion.

Western Sahara is Africa's last colony and the conflict is still unresolved. How can we best give our solidarity to Saharawi people?

There is only one solution to our existence as refugees: our return to our sovereign homeland. There is no other solution.

I can only mention the need to unite all our societies along the lines of peace and true justice. It is this unity, not aggression, that we need so all of us can enjoy happiness instead of destitution and humiliation.

From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #777

3 December 2008.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/777/40062

Trade unionists call for solidarity with Western Sahara

The 6th Congress of the Western Sahara General Union of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Oro Workers (UGTSARIO) took place from October 19-21, 2008, in El Aaiun, one of four Saharawi refugee camps in the Hamada desert in south-west Algeria. The brutally harsh Hamada desert, justifiably termed the most inhospitable place on Earth, has become the home away from home for more than 160,000 Saharawi refugees since Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara in 1975. Three Australian trade unionists (two from the Australian Workers Union --AWU -- and one from the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance -- MEAA) travelled thousands of kilometres to attend the congress and participate in the 4th International Trade Union Conference in Solidarity with the Western Saharan Workers, which was convened as part of the 6th UGTSARIO congress. All three were also members of the Australian Western Sahara Association. UGTSARIO congress The UGTSARIO congress was attended by 380 delegates representing different sectors of Saharawi workers, from refugee camps as well as from Mauritania, Algeria, Spain and France. Currently there are four unions affiliated to the UGTSARIO, and the rest of its membership is made up of individual workers. There is a push to develop more unions, specific to particular sectors. Most notable was the high number of women delegates at the congress, which indicates a high level of women’s participation in public life and work. The congress officially opened with the singing of the national anthem and a speech by Mohamed Abdelaziz, president of the Democratic Republic of Western Sahara (SADR), honouring the contributions and sacrifices made by Saharawi workers. Outgoing secretary general of the UGTSARIO, Mohamed Cheikh Mohamed Lehbib, then presented the UGTSARIO bureau’s financial and activities reports, before inviting international delegations representing 16 trade unions to give greetings. Around 70 international guests attended the congress, representing trade unions and organisations from the African Union, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Italy, Australia, Portugal, Norway, Greece, Mexico and Sweden. The congress also heard from former phosphate workers from the Western Saharan territories occupied by Morrocco. Due to the fierce repression against Saharawis in the occupied zone and a heavily mined 2500-kilometre long wall separating it from the liberated areas and the refugee camps, the participation of these workers could only occur via phone link up. Over the three days the congress debated the adoption of its new national program and elected a new leadership until its next congress in four years. In a rare opportunity the Australian delegations became ``international observers’’ – able to witness the UGTSARIO election process, which was fascinating and very democratic. Mohamed Cheikh Mohamed Lehbib was re-elected general secretary with a high margin and a new executive bureau was also elected. International Trade Union Conference in Solidarity with the Western Saharan Workers This conference (targeted at the international guests) was held on October 20, and was part of the 6th UGTSARIO congress. It focused on discussing three main issues: 1) the plundering of Western Sahara’s natural resources by Morocco and other countries/companies and how to develop a solidarity campaign, 2) abuse of Saharawis’ human rights and workers’ rights abuses by the Moroccan regime, in Morocco proper and occupied Western Sahara 3) supporting UGTSARIO’s membership of international trade union federations. The conference was attended by representatives of 23 trade unions and organisations from 11 countries, representing more than 200 million trade unionists. Iberian peninsular trade unionists were the most represented with three Spanish confederations (the UGT – linked to the current Spanish government, USO and CC.OO), one Basque (ELA), one Galician (CIG) and one Portuguese (CGTP). Italian unionists were represented via the CGIL (the General Confederation of Italian Workers); the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) sent a sizable delegation, as did the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), which participated for the first time. The Algerian federation UGTA sent its general secretary and OUSA – a pan-African federation – and the World Federation of Trade Unions also participated. Ron Guy, representing the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), spoke for our delegation on the conference panel. The Australian delegation also represented the AWU and the Socialist Alliance. In his conference contribution Ron Guy raised the issue of natural resource theft as being critical to any solidarity campaign that tries to achieve more than just deliver emergency aid to the refugee camps, and instead sharply refocus on the illegal occupation of Western Sahara and the Saharawi people’s claim of sovereignty over their territory. Our delegation argued that Morocco’s illegal trade deals with foreign countries and companies help finance the occupation, and provide legitimacy and support for its continuation. Highlighting this natural resources issue, we argued, automatically brings in the question of sovereignty, which can be avoided by only focusing on human rights abuses. Australian and Norwegian activists, represented by three young Western Sahara Resource Watch members who are teaching English in the camps, are helping to lead this specific campaign. Our reports about work done in this area were enthusiastically received as were our proposals for action. No other country represented at the conference had done any concrete work/actions on this issue to date, even though their own countries are profiting from trade deals with Morocco relating to the theft of the Saharawis’ resources. The East Timor struggle for independence was raised many times during the conference, as it is very pertinent to the Western Sahara situation. Our delegation put forward a proposal for other union federations present to join our protests against Australian company Wesfarmer’s illegal imports of Western Saharan phosphate (Wesfarmer’s fertiliser subsidiary, CSBP is the second-biggest Australian importer of phosphate from Western Sahara). We also moved for an international day of action against the theft of Saharawi resources to take place; targeting companies and/or our respective governments. After discussion, a subcommittee of six people, including a member of the Australian delegation, was nominated to develop a declaration, reflecting the decisions and mood of the conference floor. The final declaration (see below) included the proposal of an international day of action in 2009 against natural resource theft, sending delegations to the occupied territories as ``witnesses to the occupation’’ and to advocate for UGTSARIO’s inclusion in international trade union bodies. There was some initial resistance by the Spanish UGT representative to the inclusion of support for an international day of action on resource theft in the declaration, which was eventually resolved. The declaration was unanimously endorsed by both the international conference and the UGTSARIO congress. The Australian delegation won respect from the international guests and Saharawi trade unionists alike for our work and political interventions we brought to the conference. The Saharawis know that more political solidarity is crucial in order to move closer to finding a just solution to their desperate situation. And this can only be done through pressure being put on complicit governments (such as Spain, France and Australia) by the international solidarity and workers’ movement. The UGTSARIO general secretary came to visit us after the congress to thank us for our participation. Our delegation was also interviewed for the Algerian media and a Saharawi radio show. The conference also presented us with the opportunity to meet other trade unionists and strengthen important networks. Interestingly, many of the international unionists present at the congress had heard about Australia’s horrendous WorkChoices laws and the undemocratic, Gestapo-like Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC)! After spending four days at El Aaiun camp the Australian delegation moved to the ``27 February camp’’ to continue its solidarity work. UPES, the Saharawi Writers and Journalists Union, general secretary Malainin Lakhal, who had visited Australia in 2007, helped us organise important meetings with members of the community, SADR government officials and other international solidarity organisations. Delegation member Margarita Windisch (MEAA member, Socialist Alliance and Democratic Socialist Perspective activist, and Green Left Weekly journalist) held a media workshop for members of a youth group from the camp. The workshop was designed to give basic skills on how to write for a Western newspaper and help promote the Saharawi cause internationally. The workshop was very interactive and finished with each participant writing a news article of 300 words. Hopefully we will see articles coming form Western Saharan writers more regularly. Delegation member Garry Holliday gave an Aussie Rules football workshop (believe it or not!) to about 100 schoolkids. Most of the Saharawi youth are very skilled in soccer, so picking up the basics of Aussie Rules was a relatively easy task for these natural talents. While we didn’t have enough time to cohere a Saharawi team together to challenge our very own footy greats at the next grand final, we certainly left a good impression and showed that solidarity can come in many ways. Bringing back footage of the workshop will hopefully help raise the plight of the Saharawi people in Australia. We are aiming to get another mention on a football website that already advertised the workshop in October and are working to get a spot on Australian TV’s sports shows. (See http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20081013231446908) Conclusion Even though the Saharawi struggle seems obscure in Australia, it has very close similarities with the East Timorese and the Palestinian peoples’ struggles for national self-determination. Furthermore, Australian companies (Incitec Pivot-- see http://news.theage.com.au/business/shareholders-approve-incitec-201-split-20080905-4aig.html -- and Wesfarmers -- see http://www.wsrw.org/index.php?parse_news=single&cat=105&art=936) are benefiting from the occupation of Western Sahara and the repression of its people by the Moroccan regime. The visit to the camps was a unique and very humbling experience. It certainly showed what humanity is capable of -- from the most brutal aggression by an elite few (the Moroccan government and its allies) for economic gain, to the heroic resistance of a small nation in the most adverse circumstances. The Saharawi people show in practice that collectivity, organisation and respect can make the critical difference between the survival of a unique people and culture or its disappearance. Thirty-three years of occupation, repression and life as refugees has neither dinted their integrity nor dashed their hopes for justice. At the same time the Saharawi people also pleaded with us to continue and strengthen our solidarity work because they are painfully aware that without international solidarity and pressure their struggle may be lost. Recommendations: 1) That Australian trade unions endorse the declaration of the 4th International Trade Union Solidarity Conference with Saharawi Workers and actively pursue the key points and participate in proposed actions. 2) Send further trade union delegations to Western Sahara (to the occupied zones and the refugee camps) and strengthen their relationship with UGTSARIO. 3) Promote the Western Saharan struggle among its members and in its publications. 4) Join and/or affiliate to the Australian Western Sahara Association (AWSA: www.awsa.org ) Photos of the trip are available at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67307&l=7aacc&id=675522663 Declaration of the 4th International Trade Union Conference in Solidarity with the Western Saharan Workers, October 20, 2008, El Aaiun refugee camp The trade unions that participated in the 4th International Trade Union Conference in Solidarity with the Western Saharan Workers on October 20, 2008, in El Aaiun (which was part of the 6th congress of UGTSARIO) declare their concerns again about the situation of Western Sahara: The lack of results from the direct negotiations between Morocco and the Frente Polisario under the auspices of the UN; after four meetings the Moroccan government’s refusal to find a solution in accordance with UN resolutions has been re-confirmed. In this regard, we reiterate our support for the UN resolutions that demand the withdrawal of Morocco from Western Sahara, the ability to exercise the right to self-determination and the holding of a referendum in which the Saharawi people can determine their future. In this year that celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Moroccan government continues to violate the basic human rights of Saharawis in the occupied territories with impunity. The arrests, tortures, trials and arbitrary detentions, the disappearances, the intimidations are normal practices that the Saharawi population has to endure. In order to hide its repressive actions and deny international condemnation thereof, the Moroccan government denies international observers the right to enter Western Sahara. The deterioration of basic living standards, working conditions, education, sanitation and right to work is constant. To be Saharawi becomes an obstacle to access employment, which converts itself into discriminatory practice in contravention of the International Labour Organisation and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We reaffirm our position, which is outlined in previous trade union conferences, and demand from countries, the European and African Unions not to engage in agreements that affect the sovereignty of Western Sahara and the exploitation of its natural resources. We reject the recent preferential trading status between Morocco and the EU. We also reject the exploitation of Saharawi natural resources, in accordance with the international law enshrined in the UN resolution 1514. This resolution prohibits occupying or colonial powers to engage in commercial activities in occupied territories during the process of decolonisation. The UN resolution 1514 is violated by the presence of Australian, Norwegian, South African and Spanish multinational companies, amongst others, in the occupied territories, who have signed agreements with, and have been given concessions by, the Moroccan government and companies to exploit the natural resources. The trade unions present at the conference affirm that within the current international trade union movement they have to contribute to the presence of the UGTSARIO within international trade unions confederations. The observer status of the UGTSARIO, at the founding congress of the International Trade Union Confederation and in the EU-African trade union summit that took place in Lisbon, helped bring UGTSARIO further into the international trade union movement. We consider that the participation of the UGTSARIO in future trade union meetings is necessary for its future affiliation to international trade union bodies. It is also necessary to include the UGTSARIO in the trade unions’ policies of cooperation as a partner and develop projects that include trade union and professional training in important sectors such as health, education, construction and industries related to the environment, in the refugee camps and liberated territories. At the same time we call on the international trade unions to continue to provide food aid to the Saharawi refugees. With regards to human, labour and trade union rights we demand of the Moroccan government to comply with ILO conventions and end its discriminatory policies towards the Saharawi people in the occupied territories. We also demand the freeing of political prisoners and that Morocco takes responsibility for the Saharawi “disappeared”. We agree to inform the ILO about Morocco’s violation of Saharawi labour and trade union rights. We agree to pressure our respective governments, the EU and the African Union, as well as multinational companies and other institutions to denounce : a) the human rights violations of Saharawis by Morocco b) the illegality of the agreements between Morocco, government administrations and any companies that allow the exploitation of Saharawi natural resources. We demand from the EU to be [consistent] in the defence of human rights and democracy in its commercial agreements with countries outside the EU. To reinforce actions of solidarity and protest, we agree to work towards an International Day of Action in 2009 that focuses on the grave situation of the Saharawi people and the exploitation of their natural resources. We oppose Morocco’s denial of access to the occupied territories by international observers to witness the reality on the ground. We believe that not solving the Western Saharan conflict puts the development of a Euro-Mediterranean dialogue -- in which important countries are either actively or passively involved -- at risk. It is impossible to construct peace, stability and development in the Mediterranean region without taking into account the rights of the Saharawi people, the occupation of its territories and the violation of human rights, which are fundamental to any democratic society. Finally, we congratulate the members and delegates of the UGTSARIO, for the outcomes of their 6th congress. This declaration was signed by representatives or members of the following unions and organisations: OUSA – African Union; UGTA – Algeria; UGT, CC.OO, USO – Spain; CIG – Galicia; ELÄ – the Basque country; CGTP – Portugal ; COSATU – South Africa ; NLC – Nigeria; Confederación Obreros de Campesinos – Mexico; ACTU – Australia; AWU, Victorian Branch – Australia; AWSA – Australia; MEAA – Australia ; Socialist Alliance – Australia; FSM – Greece; CGIL – Italy; Western Sahara Resource Watch International – Norway.