Izik Agdaym: Camp Dignity
Monday, November 1, 2010
Elliptical Dish Calculation Formula
From the October 9 Thousands of Sahrawi cities under Moroccan control of Laayoune and Smara Boujdour in Western Sahara have fled their homes and set up temporary camps to protest what they consider unfair economic and social policies by the Moroccan authorities. What began as a protest by a few dozen Saharawi has become one of the largest - If not the largest - non-violent demonstrations in the Occupied Territories since the beginning of the war in 1975. Izik Agdaym camp already has 7,000 stores surrounded by the security services and the Moroccan Army Moroccan authorities insist that these measures are to maintain order in the camps, but the reality is that to avoid more Saharawi join. The sad reality is that not controlling the situation with the recent murder of 14 year old boy Nayem Foidal Elgarhi
activists detained in Laayoune calling for urgent intervention by the UN
The English pro-Sahrawi those prevented Morocco off the ship that traveled from Las Palmas Canary Islands) to Laayoune (Western Sahara) to visit the Saharawi camp installed east of this city have today called on his return that the UN intervene to prevent "a slaughter ."
As stated by one of the members of the expedition Canarian Silvia Mesa, who has reported that in addition to his seven fellow Canaria Platform Support to the Saharawi people , Moroccan police blocked off boat Naviera Armas other seven English tourists, who were accused of " terrorism."
noted that one of them, a woman who was meeting with family, is hospitalized in a military hospital in the Moroccan city after suffering a fainting spell on the ship by anxiety and tension that led to the situation experienced on board.
insisted that "we must keep trying to enter the Saharawi camps so that people know what is happening there " and explained that this second trip of the Platform was a solidarity and the goal of solidarity with the family of 14 year old boy " killed by Moroccan police " recently. Silvia Mesa
stressed that the ship that traveled to Laayoune were 31 people who accompanied the vice-consul of Morocco in Canary , a group that he said on arrival at the port will be distributed " Saharan typical clothes, snacks, Moroccan flags and the picture of the king of Morocco to get out and demonstrated against " of the pro-Sahrawi.
said that the English to those that were allowed to disembark in Laayoune "were attacked and insulted" and forced to "fly high up the Moroccan flag " while those who, like the group of activists, they were held inside, were subjected to interviews by " senior Moroccan police, which, in addition to asking the passport, they took videos and photos with their mobile phones, although the ship's captain on several occasions asked him not so. According
Mesa, the only English authority with which they have been contacted during this conflict been the manager of the House of Spain, Mariano Collado, who came to the port of Laayoune to announce that it was "impossible " to get out of the boat, the same indication they received from the Moroccan police warned them that if they did they were going "to hit ."
According to these activists, the UN intervention in Western Sahara " is necessary and accurate," otherwise, " can not complain after Morocco has committed a slaughter either by acting against the Saharawi or by preventing the Saharawi are capable, as are well, to meet their needs. "
In his view, the protest camp to the Sahrawi" if you have room, if they do not allow arrival of food and water, will happen a humanitarian disaster if Morocco is not expected and is capable of committing a slaughter. "
In Agdaym Izik, 20,000 Sahrawi ask for a decent life
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Son and 7,000 tents (tents of the nomads) that the Saharawi began lifting more than three weeks doors Laayoune, the capital of the former English colony. Here 20,000 people crowd surrounded by a small five-foot wall built in a few days by the Moroccan Army. Focus behind hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gendarmes and soldiers whose presence is felt at a glance. Izik Agdaym
is at dusk, organization and order. Youth patrol security officers walk the areas that have been assigned, an SUV collects garbage bags placed in the intersections of the dusty roads, a nurse attends to patients waiting in line at the makeshift clinic, while others keep their Time to fill drums of water brought in by tanker.
"Water is scarce, we long queues, uncomfortable, but we're happy," he says smiling Mustafa, a boy, while making the vee of victory, a gesture repeated many inhabitants of the camp cross with the visitors. In addition to journalists, a handful of foreign activists have managed to enter the camp fence avoiding the Moroccan and disseminate their images abroad. Antonio Velazquez, a Mexican musician, has convertidoen spokesman for the international press.
Izik Agdaym is governed by a coordinating committee of nine people, eight men and one woman, all under 40 years. Most were unemployed. So far they had not known for his political activism against "discrimination " social suffering, they say, the Saharawi, nor in favor of independence.
How people with limited experience are able to manage this small town abruptly improvised and negotiate their demands with the Moroccan Ministry of Interior? "Sahrawi Here we are alone among us " answers Kmacho Fadel , one of three coordinating committee members interviewed by this reporter over the weekend. breathe an air of freedom that there was "he adds." That gives us strength. "
Almost every day they receive new support. The company employees fosfatera Foos Boukraa landed on Wednesday. Together with the campers chanted at a rally: "The resources of the Sahara to the Sahrawi" , in an allusion to phosphates and fisheries Morocco pillaged. On Thursday a delegation of broke Sidi Ifni, the city's most belligerent southern Morocco . The Saharawi were paraded by a human corridor as guests shouted: "Sahrawi, Sahrawi, together with us hand in hand to Freedom" .
Video: The siege of Agdaym Izik
"Fences do not negotiate"
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Charkaoui Taieb, the interior minister is one of the most powerful men in Morocco . No one would give a sit, except the committee that coordinates the Saharawi protest camp Agdaym Izik near Laayoune . Charkaoui arrived Thursday in Laayoune , met with the Saharawi notables, and on Saturday, he cited the committee that runs the camp. "We decline the invitation until they cease provocations and lift the siege and military police suffer," said Omar Zribi , acting as spokesman for the committee. "Otherwise there will be no negotiation . And reiterates: "Enclosures not negotiate."
The latest "provocation " was, according to him, the soldiers taking pictures of the Saharawi women urinating outdoors. The fence also allows for hours Rabat veto the entry of food or water in the camp, while preventing access to the international press.
The committee did meet several times throughout the week, with a commission Three senior officials of the Interior, sent from Rabat , " but his goal was not to negotiate, but to inquire about us "laments said. " They ask us to dismantle the tents, go home and then meet our demands . The 20,000 people who camped in Agdaym Izik three weeks required for housing, jobs and the end of "plundering " the riches of the Moroccan Sahara .
"Our greatest aspiration is to respect our dignity " together several Sahrawi stress around the spokeswoman said. " and most do not support the oppressive security rules which we submitted "without comparison any region of Morocco.
The Moroccan army shot dead a child Elgarhi Foidal Nayem
"Before it was my son, now of all the people." mother Elgarhi Nayem Foidal mourns the death of his infant son, who was only 14 years has become a martyr. So call him since news of his death Sunday afternoon ran in Laayoune like wildfire. Moroccan soldiers strafed the vehicle trying to reach, along with seven others, the protest camp Agdaym Izik .
The occupants of the vehicle did not stop when they were stopped and the soldiers opened fire. Ghari Zubair, brother of the deceased minor, the debate between life and death from gunshot wounds in the shoulder and back pain, excruciating pain for a mother who, however, flooded with tears, still proclaims: " This will give us more strength to fight . "
lost a son, the little out of seven, a child of only 14, "very polite and good student" and another is critically injured and a third in jail since that was mounted camp. His crying is heartbroken, but this woman Saharan sheltered by other women, have very clear ideas: "They are victims of repression marrroquí began with stones and bullets have reached, are murderers" .
's sister Elgarhi also shows that strength so characteristic of Saharawi women. "We are proud to be a martyr and we ask the European Union and the UN to come and help, my brother is not the only, every day there are more victims."
We are in the family home, where pain can almost feel with your hands. The father and uncle Elgarhi have tried to access the hospital, but only told they died in an accident and not allow them to enter to see the other wounded. Women also have tried to come and have beaten. At that time, the mother of Elgarhi speaks again: "I will not have to lie, fight to the end to recognize that it is they who killed my son."
is a family of wrestlers. Another older brother Elgarhi is in jail since the first day I returned from the protest camp, set on the outskirts of the city of Laayoune . When the governor goes to Moroccan family home to see them, do not let him enter. "You're not welcome" , they say.
Relatives and friends of Elgarhi and injured youth say that if they did not stop when they were stopped at the checkpoint was because usually when they stop, forcing them out of the car, beat them and they remove all that are in the vehicle. The others were wounded in the shooting are Lagdaf Alaoui, Ahmed Dawdi, Salek Filali and Abderrahman Hummer, all with injuries of varying degrees. They were taken to hospital Hassan Mehdi of Laayoune, but they were getting a counter forced the ambulances to turn back to take the military hospital, where police prevented access to family
Video: Witness the crime
Several Moroccan soldiers wounded in Dakhla
On the outskirts of the city Saharawi Dakhla, a group family Saharawi were brutally beaten and humiliated by the Moroccan occupying forces after trying to mount a peaceful camp of makeshift tents and peaceful way to protest his economic and social situation. One of the wounded said he was surprised by ten military vehicles Moroccan security forces. They attacked without warning by hitting them with sticks and batons, leaving several people injured at the scene, where some were evacuated to hospitals in the city.
These are names of some injuries, Sidahmed Babeit, Brahim Hanan, Labida Hamulla, Butabaa Mohammed, Mohamed Alheiri, Mahomed Aduah Inductors, Larosi Hamulla, Kamra Abdelyalil, Salama Legsabi, Cheikh Fathi, Rashid Lesabi, Elyabli Elcori, Lala Mohamed, Dadach El Mahfoud, Lejlifi Esalami and Brahim Etaruzi. Previously
Moroccan authorities had prevented the protest tent set Sahrawi in the town of Taurta about 18 miles north of Dakhla and confiscated cars and tents.
Western Sahara:
The tide of history
By Ken Loach and Stefan Simanowitz (*)
In 1960, the UN adopted resolution 1514, which states that all peoples have the right to self determination and that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and unconditional end. Half a century later, readers may be surprised to learn that there are still 16 territories around the world who still hope to achieve decolonization. Known as "territories without self-government", the list of places still ruled by foreign powers contains familiar names: Gibraltar and Falkland Islands (Malvinas), to name just two. But while some of those territories, as the small Pacific island of Tokelau, are units which could be said to have rejected independence and maintain its status as democratically elected territorial, other cases are more controversial. The most notable is the Western Sahara, known as Africa's last colony, which has fought for self-determination for 35 years against the neighboring Morocco.
last week in New York, the Fourth Committee of the UN Decolonization Committee heard requests from people who spoke in defense of those territories without self-government. As in previous occasions, the annual meeting was dominated by requests on the Western Sahara conflict, a conflict which remains one of the oldest in the world.
About the size of Great Britain, Western Sahara extends along the Atlantic coast of Africa. In 1976, a breach of international law, the English, when they left, they divided the Western Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania in exchange for fishing rights and continued partial ownership of mining interests. Followed by a 15-year war between Morocco and the Frente Polisario, and the withdrawal of Mauritania in 1979. In 1991 it was declared a cease-fire and under the terms of a UN agreement, he promised a referendum. Nineteen years later, the Sahrawi are still waiting for the referendum.
some 165,000 Saharawi fled the war are still housed in pitiful refugee camps in the Algerian desert. Despite the help of the UN, the conditions in the camps are abject, with the spread of health problems including Hepatitis B, anemia and meningitis. A 2008 survey by the World Health Organization shows that one in five children in the camps suffer from acute malnutrition.
Within occupied Western Sahara, the Sahrawi people suffer discrimination and human rights abuses. International organizations, including UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have expressed its serious concern about violations of human rights in the territory. A report by Human Rights Watch, 2008 revealed that Morocco had violated the rights of expression, association and assembly in the Western Sahara.
On October 8 last year was the first anniversary of the arrest of several human rights defenders in the Casablanca airport returning from a visit to refugee camps. Three of the activists, Brahim Dahane, Tamek Ali Salem and Ahmed Naciri-prisoners still in prison of Salé (Rabat) pending trial.
With the backdrop of this humanitarian tragedy, the European Union has signed a fisheries agreement with Morocco under which the waters of Western Sahara are being illegally exploited by European fishing vessels. Many foreign governments and companies are engaged in business with Morocco that give them access to vast natural resources, particularly phosphates, Western Sahara.
The UN Fourth Committee met a few weeks ago in New York heard about 80 requests relating to Western Sahara, including an impassioned appeal of Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation. "Do not let the confidence [of the Saharawi people] in this committee is in vain, or you will be sending a terrible signal to the world that the invasion, aggression and violence, which has been used as Morocco, are the ways to achieve goals, "he said.
Despite many attempts to break the old standoff, progress toward a solution has been tortuously slow. The political solution may seem unattainable in view of the positions of the parties so far: the Frente Polisario refuses to negotiate a legitimate right to self-determination, Morocco opposes any proposal that contains the possibility of independence of the Saharawi and the Security Council of the UN shows willingness to implement its own resolutions. But history has shown that a political solution is the only way to succeed.
However, it is important to note that a political solution to this problem is too important to be left to politicians. It concerns all of us, civil society groups or individual activists, make their voices heard. We must demand that our governments around the world engaged in diplomatic and political pressure on those who are ignoring the requirements established under international law and blocking a referendum on self-determination for Western Sahara. As Martin Luther King said: "The arc of history may be long, but it always bends towards justice." There is little doubt that the people of Western Sahara is on their side as the tide of history as the force of justice.
(*) Ken Loach is a film director. Stefan Simanowitz is a writer and journalist. This article was published by the Public English newspaper, last October 23, 2010
(Sources: EFE, El Pais, Spain, CEAS-Sahara, Sahara Poems for Free and Public-SINPERMISO) (Videos and photos: saharathawra.com)
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