tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post2344491172431908497..comments2023-10-17T13:14:07.941+02:00Comments on International Affairs on the Edge: Refugee Camps diaryMohamed Aminehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11684255190454311282noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post-61354225686506187852011-05-19T02:34:20.631+02:002011-05-19T02:34:20.631+02:00'people who came in the morning and the Marroq...'people who came in the morning and the Marroqui was with them’<br />They both looked back at me, smiled and asked me to take my passport and go ahead.<br />I was suddenly freed to leave with no questions or further administrative procedures.<br /><br />i guess they knew you were from RCNUWC, and if it's the case, and if they had something to hide i don't think they would have let you see it if you see what i mean, but i don't know if they really have something to hide i just explore possibilities because the treatment clearly changed from the state "marroqui shiting something in tindouf" and RCNUWC member who will talk about what he will see in europe<br /><br />skizooAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post-14384145208929673332011-05-19T02:17:12.049+02:002011-05-19T02:17:12.049+02:00it's the story of time, any powerful nation wi...it's the story of time, any powerful nation will take chance to expand territories, same thing apply for morrocco in sahara, india or pakistan in kachemir, israel in palestine, war in kosovo or rwanda or maybe tribal conflicts in lybia........and its something normal to use propaganda ideologie and cheating, to achieve goals or to drag maximum number of people to your point of view but at the end, its the most powerful who win, property of land come only by force , morrocco as we know it today would never had existed whitout omeyyade "conquest" but since that time, borders have never been really marked, and were unstable during the different dynasties, so even now, what will do the difference is not legal property but lethal force, thats unfair but there is no way to deal differently unless given up , Polisario is probably not like medias try to represent it, but it has no legal property on the land if they don't fight for it and thats what they're doing, so great let the best take it exactly like what's happening in palestine, or afghanistan- taliban, but what we should take in considération is that if "time" give some impression of legal property, the sahara was the property of Al-mwhidin dynastie eight hundered years ago and in fact even algeria was their property, but under Saadiyin, morrocco and algeria were separated but none of theme explicitly ruled the sahara even though it was their sahara to all of theme : algeria, morrocco and sahrawi nomades because they all could freely reach it but they didn't show interest in it beacause it was empty of any interest, they all implicitly considered it like their territory but didn't bother mark it, so after europeen colonisation, under the joy of indepedance, they all tried to gather what they consider as their territory that's what started the conflict and the governements know very well that any story about historic property isn't really true or at least can't legalise control of the region and what really count is the military power <br />the second thing not to forget is that there are extern forces that uses intelligent strategies other than direct war to take benefits from muslim separation and those kinds of conflicts, and to expand it in time they give equal military power to both of the country's, equal backup and equal hope to take control<br /><br />influence map of maghrebe before frensh occupaton: <br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carte_Maghreb_Vuillemin_1843.jpg<br /><br />skizooAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post-42429848223217974872011-05-10T18:03:44.369+02:002011-05-10T18:03:44.369+02:00Hey Mohamed,
I saw the link to your blog posted o...Hey Mohamed,<br /><br />I saw the link to your blog posted on Hamdi's facebook wall. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading about your experience and that I think its awesome that you decided to visit and come up with your own conclusions about life in the camps! I visited for the first time earlier this year and walked away feeling exactly the same :)<br /><br />Looking forward to reading more of your blog! RhianAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post-55216850520952252242011-05-02T02:26:11.143+02:002011-05-02T02:26:11.143+02:00Hi BROTHER,
I am so happy that you are back,and I ...Hi BROTHER,<br />I am so happy that you are back,and I can't wait to see you, not because what you wrote Non,just because you are coming from my people.you were in 27 this is my camp. if I knew that sure I would ask you to stay in my house...what a pity !<br />All the bestAsria Talebhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02900664362838999764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post-43494508753972200412011-05-02T00:48:27.516+02:002011-05-02T00:48:27.516+02:00Moreover, the major decisions and policies were ta...Moreover, the major decisions and policies were taken by the people in different occasions, like the women congress I attended and which decided on the foreign policy to adopt and to implement in the political structure of the polisario, and this is only one example of how decision making is not exclusive to the political elite, but rather is a collaborative effort made by everyone, and open to critics and redressements as attets the national assemblies where the people judge their leaders in an open discussion. <br />For the camps, I visited 4 of them, and they all gave the same impression and the people were uphelding the same vision of the conflict wherever I went and to whomever I talked to.<br />The other 2 camps are major ones, Dakhla and Layoun camps, which I honestly didn't visit, but out of 6, 4 is quite a significant number, yet the doubts you expressed are well founded.<br />Indeed all the founders of the Polisario front were Sahrawi scholars who studied in Moroccan universities, and they used their education as a way to organize the Saharawi resistance and institutionalize the nomad Saharwi society so it can be part of the modern international community and auto rule itself through qualified political and social organs.<br />But anyway, yet having study in Morocco, this doesn't ultimately make from their cause a false one, since they couldn't afford high level education in the Sahara, so they had to move into a more developed area were educational institutions were available. It's the same with all the liberation movements around the world, the palestinian founding elements and the revolutionary fronts all studied in institutions not based in their countries since they didn't have a proper country with proper institutions, and this in no way signed their allegiance to a certain system or administration just because they studied there.<br />Well, I'll just tell a sentence they advance in the camp wherever I try to claim the Moroccan aspect of the sahara:<br />'If the Sahara was Moroccan, why would Morocco have agreed to pertition it with Mauritania as part of the Madrid accords?'<br />This a valid points since a country whose pepole belive that the Sahara is Moroccan wouldn't have allowed such concession, unless the Sahara is Moroccan just for its ressources and economic benefits for Morocco (Fisheries, Phosphat and maybe oil reserves).<br />Furthermore, as we claim the Sahara, is't it logical that the Sahara's faith should be determined by the Sahrawi native population, not Moroccans moved there for obvious reasons by the authorities.<br />And if the Sahara was Moroccan and people agreed on that, why are we the nly one's caliming that while even the UN doesn't recognize the Sahara as Moroccan and while we have more than 100.000 men (military) in the Western Sahara to watch out from any uprising (which are quite frequent according to what I've been told and saw from the videos they showed me). <br />I can talk with you more and show you the clippings I filmed and the interviews I made (which I'll publish later), but the only way to really draw your own convictions is to visit the camps and see by yourself, because a picture is worth thousands of words.<br />Anyway, We will definitely talk about this face to face, as it is quite hard to put on all what I've been through into words!<br />Thanks again for raising these questions and I hope I answered if not all at least some of your questions.Mohamed Aminehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11684255190454311282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post-78390005921170671242011-05-02T00:48:15.477+02:002011-05-02T00:48:15.477+02:00Hey Ziyad, thanks first for reading critically thi...Hey Ziyad, thanks first for reading critically this article and bringing up these questions :D<br />Well, first of all, the things which I came to see and which were totally different fom what I was told are:<br />1. The sahrawi people were held against their will in the camps.<br />Well, I can assure you I didn't see a single individual emprisoned or held hostage in the camps, and even the checkpoints at the entry and exit of these camps were simply monitored by one weaoponless military which showed up from time to time, and everybody was circulating freely and frequently between Algerian soil and the refugee camps. Moreover, the people I talked to eveyday, youth, elders, women, men, activists and simple civilians, all assured that they prefer to stay in the camps and wouldn't leave them because that's the way to keep their struggle and keep the flame of the resistance burning. They said that going back to Western Sahara under the Moroccan would legitimate the occupation and doom their national cause to oblivion.<br />Also, we are always told that the Polisario is a dictatorship and that the political elite is imposing its will on people.<br />Actually, the camp I was living in -27th February school camp- was the one hosting the political figures and the president, and what's amazing is that I was passing by everyday by the president's house, a normal residence like all the brick houses the civilians have. I got to talk to the active youth and they openly criticized the fact that Mohamed Abdelaziz was in power for more than three decades and said it is a disfunction in the political system, but afterwards justified it by the fact that the front was still in war and couldn't afford political disturbance in time of hostilities, while confirming that that would change in case there was a future independent country, which ultimately would be a republic based on democracy and international standards.Mohamed Aminehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11684255190454311282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6984894688776877659.post-83812810120663293652011-05-01T23:30:24.620+02:002011-05-01T23:30:24.620+02:00Hey Amine,
Nice reading the epic story of your ad...Hey Amine,<br /><br />Nice reading the epic story of your adventure.I could picture all what you went through in my mind, and I am just as surprised and thrilled about what you have seen out there.<br /><br /> I admire the spirit of Tindouf, and their ever welcoming quality. I was quite scared someone would stub you in the back the very first day.I'm glad you came back safe and with a new perspective about the conflict.<br /><br />However, and as you seem so convinced about the unreality and false assumptions that our media persist on delivering to us, I must ask you some questions. <br /><br />You talk about how your view changed and how all what you were brought up to learn was wrong. What exactly is wrong? <br /><br />You have also said that the Refugee camp was divided into 6 different parts, have you visited the 5 others? If not, how can you be so sure that what you have seen in your camp exists in the others as well?<br /><br />I haven't had your experience and cannot say whether what I know is true, but I have always been told, in fact I have seen documents, that show that Moukhtar Ouldada, Hdrammi, Moulay Abdarahman, Biyadi lah, AbdLaziz Lmerrakchi and all the leaders and founders of Western Sahara were all Moroccans, living and studying in Rabat, Casablanca, Tadla, Marrakech and Laayoune. <br /><br />As our previous king rejected them, the people mentioned above went to Libya and Algeria and sought for help and military aid. Of course, and for quite obvious reasons, Algeria and Libya saw the benefits behind a conflict that would not only deepen Morocco into an ongoing problem but would also eternalize such a boon.<br /><br />My question is, what have you learnt that challenges the very basic idea that Western Sahara's founders are Moroccan? Maybe what we are exhorted to believe about the misery and the suppression is implausible, but is the so claimed Western Sahara really not Moroccan? Is half of Morocco, the so cherished and well known Sahara not our own land? If not, then what have you learnt that proves it?<br /><br />I bring these questions with a kindred spirit that only seeks for answers and clarification.<br /><br />Cheers bro',<br />Ziyad.Ziyad El Mounirinoreply@blogger.com