The separatist movement "Polisario Front" claiming independence of the Moroccan Sahara, was born in Rabat and not in the then Spanish colony, a former Polisario member revealed on Friday.
| Comes as a surprise, doesn't it? |
In a damning testimony which brushes claims this Algerian-backed guerrilla movement has been trying to put forward, Mustapha Bouh barazani, former member of this movement's politburo said that contrary to what has been said to them, the Polisario Front was not born in the southern Moroccan territories, then occupied by Spain, but was created in Rabat by "a group of Moroccan students, among whom myself, who were urging the Spanish colonizer to leave and who had never claimed independence or the separation from motherland Morocco."
| "Yeah. We wanted it for ourselves..." |
In his testimony, Barazani recalled the Cold War opposing the eastern communist bloc to the Western world, saying that "the Polisario was then influenced by Libya and Algeria, two countries that were part of this bloc, and which were trying to export their revolution and destabilize Morocco."
Tracing back this dispute, Barazani referred to historical and juridical facts such as the Madrid Accord (signed in 1975 by Spain, Morocco and Mauritania) under which the kingdom retrieved these southern provinces, the juridical opinion of the Hague-based international court of Justice which proved historical links between Morocco and the inhabitants of the Sahara, as well as the peaceful "Green March" in which more than 300,000 Moroccans took part in forcing the Spanish occupying authorities to pack up and leave this territory. He also pointed a finger at neighboring Algeria which, he said, has provided this movement with military, financial and diplomatic support in exchange of "evident but unavowed" geo-strategic interests.
| Y'mean Algeria's trying to grab off some Moroccan territory? |
The ex-Polisario member who also served as "governor of the Camps of Aousserd and Dakhla in Tindouf (southern Algeria)" said that the Sahrawi population living in the camps are held hostages against their will by the Polisario and the Algerian military security that use them as a propaganda means to mislead the international public opinion. |