ALGIERS, 12 June 2005 — Western Sahara’s independence movement, based in exile in Algeria, wants a peaceful solution to one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, its leader said yesterday. “We won’t opt for violence. We will continue to fight through peaceful means,” Polisario Front leader Mohamed Abdelaziz told reporters in the Algerian capital.
Morocco seized most of Western Sahara after the colonial power Spain withdrew in 1975, claiming historic rights to the vast, mineral-rich, desert territory. Abdelaziz’s comments suggested there was an effort to calm tensions in the region, after Polisario in May threatened to resume its armed struggle unless there was a breakthrough in United Nations-led peace talks before the end of the year.
Polisario conducted a low-intensity guerrilla war for independence until the United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991, with the promise to hold a referendum to decide the territory’s fate. Abdelaziz called on the international community to investigate the detentions of dozens of people in recent pro-Polisario demonstrations in Western Sahara and in the Moroccan capital Rabat.
“The situation is explosive. Tens of our students are behind bars. Some of them were tortured. It is quite urgent to let international observers and journalists get into the territory to report on that,” said Abdelaziz, who has led the Polisario since 1976.
Morocco has twice in a week refused to allow Spanish politicians to visit the disputed territory, turning them back when their planes landed in Laayoune. After more than a decade of UN efforts to secure an agreement over a referendum, talks reached deadlock last year following Rabat’s rejection of the latest plan. Rabat says it wants to settle the Western Sahara issue through the United Nations but insists that the territory belongs to Morocco.
