Tags : Moammar Gaddafi, Frente Polisario, Western Sahara, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya,
Moamar Gaddafi denies Makhzen propaganda accusing Algeria of being behind the creation of the Polisario Front. According to him, Algiers confiscated weapons coming from Libya and intended for the Sahrawi movement.
In a speech given in 1985, the Libyan leader assassinated by NATO, Moammar Gaddafi, claimed to have been at the origin of the creation and armed support of the Polisario Front. Dated March 29, 1985, a CIA document declassified on January 31, 2012 includes the statements of the leader of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Here is the full content of the document:
By God, the arab people do not want to be wives to these rulers. It would be a disgrace. I personally have no respect or appreciation for these rulers, except those whom you know and who are in the same trench with us.
On 2 march, the anniversary of the founding of the Jamahiriyah, we proposed to the arab regimes that we believe are competent to engage in unionist action. meetings began in Damascus last week and they proceeded with difficulty. Now, there remains a series of meetings next month for which we wish success. But this will be a test : because if even these regimes which we believe are progressive and competent to engage in unionist action fail to bring out about unity between them, then all these regimes should stand together in one line. I hope that the regimes on which we pin hopes will not disappoint us. This would be the failure of the unification of Algeria, Libya, Syria, and the Yemen, alongside the african arab union between Libya and Morocco.
We used to support Polisario. In fact, we founded it in 1972 : The Popular Front for the liberation of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Oro fron spanish colonialism. In 1972 the Sahara was a spanish colony, and neither the arabs nor the africans nor the afro-asians spoke about the Sahara. They did not even know it. Only we knew that part of the arab land had been occupied by Spain for hundreds of years. This was a shame, and on 11 June 1972, on a platform where the late boumediene was present I declared (inaudible) Boumediene did not care when I said that part of the Arab homeland was occupied by Spain, that this was a shame and it must be liberated, and that if Spain did not leave we would form a liberation front.
After that speech, we formed the Popular Front for the liberation of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Odo, whose acronym in spanish is Polisario. Its leader was El Wali Erguibi, Martyr El Wali Erguibi). He ws an example of the arab revolutionary man whom we cherish.
The aim was to liberate the Sahara from Spanish colonialism. The popular liberation began in the Sahara; we trained the Polisario elements. We and the palestinian resistance. We smuggled weapons to the Polisario behind the backs of Algeria and Mauritania the arming of the Polisario by Algeria or Mauritania was prohibited. We unloaded consignments of weapons in the Sahara without the knowledge of Algeria or Mauritania; consignments of weapons fell into the hands of Algeria and were confiscated, because they were destined for Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro.
After those military operations spain left inmediately because it was not prepared to accept a popular war in the Sahara. It stayed there while the situation was calm but when the situation exploded it quickly left. El Wali Erguibi used to say : if we make of this Sahara a state, In have no objection to uniting it with Morocco, Algeria or Mauritania. Moukhtar Ould Daddah came to me and said : if you liberate the Sahara, I urge to make it an independent state so that it will be a barrier between me and Morocco. You saw how after the Madrid treaty, after the withdrawal of Spain, under this agreement Mauritania and Morocco each took half of the Sahara whereas Mauritania wanted it to be a single independent state, a barrier between it and Morocco.
As for Algeria it had no connection whatsoever with this matter. The fact is that after the Madrid agreement and the incursion of the Sahara by both sides, the inhabitants were made homeless because about 1 or 2 thousand homelesse children arrived in Libya. We educated and gave them shelter here. I found the situation to be tragic. We stood by the Polisario in all its demands. It said that it wanted independence, so we stood by them. In fact there was no desire at that time to add another dwarf state to the 21 or the 22 arab paper statelets which could be blown away by a major power. But it was because of a revolutionary eruption –at that Morocco was in conflict with Libya– therefore, that we backed and armed the Polisario with all weapons. We say that this was not a secessionist movement; it was a revoltionary eruption. But we tell you with regret that the Polisario failed to turn into a revolutionary eurption. With the passage of time and with changes in its leaderships and with the martyrdom of El Wali Erguibi, it turned into an independent-seeking movement.
#Gaddafi #Polisario #WesternSahara #Libya #Morocco #Mauritania