From the Black Prison to Occupied Territories: The Sahara's Forgotten War
If you ask the linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, the Arab Spring did not begin in Tunisia in 2011, but with the October 2010 protests in the town of Gdeim Izik, in Western Sahara's occupied territories. The former Spanish colony has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. Its territory is divided in two by a 1,677-mile long sand wall and surrounded by some 7 million land mines.
The native Sahrawis, led by their independence movement the Polisario, are recognized by the International Court of Justice as the rightful owners of the land. However, Morocco hijacked Western Sahara's decolonisation process from Spain in 1975, marching some 300,000 settlers into the territory. This triggered a 16-year war between Morocco and the Polisario, which forced more than 100,000 Sahrawis into exile across the border in Algeria. Technically, Western Sahara is still Spanish and remains Africa's last colony.
Whether adrift in refugee camps and dependent on aid, or languishing under Moroccan rule, the Sahrawis are still fighting for their independence in an increasingly volatile region. Meanwhile, the UN has no mandate to monitor human rights in occupied Western Sahara. VICE News travels to Western Sahara's occupied and liberated territories, as well as the Polisario-run refugee camps in Algeria, to find out more about one of the world's least reported conflicts.
Escaping Moroccan Occupation: The Sahara's Forgotten War (Part 1):
In Part 1, we attend the 38th anniversary celebration of the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The Sahrawis celebrate this anniversary every year despite the facts that Morocco controls a third of their homeland and the parade takes place in Algerian refugee camps run by the Polisario.
At the celebration, we meet Sahrawi activist Sidahmed Talmidi, who, in October 2010, helped mobilize the Gdeim Izik protest camp near Laâyoune, the capital of occupied Western Sahara. Chomsky refers to the thousands of Saharwis who gathered there to demonstrate against both their unequal social and economic status and the brutal denial of their human rights as the real beginning of the Arab Spring.
Then Ahmed Salem, a war veteran and commander of the Polisario's 2nd Battalion, shows us around the makeshift refugee camps in the arid desert, where more than 100,000 Sahrawis who have escaped the Moroccan occupation have lived for nearly 40 years, relying on humanitarian aid and waiting for the chance to return to their homeland.
VICE News travels to Western Sahara's occupied and liberated territories, as well as the Polisario-run refugee camps in Algeria, to find out more about one of the world's least reported conflicts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y8w-ACs7Bw&feature=youtu.be
Guerrilla Warfare in Desert Tunnels: The Sahara's Forgotten War (Part 2):
In Part 2, VICE News heads to the Polisario-controlled liberated territories, an all but uninhabitable no man's land littered with land mines from the 16-year war. On the way, we pass a Sahrawi protest near the Moroccan Wall — also known as the berm or the wall of shame — that separates the Polisario-controlled Free Zone from the Moroccan-occupied territories. Once we reach the heart of the liberated territories, Polisario Commander Ahmed Salem shows off one of the many pieces of art he has created and placed in the desert. Then he has his soldiers demonstrate their desert guerrilla tactics.https://news.vice.com/video/the-saharas-forgotten-war-part-2
Drug-Smuggling and Kidnappings in the Desert: The Sahara's Forgotten War (Part 3):
Part 3, VICE News finds out how the Polisario tackle the threats of terrorism and drug smuggling in their increasingly volatile part of the Sahara. We look at how the movement has improved security to avoid another event like the 2011 kidnapping of three foreign aid workers from a Polisario complex. Then we speak to the ministers of defense and security, and follow a Polisario anti-terrorism unit on one of their night patrols, going dangerously close to the smuggling routes of the Sahara.https://news.vice.com/video/the-saharas-forgotten-war-part-3
From the Black Prison to Occupied Territories: The Sahara's Forgotten War (Part 4)
In Part 4, VICE News learns what life is like for Sahrawis living under Moroccan rule in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. A virtual no-go area for journalists, we manage to sneak in and meet Sahrawis whose activism puts them at risk of enduring both police brutality and detainment — without a proper trial — in the infamous Black Prison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHGQP6qF4QQ&list=PLw613M86o5o7Kl04bEnb4I-IF6xVTet8A
Fighting for the Right to Independence: The Sahara's Forgotten War (Part 5)
