Rally Solidarity for Western Sahara

Vitalio AngulaLAST month’s Southern African Development Community solidarity conference with Western Sahara highlighted the need for member states to drive the illegal occupation of Western Sahara into mainstream political discourse as a means of informing and educating the public on the oppression of the Saharawi people.

Western Sahara is the last occupied territory in Africa in what can be termed a prototype apartheid rule under the kingdom of Morocco.

According to the United Nations, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Western Sahara is entitled to freedom and self-determination, like all free nations of the world.

Only a few countries with economic interests to the country’s resources have been co-opted by Morocco to remain silent on the issue in return for political and financial favour, as is the case with Tanzania, a member of SADC.

Tanzania under president John Magufuli has departed from the long-established policies of Julius Nyerere, and has established close ties with the oppressive Moroccan regime.

The SADC position on the Western Sahara question is to win over all member states to the cause of the ‘decolonisation of Western Sahara through a referendum on self-determination’.

As civil society, Namibian students, organisations, individuals and associations are not tied to the dilly-dallying of regional and international diplomacy.

As civil society, we are therefore in a position to send a clear message to countries with diplomatic missions in Namibia, such as Zambia and Tanzania, that our historical experiences and emotional sensitivity towards injustice will galvanise us to make political statements when the opportunity arises. We will be less diplomatic in our lobbying for the decolonisation and the independence of Western Sahara.

#StandIn TheSand is an international solidarity campaign and movement in favour of the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. The campaign brings to the fore the plight of landmine victims and the humanitarian crisis in the refugee camps on the Algerian border with Western Sahara in order to reach broader audiences through social media.

Namibia, which also has a desert coastline similar to that of Western Sahara, encourages visitors to these tourist attractions to take pictures in the sand dunes and upload them on Twitter following the hashtag #StandIn TheSand in order to highlight our country’s solidarity with Saharawi political prisoners.

According to human rights defender Catherine Constantinides: “The importance of free speech and freedom of the media plays an important role in unlocking the truth, and sharing with the world the human rights atrocities taking place in Western Sahara, which have been kept under a black curtain by the Moroccan regime. The regime has not allowed journalists, human rights lawyers and activists to enter the territory.

“The Windhoek Declaration of Press Freedom is another reminder that when we talk of freedom, democracy and self-determination, we must always remember the values that we hold dear. Not just for ourselves, but for our brothers and sisters in Western Sahara”, Constantinides says.

Constantinides highlights the adoption of 3 May 1991 as World Press Freedom Day “as a crucial affirmation of the international community’s commitment to freedom of the press”, and acknowledges The Namibian newspaper as an important partner in promoting citizens’ rights to access to information on the African continent.

Victor Tonchi, chairperson of the board of directors at the Pan Afrikan Centre of Namibia (Pacon) along with Tjeripo Musutua and Evelyn Shilamba represented Namibian NGOs at the solidarity conference with Western Sahara. It is through Pacon that community forums, awareness campaigns and public discussions should take place in order to create awareness and build momentum for grassroots participation in international solidarity efforts towards the decolonisation of Western Sahara.

The social media space has become the battleground of ideas. It is good you may want to have both sides of the story, but be informed of the UN position on Western Sahara. Those who seek to advance the position of the Moroccan regime have a huge propaganda machine. Thus, people are advised not to give them legitimacy.

Morocco supporters seek to detract from the message of Western Sahara’s territorial sovereignty by, for instance, likening it to the failed Caprivi secession movement. Beware of such arguments.

Let us all play our role in assisting those citizens of the world who reside in conflict zones in the same manner the international community assisted us in our own quest for independence and self-rule less than 30 years ago.

• Vitalio Angula is a socio-political commentator and independent columnist. He was part of the Namibian delegation to the SADC solidarity conference with Western Sahara. He writes in his personal capacity, and not on behalf of the Namibian government.

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