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Africa North

Polisario Chief Warns of Armed Struggle®

2013-05-12

[An Nahar] Polisario Front chief Mohamed Abdelaziz has warned that his movement could take up arms to seek independence from Morocco if the U.N. fails to resolve the Western Sahara conflict, Algeria's APS news agency reported Saturday. "We have believed in the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... , but if it fails to organize a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara to allow the Sahrawi people to recover independence, then we will take up arms to liberate our territory," APS quoted Abdelaziz as saying. Morocco annexed the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975, a move never recognized by the international community. It has proposed broad autonomy under Moroccan illusory sovereignty for the phosphate-rich region. But this is rejected by the Polisario, which first took up arms to fight for an independent state two years before the Spanish withdrawal, and continued its guerrilla war against Morocco until a U.N.-negotiated ceasefire in 1991. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution last month extending the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission for another year but omitting a U.S.-backed plan to task it with human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. monitoring after Morocco lobbied furiously to have the proposal dropped. Abdelaziz, the self-styled Sahrawi president, was speaking at a news conference on the second day of ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Algeria-backed Polisario movement. On Friday he also insisted on the right of Sahrawis to a U.N.-monitored referendum on independence. "It is time for the international community and Morocco to comply with the resolutions of the United Nations so that the Sahrawi people can achieve their right to self-determination," APS quoted him as saying.

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Africa North

Zawahri says Libya Killed Man Who Linked Iraq, Qaeda

2009-10-05

[Asharq al-Aswat] Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri accused Libya of torturing to death a militant whose confession was used to justify the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Libya's state prosecutor said in May that Libyan Ali Mohamed Abdelaziz al Fakhiri, also known as Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, committed suicide while serving a life jail sentence. "A false confession was obtained from him through torture about a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein," Zawahri said in a video posted on an Islamist website. Fakhiri made up the story about a link between Saddam and al Qaeda to avoid torture while in the custody of a third country, according to a 2006 U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report. U.S. human rights groups have said he gave the account to interrogators in Egypt, where he was sent by the United States in January 2002. Fakhiri later recanted, the committee said. He was sent secretly to Libya by the United States in 2006, and Zawahri said al Qaeda would punish the United States for handing him over to Tripoli. "They (Americans) have handed him over to the agents of (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi to continue torturing him and kill him." "You criminals, you murders, you vampires ... your blood will be spilled and your economy will be drained so that you stop your crimes ... We will take revenge for every mujahid, orphan, or Muslim you have killed," said an angry Zawahri in an apparent message to Americans. "Ibn Sheikh is but one of thousands of victims who have been and still are being devoured by the raving American monster," said Zawahri. "He was tortured to death." "Obama, you who talks about human rights; how many secret prisons are there? Where are they located? How many are their victims? How many of them were killed? How many were disabled? What is their fate? To whom were they handed over? Why did you hand them over?" Obama has vowed to close the United States' Guantanamo detention center used to hold suspected terrorists by early 2010. He is also lobbying European allies to accept prisoners who are not seen to pose a security threat but cannot return to their home countries because of a risk of torture. "Why did your administration conspire with the Libyan regime to kill Ibn Sheikh al-Libi?" asked the Egyptian militant. Rights groups had urged Libya to conduct a thorough inquiry into the death of Fakhiri. They say his death shows the risks that many prisoners remaining in the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay could face if they are sent back to their home countries. Zawahri said Fakhiri was tortured in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Libya after his arrest following al Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.

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Africa: North

Polisario leader warns of new war

2005-05-24

Aljazeera has quoted the leader of the Polisario Front fighting for the independence of Moroccan-administered Western Sahara as threatening to resume armed action against the kingdom. Speaking at a ceremony on Saturday marking the 32nd anniversary of the creation of the Polisario Front, its leader Mohamed Abdelaziz said the people of Western Sahara were struggling by all legitimate means, including armed struggle, to gain their rights, Aljazeera reported. "The Sahrawi people cannot remain indefinitely with their arms folded," an Algerian Press Agency report quoted him as saying. Morocco annexed Western Sahara after former colonial ruler Spain pulled out of the large, phosphate-rich desert territory in 1975. The Polisario Front took up arms for independence the following year. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, for his part, congratulated the Polisario on the anniversary and pledged Algiers' continued support for the movement. Bouteflika's statement of support came on the eve of the Arab Maghreb summit, due to be held in Libya, Aljazeera reported, adding that the organisation's functioning has been paralysed in recent years by the deadlock over the Western Sahara dispute. Got the internal conflict wearing down, so maybe a little foreign adventurism will bring the old populace together. I suppose it'll burn off the cream of the domestic Commies, but I'd also guess it'll come back to bit them later...

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Africa: North

W. Sahara Leader in Exile Seeks Peace With Rabat

2004-10-31

The Western Sahara independence movement reserves the right to take up arms against Morocco but for now seeks a peaceful solution to one of Africa's longest-running conflicts, the Polisario Front leader said yesterday. "If our right to self-determination cannot be achieved we have the right to take necessary action ... we are willing to die to defend our rights," Polisario Front President Mohamed Abdelaziz said in an interview at the movement's desert headquarters in southwest Algeria. Morocco along with Mauritania invaded phosphate and fishing rich Western Sahara shortly after colonial power Spain pulled out in 1975, setting off an exodus of the Sahrawi indigenous people to neighboring Algeria. A war between the Polisario Front and Morocco followed until the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991. Mauritania pulled out in 1979. Some 155,000 refugees live in camps near Tindouf, some 2,000 km south of Algiers. They are led by the Polisario Front, the self-proclaimed government in exile. The UN provides aid and monitors the desert area. After more than a decade of UN efforts to secure an agreement over a referendum the issue reached a dead-end last April following Morocco's rejection of the latest plan. The plan would give the territory semi-autonomy for four to five years. A referendum would then let residents pick independence, semi-autonomy or integration with Morocco. Morocco says the proposal put together by former UN envoy and former US Secretary of State James Baker does not respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. "The UN credibility is at stake. They must ensure Morocco changes its position," Abdelaziz said. So things have been droning on for the past dozen years — and that's just since the ceasefire. Damn. That UN is a real force to be reckoned with.

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