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Africa North

Algeria, Morocco Trade Insults over Western Sahara

2013-10-30

[An Nahar] Algeria on Tuesday branded as unacceptable comments published by official Moroccan media in response to criticism of its human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
policy in Western Sahara, in the latest barbed exchange between Rabat and Algiers.

The insults by the North African arch-rivals come ahead of a report to be presented to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday by special envoy Christopher Ross, who visited the region this month.

In a speech read on his behalf by the justice minister, Algeria's ailing President Abdelaziz

Bouteflika
... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term, who will probably die in office of old age...
said an international mechanism to monitor human rights in the disputed territory was needed "more than ever."

Bouteflika referred to what he called "the massive and systematic human rights violations that take place inside the occupied territories to suppress the peaceful struggle" of the Sahrawis for freedom of expression and association.

Posted by:Fred

#3 Demographics of Western Sahara

Morocco built several empty towns in Western Sahara, ready for Refugees coming back from Tindouf

The indigenous population of Western Sahara is usually known in Western media as Sahrawis. But they are also referred to in Morocco as "Southerners" or "Southern Berbers". They are Hassaniya-speaking or Berber-speaking tribes of Berber origin. Many of them have mixed Berber-Arab heritage, effectively continuations of the tribal groupings of Hassaniya-speaking and Zenaga-Berber speaking Moorish tribes extending south into Mauritania and north into Morocco as well as east into Algeria. The Sahrawis are traditionally nomadic bedouins with a life style very similar to that of the Tuareg Berbers from whom Sahrawis most likely have descended, and they can be found in all surrounding countries. War and conflict has led to major population displacement.

As of July 2004, an estimated 267,405 people (excluding about 160,000 Moroccan military personnel) lived in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara. Many people from parts of Morocco have come to live in the territory, and these latest arrivals are today thought to outnumber the indigenous Western Sahara Sahrawis. The precise size and composition of the population is subject to political controversy.

The Polisario-controlled parts of Western Sahara are barren. This area has a very small population, estimated to be approximately 30,000 in 2008. The population is primarily made up of nomads who engage in herding camels back and forth between the Tindouf area and Mauritania. However, the presence of mines scattered throughout the territory by the Moroccan army makes it a dangerous way of life.

Posted by: 3dc 2013-10-30 07:28

Posted by: 3dc 2013-10-30 07:17

#1 They have been doing this since the early 70s

Posted by: 3dc 2013-10-30 07:12

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