Front Polisario Khat al-Shahid
Encyclopedia
Front Polisario Khat al-Shahid (Khat al-Shahid, often w. Spanish
transliteration as Jat Chahid, is Arabic
for Line of the Martyr) is a minor faction within the Front Polisario. It is based in the Sahrawi refugee camp
s of Tindouf
, Algeria
, but also claims to has supporters and members in the Sahrawi diaspora
in Mauritania
, Morocco
, Spain
, France
and various Europe
an countries, as well as in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara
.
The document noted what Khat al-Shahid (until 2005 known as "Front Polisario El Uali") consider the greatest failures of the Polisario Front direction:
The POLISARIO refused to respond or recognize the organization, insisting that differences be solved within the established system. However, there have been no reports of police intervention against members. Its activities at this stage do not seem to go beyond publishing pamphlets against the present Polisario Front leadership, and while it may affect internal Sahrawi politics, it is of minimal or no significance to the Western Sahara
conflict.
Its relation to POLISARIO remains slightly tense. Khat al-Shahid considers itself as a reformist movement inside the Polisario Front, and recognizes it as the only legitimate representative of the Sahrawis, until the end of the conflict. Its Tindouf-based members remain active in the SADR
administration and armed forces.
", referring to El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed
, the first Secretary-General of Polisario, who was killed in action
in Mauritania
1976. It says it wants to restore El-Ouali legacy ("the line of the Martyr").
The movement has no explicit ideology
, apart from seeking Western Sahara's independence
, the essential objective at the foundation of the Polisario Front on May 20, 1973. A typical statement is its communiqué of May 20, 2005 (the 32nd anniversary of Polisario's first strikes against Spanish colonization), where the group demanded the "end to an occupation, and the raising of the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
over the totality of its national territory". However, marking a difference with the POLISARIO, in its statements, the group emphasizes militancy and revolutionary action. It accuses the present leadership of weakness (decrying its "incapacity to bring the struggle against the invader to a close"), of caving in to Moroccan and UN pressures, and of being undemocratic and corrupt.
The Muhammad Abdelaziz leadership is accused of:
Furthermore, Khat Al-Shahid movement has called on the Polisario Front to spare the budget allocated for celebrations of the 31st anniversary of the Sahrawi republic
, and to use it for the benefit of the refugee population. It considers the calls by Abdelaziz to the international community for help as begging. It demanded that persons involved in misuse, traffic, and spoiling of humanitarian aid be judged.
Khat al-Shahid has repeatedly decried the failure of the United Nations
-backed peace process. It accuses the Polisario leadership of "defeatist reasoning" and of caving in to pressures (especially in accepting the Baker Plan
), claiming that it benefits from the political stagnation caused by the cease fire. It stresses the gains made during the war years (1975–91) and claims the Abdelaziz
government has let the Sahrawi army decay during the cease fire, and ignored the plight of veteran
s and war widow
s. It also severely criticizes the UN's Minurso mission for being biased in favor of Morocco. For these reasons, Khat al-Shahid has argued that the guerrilla war against Morocco should resume. There seems to exist significant support for this position in the refugee camps, but it is not known if the Khat al-Shahid has successfully managed to exploit that. Overall, support for the organization seems to remain very small.
, for their "respect of the right of our people to self-determination" and the USA, for "not recognizing the legitimacy of the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara", most likely in a reference to the Moroccan-American Free Trade Agreement, which excluded Moroccan-held Western Sahara from the areas judged to be under Moroccan sovereignty.
The Coordination Commission of Khat al-Shahid first reacted issuing a communiqué explaining that Salek was not the spokesman of the movement, and that the ideas he brought forth in the Tel Quel interview did not represent Khat al-Shahid. It later issued another communiqué, proceededing to expel Salek, saying that he had repeateadly broken the internal rules of the organization, despite from the advisories he had received. It decried what it called the "berserker" media campaigns of the Moroccan regime, and reaffirmed that, even if it seeks reforms of its practices, Khat al-Shahid still considers the Polisario Front to be the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.
Despite his expulsion from Khat al-Shahid, Mahjoub Salek (who resides in Mauritania
) had continued to act as the spokeperson of the movement on different interviews, mostly on Moroccan media, reiterating his declarations in favour of the dialogue with Morocco and against the POLISARIO. This had splitted Khat al-Shahid in two factions, with two different webpages. The official Coordination Commission of Khat al-Shahid had denounced Salek as a puppet of the secret services of the Moroccan regime, that tried to divert the movement. The communiqué stated that Salek's web aint a Khat al-Shahid webpage and its content only concerns Salek, remembered the expulsion of Salek from the movement in 2006 and his posterior acting as spokesman, leader or founder of the movement, despite the expulsion. It also accused Salek of appropriating by theft the name, simbols, programmes of Khat al-Shahid, and of negotiating himself the Moroccan proposal, trying to supplant the Polisario Front. Finally, the communique reiterated that despite the "weakness, incompetence or corruption" of the Polisario Front leadership, Khat al-Shadid remain as a reformist movement within POLISARIO.
In 2011, Mahjoub Salek made a call to the Sahrawi refugees to boycott the XIII POLISARIO General Congress, inviting them to "express their solidarity with the "Libyan revolution" and their firm support to the NTC", criticized the absence of mentions to Libya's situation by the POLISARIO leadership, and reafirming his support to the Moroccan autonomy plan.
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
transliteration as Jat Chahid, is Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
for Line of the Martyr) is a minor faction within the Front Polisario. It is based in the Sahrawi refugee camp
Refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
s of Tindouf
Tindouf
Tindouf is the main town in Tindouf Province, Algeria, close to the Mauritanian and Moroccan borders. The region is considered of strategic significance, and it houses Algerian military bases. Since 1975, it also contains several Sahrawi refugee camps operated by the Polisario Front a guerrilla...
, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, but also claims to has supporters and members in the Sahrawi diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
in Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and various Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries, as well as in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...
.
Creation and relation to the Polisario Front
The organization announced its existence on July 4, 2004, issuing a communiqué named "Call to All the Sahrawi Nationalists". It accused the POLISARIO leadership of "incapacity to confront the invasor" and to "make sucessive concessions in the mark of the Peace Plan", also blaming the UN of the "dismal failure to implement its resolutions", and Morocco of "intransigence, sistematic destruction of the Peace Plan" and "rejecting any hint of a solution out of their sovereignity over Western Sahara".The document noted what Khat al-Shahid (until 2005 known as "Front Polisario El Uali") consider the greatest failures of the Polisario Front direction:
- Use of a fatalist, defensive & negative instead of a brave, offensive & positive one.
- The weakness to the UN & to the enemy by offering this one possibilities to continue with its intransigence.
- The lack of initiative has made us lag behind developments, while in the past, with our sacrifice and the blood of our martyrs, we were the protagonists of these initiatives.
- No positive decision has been made since the cease-fire.
- Lack of political will to include new people from the younger generations of scholars in favor of our national cause.
- The gradual discarding of many individuals, both graduates and combat veterans leaders, protagonists of our national glories.
- Scheduled destruction of military force, even though it is the crucial element in ending the conflict.
- Humiliation of the war victims and families of martyrs, leaving them alone in an uncertain and difficult circumstances.
- The General Popular Congresses have become a piece of theatre, whose objective is the consolidation of the actual leadership in power, and the opposition to any sharing of the management of the affairs of the state and the citizens.
- Fraudulent use by some members of the leadership of their positions of responsibility, for their personal affairs in the absence of any control or inspection.
The POLISARIO refused to respond or recognize the organization, insisting that differences be solved within the established system. However, there have been no reports of police intervention against members. Its activities at this stage do not seem to go beyond publishing pamphlets against the present Polisario Front leadership, and while it may affect internal Sahrawi politics, it is of minimal or no significance to the Western Sahara
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...
conflict.
Its relation to POLISARIO remains slightly tense. Khat al-Shahid considers itself as a reformist movement inside the Polisario Front, and recognizes it as the only legitimate representative of the Sahrawis, until the end of the conflict. Its Tindouf-based members remain active in the SADR
Sadr
Sadr may refer to:*Gamma Cygni, a star.*Sadr City, a neighbourhood in northeastern Baghdad.*Sadr, a family name originating in Lebanon.*Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic , the government-in-exile of the Polisario Front....
administration and armed forces.
Politics and ideology
The Khat al-Shahid uses the slogan "No hero but the people, no leader but the martyrMartyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
", referring to El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed
El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed
El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed was a Sahrawi nationalist leader, co-founder and second Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, & also the first President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic....
, the first Secretary-General of Polisario, who was killed in action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
in Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
1976. It says it wants to restore El-Ouali legacy ("the line of the Martyr").
The movement has no explicit ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
, apart from seeking Western Sahara's independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
, the essential objective at the foundation of the Polisario Front on May 20, 1973. A typical statement is its communiqué of May 20, 2005 (the 32nd anniversary of Polisario's first strikes against Spanish colonization), where the group demanded the "end to an occupation, and the raising of the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a partially recognised state that claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976, in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. The SADR government controls about...
over the totality of its national territory". However, marking a difference with the POLISARIO, in its statements, the group emphasizes militancy and revolutionary action. It accuses the present leadership of weakness (decrying its "incapacity to bring the struggle against the invader to a close"), of caving in to Moroccan and UN pressures, and of being undemocratic and corrupt.
The Muhammad Abdelaziz leadership is accused of:
- "propagating corruptionPolitical corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, clientelismClientelismClientelism is a term used to describe a political system at the heart of which is an assyemtric relationship between groups of political actors described as patrons and clients...
, tribalismTribalismThe social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but, due to the small size of tribes, it is always a relatively simple role structure, with few significant social distinctions between individuals....
, and for bargaining with the sufferings of the Sahrawi people and the martyrMartyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s' blood". - having no strategies to face the international developments.
- being unable to conduct internal reforms.
- having no contact with the population in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara, and with mediatically expoliting their "intifadaIndependence IntifadaThe Independence Intifada is a Saharawi Polisario activist coinage for a series of disturbances, demonstrations and riots that broke out in May 2005 in the Moroccan-held parts of Western Sahara. This event has also been called "The El-Aaiun Intifada" by the same sources...
". - for refusing to hold the national congress demanded by Khat al-Shahid, where the Polisario leadership would be held to accountability for its policy, seeing this as a sign of the undemocratic leadership of the Polisario Front.
Furthermore, Khat Al-Shahid movement has called on the Polisario Front to spare the budget allocated for celebrations of the 31st anniversary of the Sahrawi republic
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a partially recognised state that claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976, in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. The SADR government controls about...
, and to use it for the benefit of the refugee population. It considers the calls by Abdelaziz to the international community for help as begging. It demanded that persons involved in misuse, traffic, and spoiling of humanitarian aid be judged.
Khat al-Shahid has repeatedly decried the failure of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
-backed peace process. It accuses the Polisario leadership of "defeatist reasoning" and of caving in to pressures (especially in accepting the Baker Plan
Baker Plan
The Baker Plan is a United Nations initiative to grant self-determination to Western Sahara...
), claiming that it benefits from the political stagnation caused by the cease fire. It stresses the gains made during the war years (1975–91) and claims the Abdelaziz
Mohamed Abdelaziz
Mohamed Abdelaziz is the 3rd and current Secretary General of the Polisario Front and President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic since 1976...
government has let the Sahrawi army decay during the cease fire, and ignored the plight of veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
s and war widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
s. It also severely criticizes the UN's Minurso mission for being biased in favor of Morocco. For these reasons, Khat al-Shahid has argued that the guerrilla war against Morocco should resume. There seems to exist significant support for this position in the refugee camps, but it is not known if the Khat al-Shahid has successfully managed to exploit that. Overall, support for the organization seems to remain very small.
International connections
Supporters of the present POLISARIO leadership have accused Khat al-Shahid of working for, or being exploited by, the Moroccan government. In a statement on August 28, 2004, the movement hailed the position of "the peoples and government of Algeria" for their "unconditional support to our people in its fair fight", the Moroccan political movement Annahj AddimocratiAnnahj Addimocrati
Annahj Addimocrati in Arabic) is a Marxist political movement officially recognized in Morocco. Constituted in 1995, it is the successor to the Marxist-Leninist Moroccan Movement and principally the organization "Ila Al Amame" , which militated clandestinely.The MMLM, born at the beginning of the...
, for their "respect of the right of our people to self-determination" and the USA, for "not recognizing the legitimacy of the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara", most likely in a reference to the Moroccan-American Free Trade Agreement, which excluded Moroccan-held Western Sahara from the areas judged to be under Moroccan sovereignty.
Mahjoub Salek affair
In 2006, at an interview with the Moroccan weekly TelQuel, the supposed Khat al-Shahid leader, Mahjoub Salek, declared that negotiations were the only way to resolve the conflict, and that all it needs was a signal from King Mohamed VI. He further called on the Moroccan king Mohamed VI to open the doors of his palace to Sahrawis and listen to them, to end the conflict.The Coordination Commission of Khat al-Shahid first reacted issuing a communiqué explaining that Salek was not the spokesman of the movement, and that the ideas he brought forth in the Tel Quel interview did not represent Khat al-Shahid. It later issued another communiqué, proceededing to expel Salek, saying that he had repeateadly broken the internal rules of the organization, despite from the advisories he had received. It decried what it called the "berserker" media campaigns of the Moroccan regime, and reaffirmed that, even if it seeks reforms of its practices, Khat al-Shahid still considers the Polisario Front to be the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.
Despite his expulsion from Khat al-Shahid, Mahjoub Salek (who resides in Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
) had continued to act as the spokeperson of the movement on different interviews, mostly on Moroccan media, reiterating his declarations in favour of the dialogue with Morocco and against the POLISARIO. This had splitted Khat al-Shahid in two factions, with two different webpages. The official Coordination Commission of Khat al-Shahid had denounced Salek as a puppet of the secret services of the Moroccan regime, that tried to divert the movement. The communiqué stated that Salek's web aint a Khat al-Shahid webpage and its content only concerns Salek, remembered the expulsion of Salek from the movement in 2006 and his posterior acting as spokesman, leader or founder of the movement, despite the expulsion. It also accused Salek of appropriating by theft the name, simbols, programmes of Khat al-Shahid, and of negotiating himself the Moroccan proposal, trying to supplant the Polisario Front. Finally, the communique reiterated that despite the "weakness, incompetence or corruption" of the Polisario Front leadership, Khat al-Shadid remain as a reformist movement within POLISARIO.
In 2011, Mahjoub Salek made a call to the Sahrawi refugees to boycott the XIII POLISARIO General Congress, inviting them to "express their solidarity with the "Libyan revolution" and their firm support to the NTC", criticized the absence of mentions to Libya's situation by the POLISARIO leadership, and reafirming his support to the Moroccan autonomy plan.
See also
- Polisario FrontPolisario FrontThe POLISARIO, Polisario Front, or Frente Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro is a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement working for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco...
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic RepublicSahrawi Arab Democratic RepublicThe Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a partially recognised state that claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976, in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. The SADR government controls about...
- Politics of Western SaharaPolitics of Western SaharaThe politics of Western Sahara take place in a framework of an area claimed by both the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the Kingdom of Morocco, which controls the majority of the territory....
- Baker PlanBaker PlanThe Baker Plan is a United Nations initiative to grant self-determination to Western Sahara...