[The Polisario Front was formed in May 1974…]

Scan page 9

The Polisario Front was formed in May 1974 to fight Spanish colonial rule in the Nestern Sahara. In February 1976, when Morocco and Mauritania took over the role of imperialist aggressors, the Saharan Democratic Arab Republic was declared in opposition Since then, the Polisario has continued the war for the independence of the Saharoui people against the occupation armies, which have been unable to subdue this resistance, despite the forceful military support of the French state.

The war has in turn provoked a major crisis within Mauritania and increasing problems for the reactionary monarchy in Morocco. Almost the only concrete support for this liberation struggle comes from Algeria, where the bonapartist regime is making clearer its eagerness to be rid of this cumberso me commitment.

We print below the text of a statement issued by Aini Sayed (from the Political Bureau of the Polisario Front) and translated from Le Monde 23 June.

We hold no brief for the political methods of the Polisario Front, where naivety is principled demands. But support determination, and the demand that all imperialist troops be withdrawn from the Sahara. It is the revolutionary duty of the international working class to fight in solidarity with this call as one battle in its struggle for socialist revolution. to this enforced partition.

The fresh outbreak of French military interventions in Africa shows no signs of being random or unprepared. Troops had been kept ready on a state of alert, and were plainly equipped for the tasks which lay before them; local co-operation had been perfectly co-ordinated; the campaign of propaganda and publicity at once gushed out in full spate.

Cuaruthing indicatac that the events themselves are only the end-product of a thoroughly organised project which we are now confronting.

There can be no doubt that this project is bigger than France (see the recent conference of the five western countries on Africa). But Paris is marked out by its high degree of activity and. its lack of caution.

• After some 20 years of thriving neo-colonialism, Africa began to stir again. Those countries least allied with the West, threatened to break out of the conditions of isolation that WIL and had been duly imposed on them. And then the Portuguese colonies seized their independence within a few months of each other. It was the whole neo-capitalist stability of the continent that had been changed-not to the profit of somé foreign power, but as a gain for all • the peoples of Africa.

Political blocs

That was barely four years ago. Since then the French state, anxious for its African game reserve, has been busy drawing up the general plans for a new display of energy.

The plan is to impose on Africa a division into political biocs. Our continent has escaped this fate until now, preserving some form of unity within the framework of the OAU, and the very strong resistance-even in the least revolutionary countries-means that this policy can only slowly be put into effect.

But several actions, that have had highly dramatic consequences for the peoples concerned, show that this scheme is now being put into operation-the first, FrenchMoroccan war in Shaba; the Senegalese complicity in the French attacks against the Sahara and even against Chad; the second war in Shaba with the arrival of Moroccan troops...

It is in this way that the cold war will find its new battlefield in Africa, with the probable outcome that we saw in south-east Asia.

Pretences

These policies are a danger To peace, and harmful to the interests of the peoples of the world. We take them up for what they truly represent.

These policies are hidden behind a panoply of pretexts and pretences. If France is 'constrained' to intervene here or there, it is-says Francewith a humanitarian aim, to save French nationals. Or again to respect the co-operation agreements concerning the security of an allied country. Or yet again, to protect Africa from a foreign invasion and to defend 'liberty' in the continent.

All these arguments don't convince us at all. However, in the eyes of some people they can give a semblance of legitimacy to some actions. But how can there be even a semblance of legitimacy in bombarding a small peopie like the Saharoui people, and arming their aggressors from Morocco and Mauritania?

'Legitimate

Take the example of Chad, where there is-formaily-a 'legitimate' government which has the 'right to appeal to its friends. But in the Western. Sahara, what is the legitimate authority, or even quite simply the legal authority, which could appeal for foreign intervention?

The most recent legal power was that of the UN, since our territory was under international jurisdiction at the time of the armed invasion by Morocco and Mauritania. And the only legitimate power is that of the Saharoui people itself, through the representatives which it gave itself: the Polisario Front and the government of the Saharoui Arab Democratic Republic. Neither the UN, nor the Polisario Front could have appealed to the French army to bomb Saharoui civilians and fighters! No, it is neighbouring Morocco and Mauritania who have made this call. Yet these two countries are the aggressors of our people, who have violated our frontiers since 1975 although here in France they try to cover up these facts with every means at their disposal.

Aggression

And it is in a state of legitimate defence that the fighters of the Polisario Front are going to carry the war back into the homelands of their aggressors.

France therefore cannot hide the fact that in intervening to rescue these two countries, France is participating directly in the aggression against the Saharoui people, and in the carving-up of their land.

over, it hea isible to justire the French intervention by putting forward humanitarian grounds-the rescue of a few hundred Europeans...

But in the Sahara? Once the French elections were over, the Jaguars and Breguet-Atlantiques bombed on several occasions in the very heart of the Western Sahara, hundreds of kilometres from any place where there are supposed to be French nationals.

On May 4 and 5 it was the Jaguars, and lastly on June 4 the Breguet-Atlantiques which intervened at the demand of the Moroccan general staff, because the monarchist troops had been placed in difficulties by our fighters.

No alibi Yes, there is a war in our country-the war of liberation which the Saharoui people are fighting against the MoroccoMauritanian invasion. But where then are these French who need saving?

Further, nobody will dare to claim that there are. Cubans, Algerians, or Vietnamese or representatives of some foreign power in the Sahara. Our enemies, and the whole continent, know full well that it is our people who are fighting, and them alone.

So what could (apparently) hold good for Shaba or Chad, does not in any case apply to the Sahara. There is neither justification nor any possible alibi . for the. French intervention in our country.

The culpable silence of the media on this subject is significant. Moreover on May 21, 22 and 23, several dozen women and children were still in detention, having been seized at El-Ayoun. Their names: are added to the hundreds of others who have never been seen again.

Who dares to talk about it? The Saharout people are fighting so that their internationally recognised right to self-determination and to independence shall be respected. For the problem of the Sahara remains problem of decolonisation.

Do we need to point to the fact that the UN and the OAU are still discussing the question?

Is it not an item on the agenda of the next ordinary OAU summit at Khartoum? At its last meeting in Havana, hasn't the bureau of non-aligned countries confirmed its support for the right of the Saharoui people to seif-determination and to independence, without any foreign interference?

The international community has very great responsibility for the guarantee of our people's rights. Yet by its policy of intervention

Polisario Front fighters

directed against the popular liberation army and the Saharoui civilians, France shamelessly turns its back on these commitments.

Not only does France deny its own principles (France has voted for every resolution stipulating our right to self determination), but also obstructs the contribution that international processes of justice could make to a just and lasting solution based on the right of peoples to settle their own fate.

Plot

Even more France has laid an enormous threat against the peace and stability of the whole region. A foreign intervention like that by France creates the danger of accelerating the internationalisation of the conflict, which has been avoided until now.

It is no longer possible to conceal the gravity of the very real plot against our people, against the peoples of Africa. The democratic forces in France must, more firmly than ever before, declare themselves against this policy of domination and genocide, without forgetting that this same policy also damages the interests of the French people. If they have to pay the cost of the war, the French President Giscard gains of the plunder will not be for them, and day by day their liberties are worn away. This shows how true it is that you cannot let your government oppress other peoples without suffering in turn.

We declare to the whole world that the Saharoui people, once sovereign within their frontiers, will not threaten the interests of any other country, and that they intend to work towards their ideal of forming a base for friendship and cooperation between all peoples.

See article on on page 2.

Scan page 10

INDSTRIAL NEWS NHS