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Vice Blog

HEY MEDIA! FUCK YOU

Three weeks ago I had a chat with Zahra Ramdan, President of the NGO Association of Western Saharan Women in Spain, about what was then the largest peaceful protest to take place in North Africa in 35 years. Now, maybe it's just because I was reading Angela Davis's autobiography at the time, but 10,000 Western Sahari's staging a sit in in the desert to protest their treatment at the hands of the Moroccan Government seemed pretty newsworthy to me.

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Having just watched the entire Chilean miner rescue boreathon on BBC World, I figured there'd be no end of intrepid journalists looking for the next Tian'anmen square or Orange Revolution ready to go down there and get involved with shouting "right on" at people in Arabic.

Apparently not. When I brought this up with Zahra, she seemed pretty sure it was because of a total media blackout by the Moroccan authorities. At the time I thought she was just being paranoid, but this morning I heard the news that Moroccan troops stormed the campsite, leaving two policemen dead along with 13 Saharis. More than 70 were injured, and the invasion resulted in major rioting in the neighboring city of Al Aaiun. And there's not a fucking trace of it on any of the major networks outside of Spain. OK maybe I do lean toward the paranoiac side of the personality scale, but are you really telling me that this is less interesting to people than Jenson fucking Button?

Below is the interview I did with Zahra three weeks ago.

Vice: Hi Zahra, can you tell me a bit about your organization?
Zahra: We're an authorized NGO, registered with the Spanish Home Office, made up of women from Western Sahara--from both the occupied zone and the refugee camps. Our main work is to make people aware of the struggle of the Western Sahari people, placing special focus on the important role that Western Sahari women play in our society as an example of emancipation. Although we are an Islamic society, women are highly respected. This differs with their role in Moroccan society. This is one of the things that sets us apart and legitimizes our struggle for Independence.

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Can you set out the main objectives of the protest at Gdeim Izik?
It's a mass exodus into the desert ,15 km outside of the capital of occupied Sahara, Al Aaiun, in protest at the inhuman conditions the Saharan people are subjected to in their own land.

Unfortunately two thirds of my country, Western Sahara, is under armed occupation by Morocco. There are more than 300,000 soldiers stationed here, while the Western Saharan people are less than 20% of the total population. To a certain extent, there are parallels with Israel's policy in Palestine--they want to force the native population out by creating colonies. We're fighting, peacefully, so that international law and UN resolutions are applied. We want a free, transparent, and democratic referendum so the Saharan people are allowed to choose their own destiny--whether to be independent or to be part of Morocco.

I think the camp is the biggest mobilization of people in the history of Morocco. I just received a call from Al Aaiun, and they told me that there's more than 10,000 people there. Imagine that!

Wow. That's a lot of people. How did it start?
It was started by 100 people, and more and more families have joined over the last 10 days. They'll stay there until the problems are solved. We only hope that Morocco doesn't perform an atrocity, a human catastrophe. They're capable of anything.

From here it reminds me of the sit-ins in the 60s. Are the parallels conscious?
Totally. The Western Sahari people want the right to fish in their own waters, the right to work, and the right to live with dignity. In our own country we're treated as second class citizens, while the occupying forces benefit from our natural resources.

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What's been the Moroccan Government's reaction so far ?
From what we can tell they've declined to comment. The Moroccan media works with the government of course, and so far only one side of the story has come out.

I was just looking online, and I haven't been able to find anything about the campsite in the international press….
Morocco orchestrates a media blackout. They do whatever they can to stop the news of what is happening to the Saharan people from getting out. It's the same as any other dictatorship, the same as South Africa.

Is there a strong police presence around the campsite?
Yes. The atmosphere's really tense. They're trying to stop more people arriving, and it's difficult for people to leave.

How long are they willing to stay?
As long as it takes.

So this could go on for months?
I couldn't say…

PAUL GEDDIS