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UNREPORTED WORLD: WESTERN SAHARA
Unreported World travels to a country that officially doesn't exist, where families are divided from their homeland by a vast wall running through the desert and where there are allegations of torture and other human rights abuses: the Western Sahara.
Friday 5 May 2006 7.35pm
Unreported World travels to a country that officially doesn't exist, where families are divided from their homeland by a vast wall running through the desert and where there are allegations of torture and other human rights abuses: the Western Sahara.
Friday 5 May 2006 7.35pm
Reporter Khaled Khazziha begins his journey at the western edge of the Sahara Desert, walking through a minefield towards one of the most dangerous borders in the world. The border is marked by the Berm, a vast wall, 2500 km long and built by Morocco, which divides this disputed area of the Western Sahara into a Moroccan zone and the so-called Liberated Zone.
Morocco took control of the Western Sahara in 1975, following the end of the Spanish occupation. Many of the local Sawahari inhabitants, who had been fighting for independence, fled into an area they called the liberated zone and which is now home to hundreds of thousands of refugees.
They call the zone an independent republic, but it is not recognized by the UN. Unreported World talks to some refugees who have been living here for more than 30 years. They may not have food but they have an army – the Polisario Front.
In the refugee camp Kazziha meets the man who calls himself the President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. He tells Unreported World that those Saharawis left on the Moroccan side of the Berm have been subjected to serious human rights abuses.
Kazziha then travels via Europe to Layounne, capital of Moroccan controlled Western Sahara, to investigate the President’s allegations. When Morocco took control, 350,000 of its citizens descended on the Western Sahara in what they called the Green March. Many of the Saharawis ended up in refugee camps.
The team manages to give their police minders a slip and drive into the Saharawi ghetto in time to witness a pro-independence demonstration, which the security forces break up with water cannon. That night protestors say that forty seven people were arrested, and some beaten.
Khazziha interviews Mohamed Dadaach, an icon of the resistance movement who spent 23 years in prison. Along with other leaders of the movement, he tells Unreported World that there are still secret prisons all over the country in which Sahrawi men and women are being tortured.
Back in Rabat Khazziah interviews historian Abdul Hay Moudden, a member of the government Equity and Reconciliation Commission which was set up to investigate human rights abuses. He admits that there may be some abuses but the situation has improved considerably.
Later, the Moroccan Information Minister tells Unreported World that despite his government agreeing in 1991 to hold a referendum on independence, which has never taken place, the region belongs to Morocco and the government will not accept independence. Like any wedding, there are always some people who are not going to be truly happy he says.
Morocco took control of the Western Sahara in 1975, following the end of the Spanish occupation. Many of the local Sawahari inhabitants, who had been fighting for independence, fled into an area they called the liberated zone and which is now home to hundreds of thousands of refugees.
They call the zone an independent republic, but it is not recognized by the UN. Unreported World talks to some refugees who have been living here for more than 30 years. They may not have food but they have an army – the Polisario Front.
In the refugee camp Kazziha meets the man who calls himself the President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. He tells Unreported World that those Saharawis left on the Moroccan side of the Berm have been subjected to serious human rights abuses.
Kazziha then travels via Europe to Layounne, capital of Moroccan controlled Western Sahara, to investigate the President’s allegations. When Morocco took control, 350,000 of its citizens descended on the Western Sahara in what they called the Green March. Many of the Saharawis ended up in refugee camps.
The team manages to give their police minders a slip and drive into the Saharawi ghetto in time to witness a pro-independence demonstration, which the security forces break up with water cannon. That night protestors say that forty seven people were arrested, and some beaten.
Khazziha interviews Mohamed Dadaach, an icon of the resistance movement who spent 23 years in prison. Along with other leaders of the movement, he tells Unreported World that there are still secret prisons all over the country in which Sahrawi men and women are being tortured.
Back in Rabat Khazziah interviews historian Abdul Hay Moudden, a member of the government Equity and Reconciliation Commission which was set up to investigate human rights abuses. He admits that there may be some abuses but the situation has improved considerably.
Later, the Moroccan Information Minister tells Unreported World that despite his government agreeing in 1991 to hold a referendum on independence, which has never taken place, the region belongs to Morocco and the government will not accept independence. Like any wedding, there are always some people who are not going to be truly happy he says.
