6 Responses to “Cheers and jeers”

1. rachma Says:
   March 14th, 2007 at 7:17 pm

   Your comment about the western sahara is based on a not very objective website. Western sahara is and will allways be a part of morocco. Once we had to give it away to spain but now it,s back in our hands. There always will be people demanding their own state, kurs in turkey and iraq ffor example.

2. taamarbuuta Says:
   March 14th, 2007 at 7:24 pm

   I wouldn’t exactly call your perspective “objective” either. Prior to the arrival of the Arabs in the Maghreb, it was Berber land - didn’t Arabs take the land from them? Morocco was not Morocco until the arrival of the Arabs - who are you to say it belongs to Morocco?

   And frankly, I support such people who “demand their own state.” If the people living in a particular place want that freedom from an oppressing government, then why aren’t they entitled to fighting for it? South Ossetia, Kurdistan, Western Sahara, Chechnya! Look at Chechnya - the Muslims who’ve lived there for centuries, in Russia, want their own country - they’re oppressed by the Russian government - don’t they deserve it? And if so, what makes that any different from the Western Sahara?

3. rachma Says:
   March 14th, 2007 at 7:37 pm

   Yes and the cowboys took land from the native americans / indians; yeah you can always use this silly argument if you want to.

   Actually i don’t belief that the muslims in russia deserve their own country because they lived there for centuries. The problem with the western sahara is all caused by spain’s colonisatian (and france). Fact is that the sahara is now part of morocco, the majority of the people are moroccans and i do’nt think that they feel so oppressed by the moroccan government, as you suggest.

4. Nick Brooks Says:
   March 14th, 2007 at 11:42 pm

   Taamarbuuta - thanks for the cheer. Rachma, I’m responsible for the “not very objective website” in question. I make no secret of my support for the Sahrawi cause, but I do try and present the situation accurately. You say Western Sahara is part of Morocco. In truth Morocco has annexed part of Western Sahara, but not all of it - it is a non-self governing territory subject to conflicting claims, and is actually partitioned. I regularly visit Western Sahara, and have to get to the area in which I work via Algeria as it is inaccessible from Morocco. While there I work with the local authorities, who are the Polisario - the self-proclaimed government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The exiled Sahrawi and the Polisario believe in the reality of the SADR as much as you believe in the reality of Western Sahara as part of Morocco. In actual reality Western Sahara is partly controlled by Morocco, and partly by the Sahrawi, and has no official status as belonging to either side, however much either side insists of their ownership. That is why I can visit part of it freely, even though I am sure I am no longer welcome in Morocco as a result of my work with the Polisario. As long as I can visit the Polisario-run zone in which there is no Moroccan presence, and from which Morocco is excluded by a ceasefire agreement monitored by international observers, perhaps you will forgive me for not taking very seriously the Moroccan claim to own, or control all of partitioned Western Sahara.

   Taamarbuuta - very courageous of you to link to my site and continue to speak out on this and other issues. If nothing else this means you run the risk of your website being censored by the authorities. Keep up the good work though. All the best. Nick

5. taamarbuuta Says:
   March 15th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

   Rachma, come back down to earth. There are plenty of Moroccans in Morocco - native Amazigh - who would like their own country!

   What makes the Saharawis Moroccan? Because the government gave them Moroccan nationality?

   I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go with Nick’s points here - he obviously has more knowledge on the subject than I do, but his statements also back what I know.

6. rachma Says:
   March 15th, 2007 at 5:27 pm

   “Prior to the arrival of the Arabs in the Maghreb, it was Berber land - didn’t Arabs take the land from them?” and “There are plenty of Moroccans in Morocco - native Amazigh - who would like their own country!”

   Apparently you’ve got some ideas of berber nationalism. Well as a native Amazigh i can tell you that your attempt of dividing the moroccan population into berber and arab is useless, for there is no really an (100%)arab population in morocco. Besides most moroccans don’t consider themselves primarly berber or arab, but, this may come as a surprise to you, moroccan. So maybe it’s you who has to come down to earth / moroccan ground.

   By the way there are also a lot of saharawis living in the southern province of morocco who consider themselves moroccans.

   As you named your blog the morocco report, why don’t you report about the hundreds and hundreds moroccans kept in camps by the polisario, tortured and threated like animals. Some of them for more than 20 years. And why don’t you report about the couple of thousand landmiles, planted by the polisario - by some considered as a terroristic organisation - which have just recently killed three moroccans, one of them a young child. Why don’t you create a link and report about that? Well obviously that wouldn’t fit in your idea of victimizing the saharawis.

   Jeers to your so called morocco report!

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