<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp4e83bc00yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span>L.S.,</span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><div><span><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> zojuist werd ik aangenaam verrast door<span> 'The Moroccan wall in the Western Sahara' met kaartje over de muur door West Sahara op p. 27-28 in 'n gloednieuw rapport over alle muren op Aarde<span><span><span> -met<span><span><span><span><span><span> co-auteur</span></span></span></span></span></span> Mark Akkerman van Stop Wapenhandel</span></span></span>- <a shape="rect" href="https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/informe46_walledwolrd_centredelas_tni_stopwapenhandel_stopthewall_eng_def.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/informe46_walledwolrd_centredelas_tni_stopwapenhandel_stopthewall_eng_def.pdf</a>. </span><span></span> V<span><span>oor geïnteresseerden</span></span> kopieer ik betreffende<span><span><span> paragraaf 2.3.5</span></span></span> <span>geschreven door Benjamin Ladraa en</span><span> Sidahmed Jouly van Solidarity Rising</span>.<span></span></div></span></div></div><div class="ydp4e83bc00signature"><div style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><div> Vrede en alle goeds, ir Sjors/G.L.J. Beenker</div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><div><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">After its invasion of Western Sahara in 1975, Moroc</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">can forces faced fierce resistance from the Polisario </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">Front and late 1970s were marked by intense fight</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">ing between them. Despite their superior numbers </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">and military power, the Moroccan armed forces </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">suffered many defeats at the hands of Saharawis, </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">who were more familiar with the territory (Remove </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">the wall, n.d.). After their defeat, with advice from </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">French and Israeli military strategists, Morocco </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">adopted a ‘clear-and-hold’ strategy based on build</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">ing well-defended barriers, or berms, known collo</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">quially as ‘the Berm’, ‘the Wall’, and to Saharawis as </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">‘the Wall of Shame’ (Jensen, 2013). They were put up </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">in six phases, each of which expanded the territory </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">occupied by the Moroccan army. Between August </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">1981 and April 1987, six walls of different lengths </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">were built, fortifying about 2,720 km, extending </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">from southern Morocco to the south-west tip of </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">Western Sahara (see annexed map). It is considered to be </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">‘the greatest functional military barrier in the world’ </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">(Zunes and Mundy, 2010: 21), and is manned by an </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Moroccan forces. The </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">World Bank acknowledged that 60% of Morocco’s </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">war costs were covered by loans and grants, with </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">an annual contribution from Saudi Arabia of about </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">US$ 500–1,000 million. This money funded Moroc</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">co’s war efforts and in 1991 the loans were written </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">off. Morocco’s military equipment came mainly </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">from France and the US, which provided ‘about two </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">thirds of’ Morocco’s arms (Mundy, 2009: 223). The </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">Moroccan wall in Western Sahara is also surround</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">ed by 9 million land mines (Crowder, 2014), making </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">it one of the world’s most heavily mined territories </span><span style="font-size:11.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">28</span><span style="font-size:11.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">A WALLED WORLD: TOWARDS A GLOBAL APARTHEID </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">(UNMAS, n.d.). This endangers the lives of the local </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">population and their livestock and blocks safe ac</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">cess to arable land and water sources. According to </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">the Landmine Monitor, more than 2,500 people in </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">Western Sahara have been victims of anti-personnel </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) since </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">1975 (Geneva call, n.d.). In economic terms, the Mo</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">roccan wall also represents a giant barrier behind </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">which Morocco persists in its systematic plundering </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">of the natural resources of the territory (phosphate, </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">fisheries, minerals, agriculture, etc). This provides </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">employment for the vast majority of Moroccan set</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">tlers and deprives the Saharawis of their resources </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">and employment opportunities. Saharawi citizens </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">who live under occupation suffer marginalisation </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">and deprivation of their basic socio-economic rights </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">(Remove the wall, n.d.). The wall has also destroyed </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">archaeological sites due to the excessive extraction </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">of soil during its construction (Brooks, 2007).</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"> Neither the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">nor the Security Council have issued resolutions re</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">garding the wall in Western Sahara. The ICJ, however, </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">in its 2004 advisory opinion regarding Israel’s wall in </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">occupied Palestine, provided an important precedent </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">since both the Israeli and Moroccan walls are built on </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">occupied territory (UN, n.d.). One of the arguments </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">the court used in the case of Palestine was that the </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">wall created a </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">fait accompli</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"> on the grounds that it </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">could become permanent and tantamount to a </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">de </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">facto</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"> annexation. Morocco has continuously made </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">clear its intentions to annex all of Western Sahara </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">and, like Israel, has moved considerable numbers of </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">civilian settlers into the territories it occupies (Mundy, </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">2012). Furthermore, the ICJ also argued that the wall </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">in Israel severely impedes the Palestinian people’s </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">right to self-determination (ICJ, n.d.). It can equally </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">be argued that the wall in Western Sahara is both a </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">fait accompli</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"> that serves to entrench the occupation </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">and to enable the future annexation of the territory. </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">It is also a severe impediment to the Saharawi peo</span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">ple’s right to self-determination as stipulated in the </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">1960 UNGA Resolution 1514, or Declaration on the </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">Granting of Independence to Colonial countries and </span><span style="font-size:16.6667px;font-family:sans-serif;">Peoples.</span></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>