By Owei Lakemfa

THE first and only time I met Mahfoud Ali Beiba a veteran of the continent’s liberation wars was in December 2009. As a twenty-year old in 1973, he and some youths led by his friend, El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed had founded the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Saguia El Hamra And Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) to fight for the independence of their country, Western Sahara from the colonial grip of Spain. Sayed was the General Secretary of the movement and Beiba his deputy.

They had taken to armed struggle in the manner of their neighbour, Algeria that had to fight a bloody war of liberation against French colonialism. POLISARIO stood in good stead; the United Nations (UN) had in 1964 voted for self determination by the Sahrawis and the Organisation Of African Unity (OAU) had voted in same vein two years later. Again, colonialism had become old fashioned and wars of liberation were being fought courageously in countries like Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Namibia, Zimbabwe and of course, South Africa.

Within two years, Spain had agreed to end its rule but tragically, rather than allow independence as was done in other colonies, it decided to hand over Western Sahara as a war booty to be shared by two of its neighbours; Morocco and Mauritania. The POLISARIO had to embark on a second war of liberation. In an audacious military move, its leader, Sayed led a POLISARIO commando through the desert, driving across Mauritanian cities to attack its capital, Nouakchott in the south. Some of these courageous POLISARIO fighters, including Sayed, did not return alive. Beiba immediately took over the leadership of the new emergent nation and steered it for two months before the General Popular Congress of the POLISARIO met and elected incumbent president, Mohammed Abdelaziz.

Beiba was the Interior and Justice Minister credited with building the foundations of the judicial system of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) He was twice the country’s Prime Minister and when we met about seven months ago, had been the Speaker of the National Assembly(the Sahrawi National Council) since 2003. He had also from 1997 been the chair of all the country’s delegations to negotiations with the Moroccan occupiers under the auspices of the UN.

I was aware of some of his rich history when with my fellow compatriot, Nuhu Abbayo Toro we met him for discussions. He was gentle, and wanted to know more about Nigeria. Part of his plan was to come out here to meet the Nigerian National Assembly and its leadership. He told me that Africa is like a person with Algeria as the upper part, Nigeria as the middle and South Africa as the lower. He argued that if the threesome who incidentally are also the most powerful supporters of the Sahrawi cause, work together, they would move the continent. Taking a broad look at Africa and the Sahrawi struggle for independence, he concluded that “Anglophone countries are usually more principled on issues than the Francophone”. The African Union (AU), he said, has also been quite decisive on issues such as the total decolonization of Africa.

I asked him about the situation in his country. He said the occupation by Morocco, a sister African country had divided the people into three parts: those living under direct Moroccan colonial rule, Sahrawis in the territories liberated by the POLISARIO, and those in the refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. He seemed weary as he spoke. ”The issue of Western Sahara was created long ago and a new generation has arisen; there is a new generation influenced by globalisation; so we have to work hard”. The problem, he said, is that the UN-supervised negotiations have gone on for too long making many Sahrawis live in the refugee camps for decades while Morocco brutalizes and detains the people in the occupied territories. “But with the dynamics created by the Aminatu Haidar case, many big players want the negotiations concluded”. (Morocco which had denied Haidar return to her home in the occupied territories and exiled her to Spain, was forced by the international community to back down). He said Morocco had
taken part in negotiations only due to pressures by the international community and had tried to bog them down, “thinking that the Sahrawis will get weakened and the international community will get fatigued. So they (Moroccans) think they have time on their hands. Moroccans claim that 80 per cent Sahrawis support merger with their country, if it is so, why do they not allow the referendum on the future of Western Sahara to take place? They pretend to be democratic, but see what they are doing to Sahrawi human rights activists. My conclusion is that if this phase we are going through does not archive results, the international community needs to deal with Morocco using sanctions as was used against apartheid South Africa”.

Talking to a lot of young Sahrawis, I realised that many had become impatient with the peace negotiations. Some even want a resumption of war. I put this to the war veteran as the chair of negotiations. He thinks the youth agitations are justified. “The leadership has problem with public opinion. We spent 16 years at war with Morocco, signed a peace pact because we had faith in the United Nations. Now it has been 18 years of fruitless negotiations. We feel tired and the UN ties our hands; negotiation is not an end in itself, we need something tangible. In the occupied territories, we tell the people to resist peacefully, yet the Moroccan security forces are using violence against them; it is difficult to ask the people to be peaceful under such circumstances”.

Last Friday, July 2, 2010, Beiba suffered a heart attack at his February 27th Camp in the refugee camps. This great son of Africa and consummate fighter for freedom spent most of his life fighting for the total liberation of Africa. It was an historical honour to have met him.