Sahrawi Movement for Peace Condemns Polisario's Failed Strategy
Doha – In an unsparing appeal to Sahrawi leadership, the Sahrawi Movement for Peace (MSP) has issued an open letter denouncing the Polisario Front's disastrous policies and urging immediate dialogue amidst catastrophic conditions in Tindouf refugee camps and suffocating international isolation.
The letter, published on June 4, from Madrid, directly confronts the Sahrawi elite, demanding honest debate about the movement's future. 'We are at a turning point where we must decide if we persist in a dead-end path or seek realistic, viable and just solutions,' the MSP declared.
The organization blasts the Polisario Front's unilateral resumption of war in November 2020 as an irredeemable error and a catastrophic misstep with 'predictable but devastating consequences.'
According to the letter, Moroccan drones have established overwhelming military supremacy, decimating Polisario positions and shattering the 'status quo' established in 1991.
The MSP exposes the Polisario's growing diplomatic irrelevance, stating that 'many countries have frozen their relations with the 'Sahrawi Republic'' while an increasing number of countries support Morocco's autonomy proposal as 'the most serious and credible' solution.
Morocco is no longer merely navigating the Western Sahara file — it is dictating its terms. With the United Kingdom becoming the latest heavyweight to endorse Rabat's Autonomy Plan, alongside the United States, France, Spain, and nearly 120 countries, the tide has unmistakably turned.
What began as a misguided separatist project, driven by obsolete ideology and regional agendas, has now collapsed under the weight of reality — giving way to a geopolitical landslide in Morocco's favor.
'The living conditions are deteriorating rapidly: shortages, insecurity, frustration. Despair has taken hold in the collective mind,' the MSP writes about the dire situation in the Tindouf camps.
The movement's blistering critique comes after they condemned the Algerian regime in April following what they described as 'the cold-blooded murder of two young Sahrawis by Algerian soldiers' in the Dajla refugee camp.
'These atrocities are not isolated incidents. The Sahrawis living in the camps are victims of frequent shootings, intimidations and violent repressions by Algerian forces,' the MSP thundered in an urgent communiqué to the United Nations and MINURSO.
This incident occurred shortly after Algerian troops reportedly gunned down Sid Ahmed Belali and wounded nine others near the Gara Djebilet mine, with three victims clinging to life in critical condition.
A seat at the table
Positioning itself as a credible alternative to the flailing and increasingly obsolete Polisario Front, the MSP is demanding a seat at the table in the UN-led political process on Western Sahara. The movement describes itself as 'the true voice for an important part of the Sahrawi population that aspires to a negotiated political solution.'
American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin has reinforced this stance, urging the United Nations to strip recognition from the Polisario Front as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people. In an April 7 analysis, Rubin condemned the Polisario as 'a vestige of the Cold War' that 'holds wives and children as hostages to prevent refugee resettlement.'
'The Sahrawi Movement for Peace not only rejects violence but also seeks consensus across broad segments of the Sahrawi population,' Rubin wrote, noting the movement has secured recognition from Socialist International and growing support from the Spanish government.
The MSP, first embraced Morocco's autonomy proposal in its 2022 Canary Islands Manifesto, reconvened recently at the same location to produce a second manifesto calling on 'the UN Secretary-General to persuade his Personal Envoy to invite and include the Sahrawis for Peace Movement as a fully recognized interlocutor in the political process.'
In their scorching letter, the MSP warns that failed movements like 'the PKK in Turkey or the FARC in Colombia ended up surrendering unconditionally without achieving their objectives,' while others like 'the Biafran secessionists or the People's Mujahedeen of Iran saw their causes disappear into oblivion, pain, and chaos.'
The MSP implores abandoning the failed armed struggle for 'political options based on political dialogue, in flexible frameworks of coexistence' modeled after 'moderate nationalisms like those of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Basque Country, Catalonia, or Northern Ireland in England.'
'It is time to leave behind divisions, acronyms, labels of 'traitors' or 'loyalists', 'heroes' or 'villains',' the MSP advocates, issuing a grave admonition that 'history will not be lenient with those who, at a crucial moment like this, choose silence or inaction.' Tags: Polisario FrontSahrawi Movement for PeaceWestern sahara
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