The Polisario Front (a Spanish acronym for the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro”) was formed in 1973 as an independence movement against the Spanish colonization in the Sahara. After Spain relinquished the territory, the Polisario Front radically changed its mission and became a separatist group seeking to challenge Morocco’s long-standing ties of sovereignty over the territory. For more than 30 years, the Polisario Front has held thousands of Sahrawi refugees (natives of the disputed Saharan territory) hostage in refugee camps located in Tindouf, southern Algeria.
The Secretary General of the Polisario Front is Mohammed Abdelaziz and due to the democratic limitations imposed by the Polisario Front in the territory, he has also remained the “elected” president of the sparsely recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic since 1976. Mohammed Abdelaziz and a small, select group of cadres exclusively control the Tindouf refugee camps. Today, Algeria is the primary financial, political and military supporter of the Polisario Front. Though Libya and countries of the former Soviet Bloc historically backed the Polisario Front in the past, their support has decreased since the end of the Cold War.
Sahrawi refugees in the Tindouf Camps depend on humanitarian aid donated by several United Nations organizations as well as international Non-Governmental Organizations. It is widely believed that much of this humanitarian aid never reaches those it is intended to assist because it is often sold on the black market in neighboring countries by the Polisario Front. While many in the international community have called for the implementation of a census and an audit system to insure the transparent management of the humanitarian aid, to date, the Polisario Front has not allowed a census of the Sahrawi refugee camps, nor does it permit independent oversight of its management of humanitarian assistance.
Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba also supports the Polisario Front and Algeria in their attempt to create a communist, anti-imperialist rogue state in the Sahara. Cuba has also been the primary destination for Sahrawi youth who have been kidnapped from the refugee camps and sent to Castro’s Island of Youth for brainwashing and indoctrination. In Cuba, Sahrawi children are taught to believe that Morocco and the United States are their “enemy” and that they should always be prepared for the impending “War.” Kidnapped Sahrawi youth are also inundated with anti-Western, Marxist and Leninist teachings. The Polisario Front’s objective for the deportation of Sahrawi children is two-fold: 1) to separate families and destroy the most basic element of a society and 2) to keep pressure on family members to remain in the camps and be complicit with the Polisario Front leadership in order to not endanger their children’s welfare.
