The following information is from a generally reliable source but it has not been corroborated by other sources.
According to a member of Polisario’s National Secretariat, the Front is split between two points of view concerning negotiations with Morocco. The most recent meetings of the National Secretariat, which were supposed to be devoted to preparations for Polisario’s 40th anniversary celebrations in three months, saw divergent opinions emerge. Some insisted that everything had to be done to demonstrate that the stalemate is Morocco’s responsibility. Those who argued for this position underlined that the suspension of family visits between Tindouf and Laayoune late January feeds into this strategy of putting Morocco on the defensive. The visits were suspended by Polisario in protest at the Moroccan police’s security measures against families coming from Tindouf. Mohamed Abdelaziz, the secretary general of Polisario, is one of those in favour of this line. The other point of view, upheld by a minority of participants, was that everything should be done to push for a quick resumption of UN-sponsored talks with Morocco. This faction argued that there is no other realistic way forward in this difficult regional context. Ahmed Salem Ould Salek, Polisario’s foreign minister – who two years ago used to insist that negotiations “serve no useful purpose” – was among those arguing in favour of the latter option.
A member of a Sahrawi NGO based in Algiers said the heavy jail sentences (25-30 years) recently handed down by Moroccan military courts on 24 Sahrawi activists were greeted with relief by Polisario leaders. Mohamed Abdelaziz described them before a closed-door meeting as a “godsend” and ordered that a file be prepared presenting the trials as an “exemplary case of Moroccan colonial practices in the Sahara”. For Mohamed Abdelaziz this was not a trial of youths who had attacked policemen in November 2010, but of young activists struggling for the freedom of their country. These trials will be given a prominent place at Polisario’s 40th anniversary celebration, the Polisario general secretary added.
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