ReflectionsBenign Spanish Involvement, EritreanServility and YSP’s sympathy with “The Death Loving Youth” [Archives:2004/764/Opinion]

By Yahya Al-Olfi
[email protected]
Recently news spread about a Spanish desire to put an end to the continued misery of the people in Western Sahara, which Spain for the period from 1958 until 1975 considered as an Overseas Spanish province. It was partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania in 1976. The Polisario Front declared the independence of the “Democratic Saharan Arab Republic” in 1976. Mauritania renounced its claim in 1979 while Morocco practically annexed the northern two thirds of Western Sahara in 1976 (formerly Spanish Sahara) as well as the rest of the territory in 1979, directly following Mauritania's withdrawal. A guerrilla war was launched against Moroccan occupation and led by POLISARIO FRONT that contested Rabat's sovereignty and ended in a 1991 cease-fire.
Since then a UN sponsored referendum on final status has been repeatedly postponed. The declaration by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish premier, in that a solution is possible within six months' time is most welcome because Spain is held morally responsible for what is taking place and the suffering perpetuated due to the continued cul-de-sac situation. Spain must and should do something for the Saharans unlike the British who have long ago left the poor Palestinians as an unprotected prey for the Nazi Death Camps graduates' side effects. Zapatero insists that Spain has nothing more to add to James Baker's plan apart from activating it and finding an immediate solution to the long time Suffering of the people there. France, Israel and USA have close ties with Morocco and this is the quintessence for this unresolved crisis. These three countries by their attitude on this matter show that they are after their own interests and that humanity and human rights are but excuses to pressurize other regimes when the need arises.
Spain alone has the possibility to pressurize the Moroccan regime to dilute its stiff stance, knowing that Spain still occupies Ceutha, Melila and some other islands which can serve as a bait beside other factors known to both sides.
Many Eritreans felt happy when at last Eritrea became independent, thinking that a new luminescent page shall open in their life, which until now was predominantly characterized by continued bloody fighting. To their dismay the current regime is taking them from a futile battle into another so as to hide its failure and the fact that it has failed to project Eritrea as a peace-loving country where investors can invest their moneys and help in the long awaited development of the country. Asmara could have attracted investors from regional and international countries if it was not for the foolish mentality that had led many to shy away from investing their moneys in a land where lunatic behavior is the norm. I have recently read about Eritrea's permission for “Sudan's Liberation Movement” and “The Sudanese Movement for Justice and Equality” to establish training camps in different Eritrean regions. It is known that both fronts are involved in fighting against the Sudanese Central Government in Darfur. Anyhow, we have all been accustomed to such eccentricity by the Eritrean regime but have always hoped for a change to take place in the dismal life of the Eritrean people who have suffered a lot and do really deserve to have some peace, for what is the use of independence when many Eritrean refugees are still refugees in Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere.
We all know that the Yemeni Socialist party was a true defender of the Yemeni unity and aspirations in the past and does not need anybody's testimony on that but one cannot avoid to criticize the status quo of the party. Due to the continued changes in the world, the party should have shed off its monotonous apparel by changing its name for example which still drives people away in the south more than in the north. Also, it needs to revitalize its structure and do away with its mummified mentality which can just be compared with the stagnancy of USSR's Communist Party at the time of Brezhnev. It seems unable to budge any further and still deplorably looking for the custody of its past leaders who have been consumed and cannot deliver anymore. It is pathetic when reading its mouthpiece “Althawry” to notice their sympathy with the brainwashed death loving youth in Saada as well as opening their pages for the whining secessionists. Whatsoever are the defects of the rulers vis a vis this problem, the attitude of the YSP showed its miserable status quo because the party now does not seem as one that is partisan of progress and modernism let alone being islamically influenced, in short it needs a complete revolution and rearrangement in order to go with the times and be worthy of its past.
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