Polisario Front
El-Ouali grew increasingly disturbed by the oppressive Spanish colonial rule over what was then known as Spanish Sahara, and although never involved with the Harakat Tahrir, news of the Zemla Intifada made a deep impression on him. In 1972, he returned to Tan-Tan (former Spanish Sahara), where he began organizing a group called the Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro. After a Sahrawi demonstration in Tan-Tan in June 1972, a group of 20 participants including Ouali were detained and tortured by the Moroccan police, then he met with other groups of Sahrawis from inside Western Sahara, Algeria & Mauritania, and in 1973 founded with them the Polisario Front. Days after the Polisario's foundation, El-Ouali and Brahim Gali led a group of six poorly armed guerrillas in the May 20, 1973 El-Khanga raid, the first armed action of the Polisario Front (El-Khanga was a Spanish military post in the desert.). El-Ouali and another fighter were briefly captured, but they managed to escape when the remaining patrol headed by Gali overran the ill-prepared Spanish troops; The Khanga strike was to be followed by similar attacks on isolated targets, in which the Polisario gathered weapons and equipment, until they were finally able to enter into full-scale guerrilla warfare. In 1974-75 the Polisario Front slowly seized control over the desert countryside, and quickly became the most important nationalist organization in the country. By 1975 Spain had been forced to retreat into the major coastal cities, and reluctantly accepted negotiations on the surrender of power. At this point, the Polisario remained a relatively small organization of perhaps 800 fighters and activists, although supported by a vastly larger network of sympathizers.
According to Mehdi Bennouna, in Heroes Sans Gloire El-Ouali was the son of a member of the Moroccan Army of Liberation. Allegedly, he was member of Union National des Étudiants Marocains (UNEM), the students union in Morocco and was recruited by Mohamed Bennouna to join the "Tanzim" (The Organisation or the Structure), an Arabic nationalist and socialist organization which was created overthrow the monarchy under Hassan II and obtained support from Syria, Libya, and Algeria. El-Ouali was suppossedly trained in Libya and his mentor was a man named "Nemri". Bennouna claims the death of Mahmoud and Nemri, as well as the fluctuating relationship between Tanzim and Algeria led the creation of the Polisario Front. Bennouna views this as part of the armed revolution in Morocco and of the political dissidence against the Moroccan regime.
Read more about this topic: El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed
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