Front Polisario Khat Al-Shahid - Politics and Ideology

Politics and Ideology

The Khat al-Shahid uses the slogan "No hero but the people, no leader but the martyr", referring to El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, the first Secretary-General of Polisario, who was killed in action in Mauritania 1976. It says it wants to restore El-Ouali legacy ("the line of the Martyr").

The movement has no explicit ideology, apart from seeking Western Sahara's independence, the essential objective at the foundation of the Polisario Front on May 20, 1973. A typical statement is its communiqué of May 20, 2005 (the 32nd anniversary of Polisario's first strikes against Spanish colonization), where the group demanded the "end to an occupation, and the raising of the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic over the totality of its national territory". However, marking a difference with the POLISARIO, in its statements, the group emphasizes militancy and revolutionary action. It accuses the present leadership of weakness (decrying its "incapacity to bring the struggle against the invader to a close"), of caving in to Moroccan and UN pressures, and of being undemocratic and corrupt.

The Muhammad Abdelaziz leadership is accused of:

• "propagating corruption, clientelism, tribalism, and for bargaining with the sufferings of the Sahrawi people and the martyrs' blood".
• having no strategies to face the international developments.
• being unable to conduct internal reforms.
• having no contact with the population in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara, and with mediatically expoliting their "intifada".
• for refusing to hold the national congress demanded by Khat al-Shahid, where the Polisario leadership would be held to accountability for its policy, seeing this as a sign of the undemocratic leadership of the Polisario Front.

Furthermore, Khat Al-Shahid movement has called on the Polisario Front to spare the budget allocated for celebrations of the 31st anniversary of the Sahrawi republic, and to use it for the benefit of the refugee population. It considers the calls by Abdelaziz to the international community for help as begging. It demanded that persons involved in misuse, traffic, and spoiling of humanitarian aid be judged.

Khat al-Shahid has repeatedly decried the failure of the United Nations-backed peace process. It accuses the Polisario leadership of "defeatist reasoning" and of caving in to pressures (especially in accepting the Baker Plan), claiming that it benefits from the political stagnation caused by the cease fire. It stresses the gains made during the war years (1975–91) and claims the Abdelaziz government has let the Sahrawi army decay during the cease fire, and ignored the plight of veterans and war widows. It also severely criticizes the UN's Minurso mission for being biased in favor of Morocco. For these reasons, Khat al-Shahid has argued that the guerrilla war against Morocco should resume. There seems to exist significant support for this position in the refugee camps, but it is not known if the Khat al-Shahid has successfully managed to exploit that. Overall, support for the organization seems to remain very small.