by Khalid Ibrahim Khaled
Mohamed Abdelaziz has still many problems looming, even after the release of Mahjouba Hamdidaf. If the hasty release of the young Spanish woman of Sahrawi descent, at Algeria’s orders, has made it possible to avoid the pressure of Madrid and international NGOs, it has not calmed down the anger of Sahrawis in Tindouf.
The situation worsened Sunday in the camps, where the Sahrawi demonstrators were violently repressed. Many people were injured and several others were reported missing after the brutal intervention of the Polisario militia. In fact, Algeria had to choose between two evils, and it chose the worst, according to a well-informed source in the Tindouf camps. Algerian officials believed they were doing the right thing in organizing the “escape” of Mahjouba Hamdidaf, 24, who joined her adoptive family near Valencia, Spain.
The return of the young Sahrawi to Spain, presented by the Polisario as an escape, ignited the anger of the Tindouf camps Sahrawis, both on the Algerian authorities and on the Polisario leadership. Mahjouba Hamdidaf’s biological family felt betrayed by Mohamed Abdelaziz. The massive rallies staged outside Abdelaziz’s offices in the Rabouni camp sent a shiver down the spines of the Algeria-backed polisario leader.
But what most worried the Polisario chief is the infuriated response of Sahrawi youths. Actually these youths are already angry at the Polisario for its blind alignment on Algeria in the Western Sahara issue, and the “escape” scam that they deemed very distasteful was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, said the same source.
All the camps populations know too well that the camps are monitored day and night by the patrols of the Polisario and the Algerian military intelligence services (DRS) and that under such conditions, any escape attempt out of the camps is doomed to failure.
