democracynow--2020-11-26--As COVID Devastates Native Communities, Indigenous Voters Played Key Role in Defeating Trump

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : Today , in this special broadcast , we look at this year ’ s historic election and the devastating COVID-19 pandemic .
We begin in North Dakota , which has the highest COVID-19 death rate of any state or country in the world , with one in every thousand residents dead from the virus .
South Dakota ’ s death rate is nearly as bad , after both Republican governors spent months downplaying the crisis .
As COVID-19 ravages the Dakotas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rapid spread of COVID-19 is affecting Native American communities .
We begin with two guests .
Jodi Archambault is a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the former special assistant to President Obama for Native American affairs for the White House Domestic Policy Council .
She ’ s in Bismarck , the capital of North Dakota .
And in Farmington , New Mexico , we ’ re joined by Allie Young , a citizen of Navajo Nation , founder of Protect the Sacred .
She lives in Arizona .
I began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic ’ s devastating effect on Native Americans .
This has all accelerated on the reservations .
Reservations or tribal nations , such as Eagle Butte , the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe , the Sisseton , Wahpeton , Rosebud , they ’ ve all installed roadblocks .
They ’ ve all implemented roadblocks to stop traffic and outsiders from coming on the reservation .
And the response to their action to protect tribal members , elders and the like was for the governor , Noem , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funding .
She has coordinated with the Trump administration to make it difficult to receive the federal resources that are allocated to the tribal governments , and have used that as a stick for them to try to force them to take the roadblocks down .
And rather than supporting them and thanking them for trying to address the lack of health services available on the reservation , she has made it more and more difficult for people , for our tribes to protect ourselves .
JODI ARCHAMBAULT : I ’ ll just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t have — it ’ s really hard to speak up in North Dakota .
The news sources out here don ’ t cover an alternate perspective .
But I will say that the Nurses Association , an advocacy group , did issue a press release after Governor Burgum said that they could go back to work while they were testing COVID-positive .
That was last week on Wednesday .
And within hours , there was a pushback from the Nurses Association .
None of the hospitals have taken him up on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ridiculous that the leadership ’ s response to being the worst COVID rates in the world would be to allow nurses to infect other nurses , other doctors and other patients by coming to work with COVID .
It ’ s the most preposterous type of government action that I ’ ve ever heard of .
Yeah , right now we are seeing another surge in Navajo Nation , as we expected .
We , as you all know , were the number one hot spot in the country per capita in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flatten the curve , and we were able to .
There was a day where we had zero reported cases .
But recently , because of the spikes across the country , what we ’ ve been seeing throughout the nation , with some of the rallies — I mean , you know , some of our border towns around here are Trump territory , and so there were rallies that I witnessed .
And a lot of our people come into these border towns to do their shopping , because on Navajo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like 13 grocery stores .
So we have to travel to these territories where they ’ re not thinking about — they ’ re not wearing masks , and they ’ re not thinking about their neighbors who have been impacted .
ALLIE YOUNG : Yes .
That is something that I am trying to connect the dots to anyone I speak to : Let ’ s not forget about how the federal government greenlit these companies coming in to extract our minerals on tribal reservations .
In Navajo Nation , for 30-plus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the northwestern region of Navajo Nation , which was our hot spot within the nation .
And a lot of our people up there — the waters and our lands are contaminated by uranium .
And our elders had to work through — and even my own uncles — you know , they just shut down last year , in 2019 .
So , a lot of our people have worked through those unsafe environments and certainly have those preexisting and underlying conditions , that we need to consider in why we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ALLIE YOUNG : I work with my father , who lives in Rough Rock , New — or , in Rough Rock , Arizona .
Sorry .
And we work together , and I ’ ve always voted in Arizona , resided with my father .
And we ’ ve always done trail rides .
That ’ s our bonding thing .
And we ’ ve done them throughout Navajo Nation .
And this year , when we were thinking about the election , he wanted to do a Biden-Harris trail ride .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought about the significance of a trail ride and the respect that our people have for the horses — and , you know , as we call it , horse medicine .
And horse medicine is when you are in rhythm with the horse , and almost in sync , and you ’ re reconnected and refocused as you ride in our own homelands and are reminded of exactly what our ancestors have fought for , our lands to still be in our own homelands , and our cultures and also our right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back to my father , and I said , “ So , what ’ s happening with the trail ride ?
” And he said , “ Yeah , I don ’ t know .
I don ’ t think we ’ re going to do it.
” And I said , “ I think we should do it .
But with Protect the Sacred , I have to be nonpartisan , so if it ’ s more of a getting folks out to the polls so that they can cast their ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” because at the same time , I think that our Native American youth — I was hearing on the ground that they weren ’ t feeling very motivated to participate in this election , as a lot of other communities of color , because , you know , why continue participating in a system that has never worked for us and is not working for us ?
I often find that our Native youth , you know , we are more educated than ever .
That ’ s why there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our history and what has happened to us historically .
And also , we ’ re more connected to technology and information than ever , and we ’ re more eager to reconnect to our cultures , and that respect for our ancestors and our elders is still there .
And so I wanted to strategize and use that and say , “ OK , let ’ s find something that will excite our Native youth that ’ s rooted in our culture , that will also help us reclaim Arizona , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying that Arizona is Indigenous DNA , it is not Republican DNA , as I heard on the news when I was watching about a month before we decided to do trail — ride to the polls .
And that ’ s what really motivated me , is because Arizona has this deep history of many tribal communities , and it is not just a place where white conservatives go to retire .
And this is our homeland .
And we wanted — I called on my people : “ Let ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them that we ’ re still here .
Let ’ s be represented .
Let ’ s make sure that we have a seat at the table and that our voices are heard.
” And so , that ’ s why it was so important .
And I ’ m so happy that a lot of young people did come out .
It did excite them .
I got so many positive messages from our efforts .
And I think it was a positive turnout .
ALLIE YOUNG : Yeah , well , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Navajo Nation .
So , Coconino County , Navajo County — which is where I did all of my work , and I vote in Navajo County — and Apache County , they all overlap the Navajo Nation .
And in those areas , Navajo people turned out to vote .
I think 84 % of those who had registered turned out to vote , and 97 % of those who cast their ballot voted for Joe Biden .
And that ’ s just incredible .
That just shows the contribution of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in not only Navajo Nation , but there is a map that compares tribal communities , and all of those tribal communities voted blue .
And so , we came out strong .
I think we did do a great job in reclaiming Arizona , saying that we ’ re still here , that we ’ ve always been here , and that now we ’ re going to keep working to hold this new administration accountable , as well .
ALLIE YOUNG : My strategy was all around , you know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what we ’ re working within .
With young people , we are very tuned in to social media , so definitely it is a powerful tool .
So , connecting with them that way , we had a huge social media strategy , and also layering in the cultural revitalization , and particularly with Native youth , but also , I think , with a lot of other youth across other communities of color , because I think we ’ re in this amazing moment where all of our communities of color @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proud of who we are and where we come from .
So , using that and saying , “ Let ’ s show up in that way .
Let ’ s show , through social media , in fighting for our representation , ” that takes work .
And we have to — you know , we ’ re not just going to automatically be talked about in the media .
We have to show up .
AMY GOODMAN : Navajo activist Allie Young , the founder of Protect the Sacred , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Standing Rock Sioux Tribe .
She served as the former special assistant to President Obama for Native American affairs for the White House Domestic Policy Council .
Coming up , Juan González on how the corporate media got it wrong , missed the real story about Latinx voter turnout in the 2020 election .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Today, in this special broadcast, we look at this year’s historic election and the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. We begin in North Dakota, which has the highest COVID-19 death rate of any state or country in the world, with one in every thousand residents dead from the virus. South Dakota’s death rate is nearly as bad, after both Republican governors spent months downplaying the crisis. As COVID-19 ravages the Dakotas, we turn to look at how the rapid spread of COVID-19 is affecting Native American communities.
We begin with two guests. Jodi Archambault is a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the former special assistant to President Obama for Native American affairs for the White House Domestic Policy Council. She’s in Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota. And in Farmington, New Mexico, we’re joined by Allie Young, a citizen of Navajo Nation, founder of Protect the Sacred. She lives in Arizona. I began by asking Jodi Archambault to talk about the pandemic’s devastating effect on Native Americans.
JODI ARCHAMBAULT: This has been a tough several months, just hoping that the government takes action. The state government, the way that they behave and the way that they react affects our people directly, mostly because we have some of the highest rates of the underlying conditions that make COVID-19 a deadly disease. And so, we’re having a lot of people perish. We’re having a lot of death, a lot of hospitalizations.
And it’s affecting us in ways that is not widely known by the rest of America. We have very few years — we have about maybe a decade, maybe 15 years, where we have to save our language, our Lakota language, our Dakota language. We also have other tribes in North Dakota, like the Arikara, the Mandan and the Hidatsa. Most of the speakers of our languages are over the age of 70. And we don’t have very much time to spend with them and learn and protect and revitalize our languages. And COVID-19 has put on an additional layer of risk, that is just putting us into a very difficult time.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Jodi Archambault, how did it get to this stage, especially in the Native communities of the state? How did the pandemic spread so rapidly in your community?
JODI ARCHAMBAULT: It didn’t spread very rapidly at first. As you know, the COVID-19 hit the cities first, and hit Seattle and New York City. In North Dakota and South Dakota, we shut down the businesses and took a lot of precautions early on, until about May. And North and South Dakota were the first states to open their doors to business as usual — restaurants. People were shy at first. But at this point, there’s a lot of people who have followed the line of thinking that COVID-19 is a hoax, or it’s some kind of Democrat conspiracy. And a lot of people refuse to wear masks, even with a mask mandate.
This has all accelerated on the reservations. Reservations or tribal nations, such as Eagle Butte, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Rosebud, they’ve all installed roadblocks. They’ve all implemented roadblocks to stop traffic and outsiders from coming on the reservation. And the response to their action to protect tribal members, elders and the like was for the governor, Noem, to torture them and hold them hostage with funding. She has coordinated with the Trump administration to make it difficult to receive the federal resources that are allocated to the tribal governments, and have used that as a stick for them to try to force them to take the roadblocks down. And rather than supporting them and thanking them for trying to address the lack of health services available on the reservation, she has made it more and more difficult for people, for our tribes to protect ourselves.
AMY GOODMAN: North Dakota governor — can you talk about his originally saying that people who are healthcare workers who test positive for COVID should remain working if they are asymptomatic, and treat COVID-19 patients, and Governor Burgum then being forced to back down after the outcry, saying no to a mask mandate, then saying yes?
JODI ARCHAMBAULT: I’ll just tell you that from — we don’t have — it’s really hard to speak up in North Dakota. The news sources out here don’t cover an alternate perspective. But I will say that the Nurses Association, an advocacy group, did issue a press release after Governor Burgum said that they could go back to work while they were testing COVID-positive. That was last week on Wednesday. And within hours, there was a pushback from the Nurses Association. None of the hospitals have taken him up on the offer. And it’s ridiculous that the leadership’s response to being the worst COVID rates in the world would be to allow nurses to infect other nurses, other doctors and other patients by coming to work with COVID. It’s the most preposterous type of government action that I’ve ever heard of.
So, the business is — the business of the hospital is asking for this kind of, I guess, allowance, to allow sick people without symptoms to come and spread? But actually, this has always — the situation that we’re talking about is the lack of compassion for those elders, not just Native elders, but all elders, all people with underlying health conditions, like cancer. It is an absolute choice, a clear choice, to choose profit over people. So, the governor isn’t putting people first; he’s putting profit first.
And the same with Governor Noem down in South Dakota. They have been — she has been actively asking people to come to South Dakota, come to the hottest spot — second-hottest spot in the world and have your vacation, because we don’t care if you wear a mask or not. That’s what her response is, and to increase the risk that tribal governments — by forcing them to take down their barriers, or trying to force them down — they haven’t taken them down. It’s remarkable that they’re able to stick to that governance decision, that is saving lives on the reservations. It’s still spreading. It’s still spreading on the reservations because there is active commerce between reservations and cities. And so it’s getting in.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’d like to bring in Allie Young to the conversation, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and founder of Protect the Sacred.
Allie, welcome to Democracy Now! Could you talk about the situation in Navajo Nation in terms of COVID? And also maybe comment on the fact that not all Native areas have gaming, but quite a significant percentage do, and often it’s the gaming revenues that help provide health services or social services. Could you talk about the impact of the shutdowns on the ability of Native peoples to provide health services, as well?
ALLIE YOUNG: Yeah. Yá’át’ééh, hello, everyone. Thank you for having me.
Yeah, right now we are seeing another surge in Navajo Nation, as we expected. We, as you all know, were the number one hot spot in the country per capita in the spring. And we worked hard to flatten the curve, and we were able to. There was a day where we had zero reported cases. But recently, because of the spikes across the country, what we’ve been seeing throughout the nation, with some of the rallies — I mean, you know, some of our border towns around here are Trump territory, and so there were rallies that I witnessed. And a lot of our people come into these border towns to do their shopping, because on Navajo Nation, you know, we have like 13 grocery stores. So we have to travel to these territories where they’re not thinking about — they’re not wearing masks, and they’re not thinking about their neighbors who have been impacted.
And then, to your point about the gaming industry in Native communities, at Navajo Nation we have some casinos and hotels, as well, and they’ve all been shut down. And it has impacted us economically, financially. And as far as healthcare, we’ve had to — you know, I worked on a PSA through Protect the Sacred that called out for medical volunteers. And that’s the state that we were in, that we had to make that call out for PPE supplies, medical volunteers, because we just lack all of those resources and funding in our tribal communities, when we’re supposed to be guaranteed quality healthcare through our treaties with the federal government.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Allie Young, you’ve talked about feeling that so many Native elders are suffering as a result of the decades of uranium mining, particularly of pulmonary and respiratory diseases, making them even more vulnerable. We’re talking something like over 600 people just on the Navajo Reservation have died as of this weekend of COVID.
ALLIE YOUNG: Yes. That is something that I am trying to connect the dots to anyone I speak to: Let’s not forget about how the federal government greenlit these companies coming in to extract our minerals on tribal reservations. In Navajo Nation, for 30-plus years, we had Peabody up in the northwestern region of Navajo Nation, which was our hot spot within the nation. And a lot of our people up there — the waters and our lands are contaminated by uranium. And our elders had to work through — and even my own uncles — you know, they just shut down last year, in 2019. So, a lot of our people have worked through those unsafe environments and certainly have those preexisting and underlying conditions, that we need to consider in why we’re so vulnerable to this virus.
AMY GOODMAN: Jodi Archambault, can you, overall, talk about the massive voter turnout, at least increase in Native American turnout, not noted in the mainstream media?
JODI ARCHAMBAULT: Sure. I just want to say that despite the risk of being exposed to COVID, the numbers were incredible. And I think that this is something that is often overlooked by mainstream media, only because mainstream media has a tendency to leave out the full picture when it comes to Native Americans. In fact, CNN did an infographic, and they labeled — they did a breakdown of all the different people who voted in the election, and for Native Americans, they didn’t have us labeled as Native Americans. They called us “something else,” 6%.
AMY GOODMAN: We have that actual graphic right here. It says “white.” It says “Latino.” It says “Black,” and then “something else,” and then “Asian.”
JODI ARCHAMBAULT: Yeah, yeah. And social media, we are very much — our resiliency is through our humor. And so, it just took off. Everybody kept saying, like, “Custer said, 'Yeah, they sure are something else.'” You know, Custer, from the last couple centuries ago. And a lot of people have just taken it as a call to try to bring attention to the people at CNN, to the people at the mainstream, who just continuously don’t see us. They don’t see us, and it’s intentional, because we are a reminder of the bloodshed that it took to make this country. We’re not congruent with the American dream.
And we are still here. We’re actually leading, leading the way on how to handle pandemics, because we’ve been through so many of them. And it’s so much ingrained in our communities that we’re not seeing this as — we’re not victims in this; we’re actually ready to fight. We’re ready to push back and do what we can to protect ourselves, because it’s the only way we’ve made it this far. And we know that people in America don’t see us, so we have to do it for ourselves.
AMY GOODMAN: Still with us in Arizona [sic] is Allie Young, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and founder of Protect the Sacred.
Allie, if you could start off by talking about what you did in Arizona? Talk about the horseback ride that you took.
ALLIE YOUNG: I work with my father, who lives in Rough Rock, New — or, in Rough Rock, Arizona. Sorry. And we work together, and I’ve always voted in Arizona, resided with my father. And we’ve always done trail rides. That’s our bonding thing. And we’ve done them throughout Navajo Nation. And this year, when we were thinking about the election, he wanted to do a Biden-Harris trail ride. And when I called him back and thought about the significance of a trail ride and the respect that our people have for the horses — and, you know, as we call it, horse medicine. And horse medicine is when you are in rhythm with the horse, and almost in sync, and you’re reconnected and refocused as you ride in our own homelands and are reminded of exactly what our ancestors have fought for, our lands to still be in our own homelands, and our cultures and also our right to vote.
So, I went back to my father, and I said, “So, what’s happening with the trail ride?” And he said, “Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think we’re going to do it.” And I said, “I think we should do it. But with Protect the Sacred, I have to be nonpartisan, so if it’s more of a getting folks out to the polls so that they can cast their ballots, I think we should do that,” because at the same time, I think that our Native American youth — I was hearing on the ground that they weren’t feeling very motivated to participate in this election, as a lot of other communities of color, because, you know, why continue participating in a system that has never worked for us and is not working for us?
I often find that our Native youth, you know, we are more educated than ever. That’s why there’s this resistance, because we know our history and what has happened to us historically. And also, we’re more connected to technology and information than ever, and we’re more eager to reconnect to our cultures, and that respect for our ancestors and our elders is still there. And so I wanted to strategize and use that and say, “OK, let’s find something that will excite our Native youth that’s rooted in our culture, that will also help us reclaim Arizona,” because, you know, I keep saying that Arizona is Indigenous DNA, it is not Republican DNA, as I heard on the news when I was watching about a month before we decided to do trail — ride to the polls. And that’s what really motivated me, is because Arizona has this deep history of many tribal communities, and it is not just a place where white conservatives go to retire. And this is our homeland. And we wanted — I called on my people: “Let’s show up. Let’s show them that we’re still here. Let’s be represented. Let’s make sure that we have a seat at the table and that our voices are heard.” And so, that’s why it was so important. And I’m so happy that a lot of young people did come out. It did excite them. I got so many positive messages from our efforts. And I think it was a positive turnout.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Allie, I wanted to ask you about that. What were the results, from what you’ve been able to tell? Not so much, obviously, because the exit polls didn’t factor in or count Native American votes, but what’s been the result in the actual vote totals that you’ve been able to see so far?
ALLIE YOUNG: Yeah, well, I believe around 60-something thousand Navajos in Navajo Nation. So, Coconino County, Navajo County — which is where I did all of my work, and I vote in Navajo County — and Apache County, they all overlap the Navajo Nation. And in those areas, Navajo people turned out to vote. I think 84% of those who had registered turned out to vote, and 97% of those who cast their ballot voted for Joe Biden. And that’s just incredible. That just shows the contribution of the Native vote in key swing states, in not only Navajo Nation, but there is a map that compares tribal communities, and all of those tribal communities voted blue. And so, we came out strong. I think we did do a great job in reclaiming Arizona, saying that we’re still here, that we’ve always been here, and that now we’re going to keep working to hold this new administration accountable, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: What kind of message do you have for what is the most effective way to get first-time voters involved, to make them feel like they really are making a difference, when it’s — you know, they haven’t done this before?
ALLIE YOUNG: My strategy was all around, you know, you’ve got to think about what we’re working within. With young people, we are very tuned in to social media, so definitely it is a powerful tool. So, connecting with them that way, we had a huge social media strategy, and also layering in the cultural revitalization, and particularly with Native youth, but also, I think, with a lot of other youth across other communities of color, because I think we’re in this amazing moment where all of our communities of color are reconnecting to our cultures and really proud of who we are and where we come from. So, using that and saying, “Let’s show up in that way. Let’s show, through social media, in fighting for our representation,” that takes work. And we have to — you know, we’re not just going to automatically be talked about in the media. We have to show up.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Allie, I’m wondering just if you could quickly say what your main expectations are of the new Biden administration’s policy toward Native American people.
ALLIE YOUNG: Yeah. Well, we’re definitely going to be making sure that we’re represented, especially when it comes to climate change. We do want a seat at the table. We want to be in that conversation, because we have just incredible knowledge about the ways that we respect Mother Earth, that we honor Mother Earth, and those are things that will end up saving Mother Earth. And so, learning from us and collaborating with us, and also on issues of — we’re still in COVID-19, and it’s still severely impacting our tribal communities, so we’re expected — we’re expecting them to work with us in helping us to bring the funding and the aid that we need, because $8 billion was not enough in the initial stimulus package.
AMY GOODMAN: Navajo activist Allie Young, the founder of Protect the Sacred, and Jodi Archambault, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She served as the former special assistant to President Obama for Native American affairs for the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Coming up, Juan González on how the corporate media got it wrong, missed the real story about Latinx voter turnout in the 2020 election.


democracynow--2020-11-27--Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara — A Rare Look Inside Africa's Last Colony as Ceasefire Ends

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : Today , a Democracy Now !
exclusive : “ Four Days in Western Sahara : Africa ’ s Last Colony.
” Western Sahara , where peaceful protesters , led by women , are beaten in the streets .
Thousands have been tortured , imprisoned , killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation .
AMY GOODMAN : Where natural resources are plundered , from phosphates to fish .
AMY GOODMAN : Where a massive wall divides a people , the Sahrawi , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for self-determination .
AMY GOODMAN : Western Sahara — the center of a four-decades-long struggle for independence from Morocco , its neighbor to the north .
Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community .
The story of Western Sahara is one of colonialism , plunder and resistance .
It ’ s also a story rarely told in the international media .
And it ’ s here in Western Sahara where the scholar Noam Chomsky says the Arab Spring first began in late 2010 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Egypt .
AMY GOODMAN : But the struggle in Western Sahara dates back much longer .
For nearly a century , Western Sahara was colonized by Spain .
But the Spanish occupation ended in 1975 , setting off a regional fight .
On October 31st , 1975 , both Morocco from the north and Mauritania from the south invaded Western Sahara as Spain withdrew .
Days after Moroccan troops invaded , King Hassan II ordered hundreds of thousands of Moroccan citizens to enter Western Sahara in what became known as the Green March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years later , but Morocco has remained to this day .
Just days after the Moroccan invasion , Secretary of State Henry Kissinger privately told President Gerald Ford he hoped for a , quote , “ rigged UN vote ” at the Security Council to confirm Morocco ’ s claim over Western Sahara .
About half of the Sahrawi population fled the invasion to neighboring Algeria , where they settled in refugee camps in the middle of the desert .
The Moroccan invasion set off a 16-year-long war with the Sahrawi liberation movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s army , with the help of U.S. military aid , drove the Polisario to Western Sahara ’ s Eastern Desert .
Morocco then created the world ’ s longest minefield and built the second-longest wall on Earth , with the help of U.S. weapons companies Northrop and Westinghouse .
The nearly 1,700-mile wall divides Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those who fled into exile .
The Moroccan government began decades of torture , disappearances , killings and repression against pro-independence Sahrawis living in the occupied territory .
In 1991 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sahrawis a referendum on self-determination , organized by its peacekeeping mission known as MINURSO .
Since then , Morocco has blocked attempts to organize the vote , and the U.N. Security Council has refused to implement its own referendum plan or allow MINURSO to monitor the human rights situation in the territory .
Today , no country recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara , one of the most inaccessible places in the world .
And the international media has largely ignored the occupation , in part because Morocco has routinely blocked journalists from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 , Democracy Now !
successfully broke the news blockade .
We were in Marrakech , Morocco , for the United Nations Climate Change Conference .
With U.N. credentials and U.S. passports , we decided to take a chance and attempt to do what no foreign television crew has done in years : report from Africa ’ s last colony .
AMY GOODMAN : I ’ m speaking quietly on the plane because journalists , even Western journalists , are rarely allowed into Western Sahara .
We don ’ t know if this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turned back , as so many others have been .
Maybe it ’ s the U.N. press badges around our necks .
Maybe it ’ s our U.S. passports .
Or maybe it ’ s just that our arrival was so unexpected .
But after a check of our documents and a few questions , we ’ re waved through customs .
Outside the airport , we climb into a car driven by Jamal , our translator and guide .
AMY GOODMAN : Jamal says we ’ ve been observed by local police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agents .
AMY GOODMAN : We arrive at the Hotel Salwan , knowing that the receptionist is obliged to inform the police of our presence .
We check in quickly and immediately prepare to interview Sahrawi activists in one of our rooms .
We don ’ t know how many hours — or minutes — we ’ ll have to record before the authorities arrive .
Our first interview is with journalist Mohamed Mayara .
He speaks in hushed tones about the torture and murder his family faced at the hands of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work of Mohamed Mayara ’ s citizen journalist group Equipe Media is documented in the film 3 Stolen Cameras .
It shows the gruesome fate of a Sahrawi cameraman who was pushed off a rooftop by police after he was spotted filming a bloody crackdown on a peaceful protest .
AMY GOODMAN : Facing this kind of violence against those who document Morocco ’ s crackdown on dissent , it ’ s remarkable that these Sahrawis were willing to speak with us .
AMY GOODMAN : It ’ s now past midnight .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we get a phone call .
The hotel receptionist tells us the police are in the hotel lobby , demanding to see us .
We make our way downstairs .
Two men in plainclothes tell us to sit down and warn us against reporting in Western Sahara .
We go back upstairs , and , soon after , we learn a pro-Moroccan government website called Sahara Zoom had published details about our trip , including information about the interviews we had done in our hotel room that night .
The message was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This is a Democracy Now !
special , “ Four Days in Western Sahara : Africa ’ s Last Colony.
” AMY GOODMAN : That is Sahrawi singer Mariem Hassan from her album El Aaiun on Fire ( El Aaiun Egdat ) .
This is a Democracy Now !
special , “ Four Days in Western Sahara : Africa ’ s Last Colony.
” I ’ m Amy Goodman .
It ’ s day two of our trip to Laayoune , the capital of Western Sahara .
Despite warnings against reporting from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offices of a human rights group .
We carry all our possessions with us , assuming our hotel rooms could be searched or we could be deported at a moment ’ s notice .
Everywhere we go , we ’ re followed .
AMY GOODMAN : The human rights organization has a long name .
ASVDH stands for the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State .
The walls of its office are lined with posters and photographs showing the names and faces of the imprisoned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
AMY GOODMAN : Elghalia Djimi shows us her arm , left scarred after her captors unleashed a dog on her .
AMY GOODMAN : Elghalia Djimi sinks to the floor as she continues to describe her torture in Moroccan police custody .
AMY GOODMAN : Our interview is interrupted when our guide Jamal receives an urgent phone call .
We ’ ve been summoned to appear before the most powerful man in Laayoune .
We get back into our car and head for his residence .
Once again , we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Are we about to be deported ?
Time after time , journalists are turned back as they try to enter Western Sahara , like 12 Spanish reporters deported from Laayoune ’ s airport after their arrival in 2010 , including the renowned radio reporter Àngels Barceló .
AMY GOODMAN : And human rights observers are deported , as well , like European parliamentarian Willy Meyer , Spanish lawmaker Xabier Ron , a Norwegian delegation held on a bus and expelled in 2016 , and many others .
All of them tried and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ managed—to make it into Western Sahara to report on the occupation .
AMY GOODMAN : The wali is a Sahrawi and former member of the Polisario Front .
He now works for the Moroccan monarchy , overseeing a security apparatus that seeks to crush the Sahrawi independence movement .
We arrive at his fortified compound and are escorted inside by armed guards—afraid we ’ re about to be expelled from the territory .
AMY GOODMAN : Inside the wali ’ s residence , we ’ re seated , served tea , dates and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in no uncertain terms , we ’ re not allowed to practice journalism in Western Sahara .
AMY GOODMAN : Despite the wali ’ s warnings , I continue to question him .
I quote from a Human Rights Watch report titled “ Keeping It Secret , ” about Morocco ’ s efforts to block access to MINURSO .
That ’ s the U.N. mission for a referendum on the status of Western Sahara .
AMY GOODMAN : As I continue to press him on human rights , the wali loses his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we ’ re dismissed — and warned against continuing to report from Western Sahara .
During our discussion , the wali repeatedly mentioned the close U.S.-Moroccan relationship , which dates back to 1777 , when Morocco became the first nation to recognize the United States .
While the U.S. has never recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara , Washington has played a pivotal role in shoring up Morocco ’ s occupation .
In addition to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hoping for a rigged vote at the United Nations Security Council regarding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s State Department in 1979 gave $ 200 million to the U.S. company Northrop Page Communications to build an “ intrusion detection system ” for the nearly 1,700-mile wall Morocco built in Western Sahara , which is lined with an estimated 7 million land mines .
A year later , Carter provided Morocco with $ 230 million in military aid .
It ’ s been a bipartisan affair ever since .
AMY GOODMAN : After the Cold War ended , Morocco became a key U.S. ally in the so-called war on terror .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ designated Morocco to be a major non-NATO ally of the United States , opening the door for more military deals .
And the money has flowed both ways .
The state-owned Moroccan phosphate company OCP , which operates in Western Sahara , donated as much as $ 12 million to the Clinton Foundation prior to the 2016 election .
And the wali proudly pulled up a photo on his cellphone from January of 1992 , showing Donald Trump , his soon-to-be wife Marla Maples and Moroccan King Hassan II at Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York .
Jump forward a quarter of a century to now-President Trump ’ s disgraced Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt .
Prior to his resignation , Pruitt took a controversial $ 100,000 trip to Morocco in December of 2017 , where he met with the head of Morocco ’ s state-owned mining company .
Pruitt ’ s trip was arranged by a lobbyist , Richard Smotkin , who accompanied Pruitt and helped set up meetings for him .
As we drive through the streets of Laayoune , everywhere are signs of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under Spain ’ s fascist dictator Francisco Franco and has been occupied by Morocco since the mid- ’ 70s .
We pass the United Nations ’ MINURSO compound , where just over 200 U.N. peacekeepers monitor the 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario , but are legally prevented from intervening to stop human rights abuses .
And we drive past the high walls of the notorious Black Prison , where generations of Sahrawis have been detained , tortured and disappeared .
One of them is Sahrawi independence activist Hmad Hammad , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tea , he describes his torture at the hands of the Moroccan authorities during his years spent as a political prisoner .
AMY GOODMAN : Western Sahara is a territory rich in natural resources , which Morocco has exploited since the 1975 invasion , despite international court rulings establishing that the kingdom has no sovereignty over the territory .
Morocco controls the majority of the world ’ s reserves of phosphates , a mineral used in fertilizers that ’ s critical to feeding the world .
Phosphate is transported more than 60 miles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ belt , from mines in the desert to the port of Laayoune , where it ’ s loaded onto cargo ships bound for the U.S. , Canada and countries around the world .
Western Sahara ’ s fishing waters are among the richest on Earth , supplying the European Union with much of its seafood .
Foreign energy companies continue to explore for offshore oil — even though the U.N. says the prospecting violates international law .
Even Western Sahara ’ s sand is sold , loaded onto ships bound for European resorts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Europe ’ s highest court declared Western Sahara is not a part of Morocco and that European Union trade deals can not include products from the occupied territory .
Ships carrying phosphates from Western Sahara have been held up in ports in Panama and South Africa , after the Polisario challenged ownership of the cargo , claiming it belongs to the Sahrawi people .
Sahrawis are fighting the plunder through peaceful demonstrations and through the courts .
When they hold protests in their refugee camps in Algeria , thousands turn out to oppose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like the European oil and gas driller San Leon Energy .
But when Sahrawis protest in occupied Western Sahara , they ’ re routinely met with violence by Morrocan authorities .
It ’ s still day two of our trip to Western Sahara .
As we cross town to meet with more Sahrawi independence activists , once again we ’ re followed by a man on a motorcycle .
We arrive , making our way past pro-independence graffiti , and meet an icon of the Sahrawi resistance .
Sultana Khaya drapes herself in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ green flag of Western Sahara .
Just holding this flag in public is enough to get an activist beaten and arrested .
AMY GOODMAN : In 2007 , Sultana was peacefully protesting with fellow college students at a university in Marrakech , Morocco , when police surrounded her .
AMY GOODMAN : As tear gas spread , Sultana was beaten by police , one of whom singled her out for more abuse .
AMY GOODMAN : Sultana ’ s ordeal continued in an ambulance as she was tortured on her way to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her eye has not stopped Sultana Khaya from continuing her protests for Western Saharan independence — as we will witness for ourselves even during our short stay in Western Sahara .
AMY GOODMAN : That is Sahrawi singer Mariem Hassan from her album El Aaiun on Fire ( El Aaiun Egdat ) .
This is a Democracy Now !
special , “ Four Days in Western Sahara : Africa ’ s Last Colony.
” On day three of our trip to Laayoune , the capital of Western Sahara , we invite a Sahrawi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is stopped by the hotel ’ s receptionist as he tries to enter .
She calls authorities to report an unregistered visitor , forbidding him from coming upstairs .
After we push hard and threaten to leave the hotel , she relents , saying he could speak to us “ for five minutes.
” Hamma el-Qoteb arrives clutching a photo of his brother , who was forcibly disappeared in 1992 .
He ’ s been searching for him ever since .
AMY GOODMAN : On October 9th , 2010 , tens of thousands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of occupation , erected a large protest encampment in the desert outside Laayoune .
Known as Gdeim Izik , the camp preceded the Arab Spring and quickly grew to include whole families living among thousands of tents .
This is human rights activist Naama Asfari laying out the protesters ’ demands .
AMY GOODMAN : Speaking on Democracy Now !
, renowned author and activist Noam Chomsky called the Gdeim Izik uprising the start of the Arab Spring .
AMY GOODMAN : On November 8th , 2010 , Moroccan forces used tear gas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the protesters from their tents , before firing live rounds and setting the camp on fire .
The Polisario says the raid killed 36 people , with many hundreds more injured and arrested .
Many were tortured in custody , including 23 activists who were accused of contributing to the violence .
They were tried , convicted and given harsh sentences in July of 2017 .
It was the latest chapter in a long history of repression against Sahrawis at the hands of Moroccan forces .
Many of those detained were represented by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He ’ s a former activist who was disappeared in Moroccan prisons for 16 years .
He ’ s also the brother of the recently deceased Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz .
Erguibi is one of just four Sahrawi lawyers permitted by Morocco to try cases in court .
AMY GOODMAN : After leaving Mohamed Erguibi ’ s office , we drive to a restaurant near the airport for dinner .
As usual , we ’ re followed .
AMY GOODMAN : We ’ re eager to leave , so we can find out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protesters across town .
But the moment we stand up , we ’ re followed out of the restaurant by the crowd .
Outdoors , we ’ re surrounded on all sides and prevented from driving away .
The pro-Morocco protesters unfurl large , custom banners printed on vinyl .
They ’ re starkly reminiscent of a banner photographed at a Moroccan state-sanctioned protest against U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in March of 2016 , after he used the word “ occupation.
” Back at the restaurant , one of the vinyl banners with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of me interviewing a Sahrawi activist , with the caption “ Shame on you.
” AMY GOODMAN : As we speak with Basheer Dahy , a number of men in plainclothes stand on the perimeter , taking photos and video , speaking on cellphones .
A local activist would later identify some of them as members of the Moroccan Interior Ministry , including at least one official who has been accused of torturing many Sahrawis .
AMY GOODMAN : Now it ’ s getting dark .
We ’ re getting increasingly nervous .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the pro-Morocco protesters prevent us from leaving for over an hour .
It ’ s a clear effort to intimidate us and to keep us away from the protest across town .
When we ’ re finally able to escape , Jamal receives a call .
A number of Sahrawi activists have been badly beaten .
We race to the home where they ’ re gathered to recover from their injuries .
Inside , we find a number of women tending to an activist named Aziza Biza , who ’ s retching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ GOODMAN : The activists have recorded video of their protest — and the subsequent beatings by Moroccan forces — on cellphones and camcorders .
What our cameras couldn ’ t capture , citizen journalists ’ could .
We begin downloading their footage , as activist Mina Bali describes what happened .
AMY GOODMAN : We follow Sultana Khaya into a small bedroom .
She pulls back her melhfa — her traditional Sahrawi robe — and shows me fresh bruises on her leg , both arms and on her breast .
AMY GOODMAN : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well .
Mahfouda Lafkir shows us black-and-blue bruises on her arms .
AMY GOODMAN : Ghalia Yimani pulls back her melhfa to show us gruesome injuries .
Both her arms and both breasts are badly bruised .
Like a number of these women , she ’ s been sexually assaulted .
AMY GOODMAN : Next , we meet the man who risked his safety to film the assault on protesters from a nearby rooftop .
Hamoud Lili is a citizen journalist with the group Equipe Media .
AMY GOODMAN : Back in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vomiting from her injuries and is propped up on pillows .
She ’ s able to speak with us , with her husband and teenage son sitting beside her .
AMY GOODMAN : After leaving the activists , we return to our hotel .
It ’ s dark .
We ’ re certain we ’ re under heavy surveillance .
AMY GOODMAN : Soon there ’ s a commotion outside our room on the boulevard below .
Cars are making U-turns outside of our hotel , their drivers clearly alarmed over something happening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a phone call from Mohamed Mayara of Equipe Media .
He describes the police violence he ’ s witnessing nearby .
AMY GOODMAN : We climb a set of stairs to the hotel ’ s rooftop .
We spot protesters on a sidewalk below , a few hundred feet away .
They begin to scatter just as the hotel ’ s night manager demands we leave .
AMY GOODMAN : We quietly descend and return to our room .
From our window , we spot about a dozen men throwing stones , then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , police in riot gear arrive , charging the protesters and throwing rocks of their own .
As the night wears on , the confrontation between Sahrawi activists and the police winds down .
We heard later there had been arrests .
We spend our few remaining hours at the hotel taking precautions to protect the footage we had recorded over our trip to occupied Western Sahara , then make our way to the airport .
AMY GOODMAN : At the gate , we pass through a final gauntlet of Moroccan Mukhabarat , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the plane , one of them says , “ I hope you had a good time in Moroccan Sahara.
” “ Moroccan Sahara , ” the term the Moroccan government uses , but no country in the world officially recognizes .
Morocco occupies Western Sahara , Africa ’ s last colony .
For Democracy Now !
, I ’ m Amy Goodman , with John Hamilton , Mike Burke and Denis Moynihan .
This has been a Democracy Now !
special , “ Four Days in Western Sahara : Africa ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Western Sahara recently ended , after the Moroccan military broke into a southern no-go buffer zone on November 13th to attack Sahrawi civilians and exchanged fire with the Polisario Front , the Sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence .
As Morocco and the Polisario engage on the battle front , dozens have been arrested in the occupied territory .
Many of the Sahrawis in this film are currently under police siege or in hiding .
“ Four Days in Western Sahara ” was directed by John Hamilton and produced with our news director @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thanks to María Carrión , Julie Crosby , Miriam Barnard , Brendan Allen , Hugh Gran and all those who helped us along the way .
All music by the late Sahrawi singer Mariem Hassan .
I ’ m Amy Goodman .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Today, a Democracy Now! exclusive: “Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony.”
Western Sahara, where peaceful protesters, led by women, are beaten in the streets. Thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation.
SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] He jabbed right at my eye with his baton. I was yelling at him, “Hey, you Moroccan! You pulled out my eye!”
AMY GOODMAN: Where natural resources are plundered, from phosphates to fish.
HMAD HAMMAD: [translated] I say that our damnation comes from the natural resources we have here. If it wasn’t for these natural resources, Morocco never would have invaded Western Sahara.
AMY GOODMAN: Where a massive wall divides a people, the Sahrawi, the native population, denied a vote for self-determination.
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] If we don’t speak out, especially us, as victims who have suffered all of this, if we don’t speak out and defend our cause, this problem will remain.
AMY GOODMAN: Western Sahara — the center of a four-decades-long struggle for independence from Morocco, its neighbor to the north. Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community.
The story of Western Sahara is one of colonialism, plunder and resistance. It’s also a story rarely told in the international media.
And it’s here in Western Sahara where the scholar Noam Chomsky says the Arab Spring first began in late 2010, before the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
NOAM CHOMSKY: The Moroccan forces came in, destroyed tent cities, a lot of killed and wounded and so on. And then it spread.
AMY GOODMAN: But the struggle in Western Sahara dates back much longer. For nearly a century, Western Sahara was colonized by Spain. But the Spanish occupation ended in 1975, setting off a regional fight. On October 31st, 1975, both Morocco from the north and Mauritania from the south invaded Western Sahara as Spain withdrew.
Days after Moroccan troops invaded, King Hassan II ordered hundreds of thousands of Moroccan citizens to enter Western Sahara in what became known as the Green March. Mauritania would withdraw less than four years later, but Morocco has remained to this day.
Just days after the Moroccan invasion, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger privately told President Gerald Ford he hoped for a, quote, “rigged UN vote” at the Security Council to confirm Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara.
About half of the Sahrawi population fled the invasion to neighboring Algeria, where they settled in refugee camps in the middle of the desert. The Moroccan invasion set off a 16-year-long war with the Sahrawi liberation movement known as the Polisario Front. Morocco’s army, with the help of U.S. military aid, drove the Polisario to Western Sahara’s Eastern Desert. Morocco then created the world’s longest minefield and built the second-longest wall on Earth, with the help of U.S. weapons companies Northrop and Westinghouse.
The nearly 1,700-mile wall divides Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those who fled into exile.
The Moroccan government began decades of torture, disappearances, killings and repression against pro-independence Sahrawis living in the occupied territory.
In 1991, the U.N. sponsored a ceasefire and promised Sahrawis a referendum on self-determination, organized by its peacekeeping mission known as MINURSO. Since then, Morocco has blocked attempts to organize the vote, and the U.N. Security Council has refused to implement its own referendum plan or allow MINURSO to monitor the human rights situation in the territory.
Today, no country recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, one of the most inaccessible places in the world. And the international media has largely ignored the occupation, in part because Morocco has routinely blocked journalists from entering Western Sahara.
But in late 2016, Democracy Now! successfully broke the news blockade. We were in Marrakech, Morocco, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. With U.N. credentials and U.S. passports, we decided to take a chance and attempt to do what no foreign television crew has done in years: report from Africa’s last colony.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now! We’ve just landed in Laayoune, the capital of Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony, hoping to report from here, occupied by Morocco for more than 40 years. We’re at the airport now. We’ll see what happens.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m speaking quietly on the plane because journalists, even Western journalists, are rarely allowed into Western Sahara. We don’t know if this is the moment we’ll be turned back, as so many others have been.
Maybe it’s the U.N. press badges around our necks. Maybe it’s our U.S. passports. Or maybe it’s just that our arrival was so unexpected. But after a check of our documents and a few questions, we’re waved through customs.
Outside the airport, we climb into a car driven by Jamal, our translator and guide.
JAMAL: It’s very nice to meet you.
AMY GOODMAN: So, who are the plainclothes officers at the airport?
JAMAL: Those are security officers. Some of them belong to different departments.
AMY GOODMAN: Jamal says we’ve been observed by local police, the Moroccan secret service and intelligence agents.
JAMAL: So, welcome to Laayoune. This is Laayoune. Actually, the airport is so close, so nearby, that you could walk.
AMY GOODMAN: We arrive at the Hotel Salwan, knowing that the receptionist is obliged to inform the police of our presence. We check in quickly and immediately prepare to interview Sahrawi activists in one of our rooms. We don’t know how many hours — or minutes — we’ll have to record before the authorities arrive.
Soon, a small contingent of Sahrawis enters.
Our first interview is with journalist Mohamed Mayara. He speaks in hushed tones about the torture and murder his family faced at the hands of the Moroccan authorities.
MOHAMED MAYARA: My father was among four brothers who were kidnapped directly when Morocco invaded the Western Sahara. So, he was arrested on February 27th, 1976. I was 2 months [old]. He was kidnapped, and then they sent him to a secret jail, well known by the Sahrawis, Agdz in Southern Morocco. He spent one year and six months, and he was killed under torture.
AMY GOODMAN: What kind of risk do you take speaking to a Western journalist like me?
MOHAMED MAYARA: I have a daughter who is 7 years old. So, I told her when she asked me about my father. So, I tried to tell her that my father was kidnapped and tortured and etc., but I tried to teach her that one day I will face the same fate. So, I’m always waiting.
AMY GOODMAN: Why do you take that risk?
MOHAMED MAYARA: Because I think this engagement, this is the duty of freedom.
AMY GOODMAN: The work of Mohamed Mayara’s citizen journalist group Equipe Media is documented in the film 3 Stolen Cameras. It shows the gruesome fate of a Sahrawi cameraman who was pushed off a rooftop by police after he was spotted filming a bloody crackdown on a peaceful protest.
SAHRAWI CAMERAMAN: [translated] Suddenly, an undercover policeman had detected me on a rooftop. They suddenly appeared and pushed me over the edge. As I fell down on the street, I broke my leg. Other policemen dragged me on the ground. A bit further down the street there was a burning tire. They pulled me over it. It was no accident. They wanted to demonstrate their power and show what happens to those who try to break the media blockade.
AMY GOODMAN: Facing this kind of violence against those who document Morocco’s crackdown on dissent, it’s remarkable that these Sahrawis were willing to speak with us.
We also meet journalist Hayat Khatari.
AMY GOODMAN: Can media operate here in Western Sahara? Can you have your own media?
HAYAT KHATARI: [translated] We are very much harassed. The most recent episode was when my sister Nazha al-Khalidi had her camera confiscated. And then they arrested her. And she was brutally treated by the authorities over 24 hours in the police station. That’s apart from when she was trying to videotape a peaceful demonstration at the beach of Foum el-Oued.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s now past midnight. Not long after we finish our interviews, we get a phone call. The hotel receptionist tells us the police are in the hotel lobby, demanding to see us. We make our way downstairs. Two men in plainclothes tell us to sit down and warn us against reporting in Western Sahara. We go back upstairs, and, soon after, we learn a pro-Moroccan government website called Sahara Zoom had published details about our trip, including information about the interviews we had done in our hotel room that night. The message was clear: We’re watching you.
This is a Democracy Now! special, “Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony.”
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: That is Sahrawi singer Mariem Hassan from her album El Aaiun on Fire (El Aaiun Egdat). This is a Democracy Now! special, “Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony.” I’m Amy Goodman.
It’s day two of our trip to Laayoune, the capital of Western Sahara. Despite warnings against reporting from here, we set off for the offices of a human rights group. We carry all our possessions with us, assuming our hotel rooms could be searched or we could be deported at a moment’s notice. Everywhere we go, we’re followed.
AMY GOODMAN: We just left our hotel. And a man with a motorcycle just outside, as we came out, he started texting. And now he’s a little bit behind us, keeping a careful distance. We’ve got security on our tail. We’ve made a right and a left and a right. We made a U-turn, and the man on a motorcycle is right behind.
Everywhere we drive are the posters, the billboards of the king. That’s the Moroccan king, King Mohammed VI.
JAMAL: Right here. Right here. This is the door, so…
AMY GOODMAN: We have arrived at the only Moroccan-accepted nonprofit here in Laayoune. There’s clearly security sitting right next to the door. And the motorcyclist, the so-called security, is right behind us.
AMY GOODMAN: The human rights organization has a long name. ASVDH stands for the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State. The walls of its office are lined with posters and photographs showing the names and faces of the imprisoned, the disappeared, the now dead.
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] My name is Elghalia Djimi. I’m a former victim of forced disappearance. I’m the vice president of the Sahrawi association here. That’s where we are right now. It’s our association that traces the files of Sahrawi disappearance victims. Today, November 20th, marks the anniversary of my forced disappearance, which took place in 1987.
AMY GOODMAN: Elghalia Djimi, describe what happened to you.
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] What happened to me happened to all the victims. Specifically, the pictures that I saw from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, they made me feel that I lived the same thing, that I underwent the same conditions, but in darkness. At that time, there was nobody to take pictures of us. There was nobody to talk about us.
AMY GOODMAN: Elghalia Djimi shows us her arm, left scarred after her captors unleashed a dog on her.
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] I still bear the marks of the dog bites, right here.
AMY GOODMAN: Who did this to you?
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] It was the Moroccan state and the Moroccan police, the secret police. The same thing they did to me, they did to my grandmother before, in 1984, when she was kidnapped. And so far we don’t know anything about what happened to her. I was stripped naked completely. The worst part of the torture, as a Muslim and an Arab, was that I was stripped naked. I lost all my hair because of the chemicals they used on my head, which they left on me for two months and 27 days.
AMY GOODMAN: Elghalia Djimi sinks to the floor as she continues to describe her torture in Moroccan police custody.
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] One of the torturers would put water onto my face, which was covered with a rag, until I started asphyxiating. And then he would slap my face until I would breathe again.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you saying they waterboarded you?
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] Yes. They poured water on my face until I asphyxiated. And then one of them who was at my feet would beat me with a baton. Then, in the same area, they had a small hole filled with water where they put me. And then they would bring an electric generator, and they would electrocute me using that technique, in my fingers and in my ears. They threatened me with rape, to kill me with a pistol to the head, and to brainwash me.
AMY GOODMAN: You were tortured 30 years ago. Do you feel you are taking a risk when you speak out?
ELGHALIA DJIMI: [translated] I am not afraid. I took a vow that we have to talk about this issue. If we don’t speak out, especially us, as victims who have suffered all of this, if we don’t speak out and defend our cause, this problem will remain.
AMY GOODMAN: Our interview is interrupted when our guide Jamal receives an urgent phone call. We’ve been summoned to appear before the most powerful man in Laayoune. We get back into our car and head for his residence. Once again, we’re followed by a man on a motorcycle. Are we about to be deported?
Time after time, journalists are turned back as they try to enter Western Sahara, like 12 Spanish reporters deported from Laayoune’s airport after their arrival in 2010, including the renowned radio reporter Àngels Barceló.
ÀNGELS BARCELÓ: [translated] Every time they turn us away, we should go and tell the story on air, go and say, “Today we have tried it again, and today the Moroccans have sent us away again.”
AMY GOODMAN: And the Spanish journalist Bernard Millet.
BERNARD MILLET: [translated] They inspected all my gear — cameras, photographs — and they made me erase photos that, according to them, were incriminating.
AMY GOODMAN: And human rights observers are deported, as well, like European parliamentarian Willy Meyer, Spanish lawmaker Xabier Ron, a Norwegian delegation held on a bus and expelled in 2016, and many others. All of them tried and failed to do what we had somehow managed—to make it into Western Sahara to report on the occupation.
JAMAL: We’re going to see the governor of Laayoune. His name is Yahdih Bouchaab. He’s the wali. Actually, we call him the wali. It’s a much superior position to the governor. He’s appointed by the king.
AMY GOODMAN: The wali is a Sahrawi and former member of the Polisario Front. He now works for the Moroccan monarchy, overseeing a security apparatus that seeks to crush the Sahrawi independence movement. We arrive at his fortified compound and are escorted inside by armed guards—afraid we’re about to be expelled from the territory.
JAMAL: So, this is the residency of the governor, the wali. OK, let’s go please.
AMY GOODMAN: Inside the wali’s residence, we’re seated, served tea, dates and nuts, as the wali tells us, in no uncertain terms, we’re not allowed to practice journalism in Western Sahara.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: If you have the authorization, I would be more than glad to provide this interview. Second position, if I am retired, I can even come to your station in the U.S. and to deliver that interview. I would be more than glad. But now, as far as you have no authorization.
AMY GOODMAN: Despite the wali’s warnings, I continue to question him.
I quote from a Human Rights Watch report titled “Keeping It Secret,” about Morocco’s efforts to block access to MINURSO. That’s the U.N. mission for a referendum on the status of Western Sahara.
AMY GOODMAN: ”MINURSO staff members, including military observers, are subjected to constant surveillance by Morocco. This, and internal pressure from MINURSO, made them reluctant, even frightened, to speak to our organization” — which is Human Rights Watch — “except on the explicit condition of anonymity.”
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Very exciting.
AMY GOODMAN: “Moroccan security forces” — this is Human Rights Watch.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Very exciting. Human Rights Watch — is that Bible?
AMY GOODMAN: No, but I’m — are you —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Is that Qur’an?
AMY GOODMAN: Are you — no, I’m asking: Are you disagreeing with this?
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: I disagree completely.
AMY GOODMAN: They say —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: They are working for an agenda here.
AMY GOODMAN: “Moroccan” —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Wait, wait. What they have said about the other party?
AMY GOODMAN: “Moroccan security forces tried” —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: About the Polisario?
AMY GOODMAN: —”to prevent Human Rights Watch” —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: — “from entering the U.N. headquarters, stating that entry was forbidden to non-MINURSO staff unless it had been cleared with local Moroccan authorities first. Moroccan authorities’ harassment of Human Rights Watch, as well as their strict surveillance of its activities” —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Very important. Very exciting. [laughs]
AMY GOODMAN: — “impeded the organization’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation of human rights in” —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Anything. They say just anything just to make — to make things exciting.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me ask you one other question, which is of concern to many people in the human rights community, which is the issue of the protests here being cracked down on and people being beaten or arrested.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: That’s a good thing. If you are talking about peaceful demonstration, I am with. Completely, I am. I appreciate to see people demonstrating and to give their — to provide their opinions.
AMY GOODMAN: But people got injured.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Sorry?
AMY GOODMAN: People got injured. People —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: You will see by yourself.
AMY GOODMAN: So you’re saying people are not being hurt in the demonstrations?
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: You will see who was hurt by those demonstrations. It’s not demonstrations. It’s completely the anarchy.
AMY GOODMAN: As I continue to press him on human rights, the wali loses his temper.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: You talk about — about — about human rights? Human rights, even in United States you don’t have them. You have more than 1 million people living just in the underground in New York. And they are eating rats. And yeah —
JAMAL Rats.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: Rats. And when they are sick, they are eaten by the rats.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s true.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: “Democracy Now”? You have to work on it in Guantánamo and everywhere.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s a very important point.
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: That’s it.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s —
YAHDIH BOUCHAAB: I think I was very happy to see you, because —
AMY GOODMAN: With that, we’re dismissed — and warned against continuing to report from Western Sahara.
During our discussion, the wali repeatedly mentioned the close U.S.-Moroccan relationship, which dates back to 1777, when Morocco became the first nation to recognize the United States. While the U.S. has never recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, Washington has played a pivotal role in shoring up Morocco’s occupation.
In addition to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hoping for a rigged vote at the United Nations Security Council regarding Western Sahara, President Jimmy Carter’s State Department in 1979 gave $200 million to the U.S. company Northrop Page Communications to build an “intrusion detection system” for the nearly 1,700-mile wall Morocco built in Western Sahara, which is lined with an estimated 7 million land mines. A year later, Carter provided Morocco with $230 million in military aid. It’s been a bipartisan affair ever since.
King Hassan II with President Reagan in 1982.
KING HASSAN II: Moroccan people and American people will be ready always to mix their blood for the dignity of man.
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: His majesty briefed me on the latest developments in his efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Western Sahara, and I expressed my admiration for his support.
AMY GOODMAN: After the Cold War ended, Morocco became a key U.S. ally in the so-called war on terror. In 2004, President George W. Bush designated Morocco to be a major non-NATO ally of the United States, opening the door for more military deals. And the money has flowed both ways. The state-owned Moroccan phosphate company OCP, which operates in Western Sahara, donated as much as $12 million to the Clinton Foundation prior to the 2016 election.
And the wali proudly pulled up a photo on his cellphone from January of 1992, showing Donald Trump, his soon-to-be wife Marla Maples and Moroccan King Hassan II at Trump’s prime property, the Plaza Hotel in New York.
Jump forward a quarter of a century to now-President Trump’s disgraced Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. Prior to his resignation, Pruitt took a controversial $100,000 trip to Morocco in December of 2017, where he met with the head of Morocco’s state-owned mining company. Pruitt’s trip was arranged by a lobbyist, Richard Smotkin, who accompanied Pruitt and helped set up meetings for him.
As we drive through the streets of Laayoune, everywhere are signs of occupation. The city was built up under Spain’s fascist dictator Francisco Franco and has been occupied by Morocco since the mid-’70s.
We pass the United Nations’ MINURSO compound, where just over 200 U.N. peacekeepers monitor the 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario, but are legally prevented from intervening to stop human rights abuses.
And we drive past the high walls of the notorious Black Prison, where generations of Sahrawis have been detained, tortured and disappeared.
One of them is Sahrawi independence activist Hmad Hammad, who welcomes us into his home. Over tea, he describes his torture at the hands of the Moroccan authorities during his years spent as a political prisoner.
HMAD HAMMAD: [translated] They linked electrodes to my ears, and something to my underarms and to my tongue, and then other sensitive parts. I was bound. And when they used that manual generator, I would hear it cranking. Rrr. Rrr. Rrr. Each time they cranked that generator up, I felt that my heart was going to burst out of my body.
AMY GOODMAN: The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the Moroccan presence in Western Sahara an occupation. What was your response?
HMAD HAMMAD: [translated] My answer is clear. We are a people. We have a homeland. We have a culture. We have all these things that constitute a country. We are very different from the Moroccans. It’s impossible for us to be Moroccans. We have no common history. There is nothing that links us to them whatsoever. I say that our damnation comes from the natural resources we have here. If it wasn’t for these natural resources, Morocco would never have invaded Western Sahara, with the support of Spain and France.
AMY GOODMAN: Western Sahara is a territory rich in natural resources, which Morocco has exploited since the 1975 invasion, despite international court rulings establishing that the kingdom has no sovereignty over the territory. Morocco controls the majority of the world’s reserves of phosphates, a mineral used in fertilizers that’s critical to feeding the world.
Phosphate is transported more than 60 miles along the world’s longest conveyor belt, from mines in the desert to the port of Laayoune, where it’s loaded onto cargo ships bound for the U.S., Canada and countries around the world.
Western Sahara’s fishing waters are among the richest on Earth, supplying the European Union with much of its seafood.
Foreign energy companies continue to explore for offshore oil — even though the U.N. says the prospecting violates international law.
Even Western Sahara’s sand is sold, loaded onto ships bound for European resorts.
A pair of recent rulings by Europe’s highest court declared Western Sahara is not a part of Morocco and that European Union trade deals cannot include products from the occupied territory.
Ships carrying phosphates from Western Sahara have been held up in ports in Panama and South Africa, after the Polisario challenged ownership of the cargo, claiming it belongs to the Sahrawi people.
Sahrawis are fighting the plunder through peaceful demonstrations and through the courts.
When they hold protests in their refugee camps in Algeria, thousands turn out to oppose foreign companies profiting from the occupation — like the European oil and gas driller San Leon Energy.
But when Sahrawis protest in occupied Western Sahara, they’re routinely met with violence by Morrocan authorities.
It’s still day two of our trip to Western Sahara. As we cross town to meet with more Sahrawi independence activists, once again we’re followed by a man on a motorcycle. We arrive, making our way past pro-independence graffiti, and meet an icon of the Sahrawi resistance.
Sultana Khaya drapes herself in the red, white, black and green flag of Western Sahara. Just holding this flag in public is enough to get an activist beaten and arrested.
SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] My name is Sultana Khaya. I was born under Moroccan rule in the occupied city of Bojador. I live just like any other Sahrawi woman who was subjected to torture and beatings. And in my opinion, my case was milder than many others.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2007, Sultana was peacefully protesting with fellow college students at a university in Marrakech, Morocco, when police surrounded her.
SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] May 9th was an anniversary that all Sahrawis should celebrate. We were a group of 500 Sahrawi students. We left the university campus marching, peacefully, waving flags and chanting, “There are no alternatives to self-determination!” They sealed off the street, and we were besieged in it.
AMY GOODMAN: As tear gas spread, Sultana was beaten by police, one of whom singled her out for more abuse.
SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] One of them recognized me. And he jabbed right at my eye with his baton. When he did that, I bent over, and I could feel my eyeball in my hand. I was yelling at him, “Hey, you Moroccan! You pulled out my eye!”
AMY GOODMAN: Sultana’s ordeal continued in an ambulance as she was tortured on her way to the hospital.
SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] I told them I had a hemorrhage in my eye. He tried to put his finger into my eye socket. I didn’t get any medical treatment ’til the next morning at 11, when a group of Moroccans came to me telling someone to sew up my eye, because when I was in the ambulance, another woman was crying and telling me, “Your eye is gone!” They were trying to sew up my eye so other women could see it and think twice before getting involved in activism. They wanted to make an example of me.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you have confidence that Western Sahara will become an independent nation?
SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] That’s for sure, because the determination of the people is invincible. What we’ve got is true. We’ve lost many men and women over this. One day it shall be liberated.
AMY GOODMAN: Even losing her eye has not stopped Sultana Khaya from continuing her protests for Western Saharan independence — as we will witness for ourselves even during our short stay in Western Sahara.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: That is Sahrawi singer Mariem Hassan from her album El Aaiun on Fire (El Aaiun Egdat). This is a Democracy Now! special, “Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony.”
On day three of our trip to Laayoune, the capital of Western Sahara, we invite a Sahrawi activist to our hotel. Hamma el-Qoteb is stopped by the hotel’s receptionist as he tries to enter. She calls authorities to report an unregistered visitor, forbidding him from coming upstairs. After we push hard and threaten to leave the hotel, she relents, saying he could speak to us “for five minutes.”
Hamma el-Qoteb arrives clutching a photo of his brother, who was forcibly disappeared in 1992. He’s been searching for him ever since.
HAMMA EL-QOTEB: [translated] This is my brother Hafed el-Qoteb, who was abducted November 7th, 1992, by Moroccan plainclothes police at 5 in the morning. It was because of his involvement in the demonstration at the Nagjir Hotel, November 6th. They woke us up very early in the morning. And the situation was very ugly. Plainclothes policemen came to our house, and they abducted him.
AMY GOODMAN: Where was he taken to?
HAMMA EL-QOTEB: [translated] The information that we have is inconclusive, because we didn’t see anything. And the rest of the people who were abducted with him — around 500 people — were blindfolded. My brother and our neighbor’s son — we don’t know anything about them. Hundreds were released, but about 200 were kept there.
AMY GOODMAN: How did Hafed’s disappearance affect your family?
HAMMA EL-QOTEB: [translated] It was a land mine that exploded within the family. His presence was the glue that united us. My father had diabetes. And because of the insults he heard on that day of the abduction, he became paralyzed — and remained that way for the rest of his life. My mother would not dare to enter the home again, and she stayed with my other siblings for a year.
I call upon all the free world and all the people in the world to help us reveal the truth about my brother’s whereabouts. I call upon the Moroccan government to reveal the fate of all of our sons.
AMY GOODMAN: On October 9th, 2010, tens of thousands of Sahrawis, fed up with decades of occupation, erected a large protest encampment in the desert outside Laayoune. Known as Gdeim Izik, the camp preceded the Arab Spring and quickly grew to include whole families living among thousands of tents. This is human rights activist Naama Asfari laying out the protesters’ demands.
NAAMA ASFARI: [translated] Freedom of speech, freedom to demonstrate, the right to housing, the right to work, but in the legal context of the territories of Western Sahara as nonautonomous territories.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking on Democracy Now!, renowned author and activist Noam Chomsky called the Gdeim Izik uprising the start of the Arab Spring.
NOAM CHOMSKY: The current wave of protests actually began last November in Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan rule after a brutal invasion and occupation. The Moroccan forces came in, carried out — destroyed tent cities, a lot of killed and wounded and so on. And then it spread.
AMY GOODMAN: On November 8th, 2010, Moroccan forces used tear gas, clubs and water cannons to force the protesters from their tents, before firing live rounds and setting the camp on fire. The Polisario says the raid killed 36 people, with many hundreds more injured and arrested. Many were tortured in custody, including 23 activists who were accused of contributing to the violence. They were tried, convicted and given harsh sentences in July of 2017. It was the latest chapter in a long history of repression against Sahrawis at the hands of Moroccan forces.
Many of those detained were represented by the Sahrawi lawyer Mohamed Lahbib Erguibi. He’s a former activist who was disappeared in Moroccan prisons for 16 years. He’s also the brother of the recently deceased Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz. Erguibi is one of just four Sahrawi lawyers permitted by Morocco to try cases in court.
MOHAMED LAHBIB ERGUIBI: [translated] The first stage of the arrests were made there, and they were brutal beyond imagination. They used an extensive number of strange tools for torture and beatings. Some of the prisoners were even forced to drink their own urine. They showed up before the interrogation judge covered in blood.
AMY GOODMAN: Why was Gdeim Izik such a turning point? What happened? Why were people protesting?
MOHAMED LAHBIB ERGUIBI: [translated] Gdeim Izik was a turning point because it was a very genuine form of mass protest like Western Sahara has never witnessed, nor has the rest of the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Some have called it the first Arab Spring, before Tunisia and before Egypt.
MOHAMED LAHBIB ERGUIBI: [translated] Yes, without any doubt, this was the beginning of the Arab Spring. Every media outlet, after Gdeim Izik, could only talk about how well organized, well managed and well prepared the protest in Western Sahara was. And from here it spread to Tunisia and Egypt. So, of course, when the American academic noted that this was the beginning of the Arab Spring, he was correct.
AMY GOODMAN: After leaving Mohamed Erguibi’s office, we drive to a restaurant near the airport for dinner. As usual, we’re followed.
AMY GOODMAN: So, we set down here at a restaurant near the airport in Laayoune. We came into a vast, empty restaurant. And within about 15 minutes after we ordered, about a hundred, mainly men, some women, dressed in traditional West Saharan dress, carrying Moroccan flags, all came in, and they sat down all around us. One has an English sign that says, “Shame on you.” When our translator Jamal got up to see what was going on, plainclothesmen, not in traditional dress, came up to him and said they want to speak to Amy Goodman when we’re done. Our car has been hemmed in by a number of cars, and we also hear there was a protest in another part of the city where one of the people we interviewed was beaten up.
JAMAL: He just called me. He said that he was beaten up now at the peaceful demonstration in Smara Boulevard.
AMY GOODMAN: Who?
JAMAL: Hamma el-Qoteb.
AMY GOODMAN: Who we talked to yesterday?
JAMAL: Yes. He was now participating in a peaceful demonstration, and he was beaten up.
AMY GOODMAN: Some of the people here came over very close to us and took pictures.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re eager to leave, so we can find out what happened to Hamma el-Qoteb and other protesters across town. But the moment we stand up, we’re followed out of the restaurant by the crowd. Outdoors, we’re surrounded on all sides and prevented from driving away. The pro-Morocco protesters unfurl large, custom banners printed on vinyl. They’re starkly reminiscent of a banner photographed at a Moroccan state-sanctioned protest against U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in March of 2016, after he used the word “occupation.”
Back at the restaurant, one of the vinyl banners with red and black lettering has a photo of me interviewing a Sahrawi activist, with the caption “Shame on you.”
AMY GOODMAN: We’re standing here outside of a restaurant that we came to near the airport called Omaima. And a group of 50, 60, 70 people in West Saharan dress have descended on the restaurant carrying signs that say “Shame on you,” “Journalist are a person of Algeria,” “Yes for the American-Moroccan friendship” and “Dismembering countries goes hand in hand with strengthening the ISIS.”
I thought we’d start by talking to one of the organizers, who is a freelance journalist who trained in Rhode Island. So, if you could tell us your name?
BASHEER DAHY: Yeah, by the way, I’m not one of the organizers. So, I’m just volunteering with the people, my fellow Sahrawis, to talk to you about what they think of your visit and about general issues related to the issue of Western Sahara.
AMY GOODMAN: And how did you know that I was at this restaurant?
BASHEER DAHY: Well, you know, this is a small town, and everybody knows everybody. Whenever a foreign delegation comes to the area, so everybody is aware of this.
AMY GOODMAN: It was an empty restaurant. We just came in five minutes before.
BASHEER DAHY: No, this is a — this is a restaurant which is well known to the people. And, for example, when maybe one of my cousins was there, he would notice foreigners, he would immediately check why they are here. And —
AMY GOODMAN: And you were just sitting with 60 people in West Saharan dress?
BASHEER DAHY: No, no, the people are gathering. They told me to volunteer with them for the interpretation.
AMY GOODMAN: As we speak with Basheer Dahy, a number of men in plainclothes stand on the perimeter, taking photos and video, speaking on cellphones. A local activist would later identify some of them as members of the Moroccan Interior Ministry, including at least one official who has been accused of torturing many Sahrawis.
BEN ABD AL-SELKA: [translated] I’m Ben Abd Al-Selka, regional coordinator for the National Front for the Defense of National Integrity in Laayoune. I came here to represent my organization, to say that we Sahrawis are in our territory, and we will do anything to defend it.
AMY GOODMAN: Right. But how did you know I was here?
BEN ABD AL-SELKA: [translated] Because I’m always following the news, and this is something that concerns me. I’m required to know this.
AMY GOODMAN: Was I in the news at this restaurant?
BEN ABD AL-SELKA: [translated] No. This is normal. We are always aware of who comes to our territory when it comes to the national cause.
AMY GOODMAN: Who told you that I was here?
BEN ABD AL-SELKA: [translated] This is the main restaurant in my city. I came to visit it, and suddenly I saw you.
AMY GOODMAN: And you carry Moroccan flags with you everywhere you go? It’s very customary to be giving out Moroccan flags in the restaurant?
BEN ABD AL-SELKA: [translated] Of course. I’m representing an organization whose main goal is to defend the national interest. The flags are always in our homes, always on our persons. Our flags are always ready, thank God. Always prepared.
AMY GOODMAN: I saw one person carrying all the flags and giving them out.
BEN ABD AL-SELKA: [translated] No, no. We were basically helping him. Do you understand me? Some of us are responsible for the national flags, others for communication. Our work is always organized and ready.
AMY GOODMAN: Now it’s getting dark. We’re getting increasingly nervous. The sun sets on the restaurant Omaima as the pro-Morocco protesters prevent us from leaving for over an hour. It’s a clear effort to intimidate us and to keep us away from the protest across town.
When we’re finally able to escape, Jamal receives a call. A number of Sahrawi activists have been badly beaten. We race to the home where they’re gathered to recover from their injuries.
Inside, we find a number of women tending to an activist named Aziza Biza, who’s retching and vomiting from her injuries.
AMY GOODMAN: Should she go to a hospital?
JAMAL: She said she can’t go to a hospital, because they will not admit her, and she’s also too scared to go there.
AMY GOODMAN: The activists have recorded video of their protest — and the subsequent beatings by Moroccan forces — on cellphones and camcorders.
What our cameras couldn’t capture, citizen journalists’ could.
We begin downloading their footage, as activist Mina Bali describes what happened.
MINA BALI: [translated] Because of your presence here, we wanted to have a protest and show you how things are here — and how we are treated.
It’s been about two years since any journalists have accessed the territory.
We came chanting slogans, making peace signs with our fingers, as usual. And then they intervened against us in the street.
They were a large group. They pushed us into a narrow street. They took me. One of them grabbed my hair, and he started beating me. He wounded me here, under my nose. He grabbed my breast and continued beating me against the wall.
Aziza was with me, and he struck her in the kidney and hit her head against the wall. And then she fell on the ground at my feet.
And Ghalia Yimani was being dragged there. And Sultana Khaya.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m going to go with the women to see their bruises. They’re going to show me. And then we’ll see what we can show the camera.
AMY GOODMAN: We follow Sultana Khaya into a small bedroom. She pulls back her melhfa — her traditional Sahrawi robe — and shows me fresh bruises on her leg, both arms and on her breast.
AMY GOODMAN: Sultana, describe what happened to you?
SULTANA KHAYA: [translated] All of us were participating as Sahrawis in the peaceful demonstrations for our right to self-determination. I was trying to gather my sisters for the protest at 5:00. And the whole area was besieged.
They were insulting us, beating us, dragging us and using violence, to let us know that we weren’t going to be able to protest.
They tried to single us out, and pushed us into narrow streets where they could beat us without anyone observing.
What you saw today is nothing compared to what we’ve witnessed, over and over, since 1975. But the news never gets out.
As Sahrawi women, we’re not backing off until we get our final victory and liberate our homeland. The beatings will not deter us from continuing the fight. And even if we die, it will be a sacrifice, so that our sons and future generations can live in the freedom that we’ve been denied.
AMY GOODMAN: Other Sahrawis have been injured, as well. Mahfouda Lafkir shows us black-and-blue bruises on her arms.
MAHFOUDA LAFKIR: [translated] They hit me on the thighs, slapped me on the face and beat me underneath my eye.
AMY GOODMAN: Ghalia Yimani pulls back her melhfa to show us gruesome injuries. Both her arms and both breasts are badly bruised. Like a number of these women, she’s been sexually assaulted.
AMY GOODMAN: Down your arm, you have black-and-blue marks, and on your breast, right up to the nipple. The police grabbed her, and you see all of the marks, of the black-and-blue blue marks and the red marks.
GHALIA YIMANI: This one. Ow!
AMY GOODMAN: Very, very painful.
GHALIA YIMANI: [translated] Once they intervened against us, one of them pulled and twisted me by my breast. And I was screaming out loud, “Hey! You’re hurting my breast!” But he didn’t care.
AMY GOODMAN: Next, we meet the man who risked his safety to film the assault on protesters from a nearby rooftop. Hamoud Lili is a citizen journalist with the group Equipe Media.
HAMOUD LILI: My name. Hamoud Lili.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe what you’re watching here?
HAMOUD LILI: [translated] This is Ghalia Yimani, when a man in plainclothes was pulling her into a narrow street where they could beat her up. This street, where they usually beat people, has never been recorded before. They forced them here because they knew people were using their cameras to document everything on the main street. So I was lucky to get a clear shot of what was happening to Mina Bali and Aziza Biza. But unfortunately, this informer saw me and then notified all the others.
AMY GOODMAN: And then what happened?
HAMOUD LILI: [translated] I tried to move to the next window, out of sight, but my hiding place was revealed. When they saw me, they tried to break down the door, and they stormed the building. The house owner went outside, and they beat him up. I fled the house. I closed the door to the rooftop and jumped to another house to save the camera gear. And that was my exit.
AMY GOODMAN: Why are you a media activist? Why do you video?
HAMOUD LILI: [translated] Because there’s a total media blackout across the region, and there is no international media to cover everything that’s happening to the Sahrawis. And we volunteer as activists, so we can transmit the suffering to the outside world through our cameras.
AMY GOODMAN: Back in the living room, Aziza Biza has stopped vomiting from her injuries and is propped up on pillows. She’s able to speak with us, with her husband and teenage son sitting beside her.
AZIZA BIZA: [translated] They started beating me up out there and kicking my stomach. Then they tried to strangle me by my melhfa. I felt something around my throat, and I couldn’t breathe. Then I fainted. I don’t remember anything. I just remember that I found myself here.
AMY GOODMAN: You said they kicked you in your kidney?
AZIZA BIZA: [translated] Yes. And also they kicked me in my head, which already had stitches from a previous beating, and then kicked my ribs.
AMY GOODMAN: And yet you still came out for another demonstration. Why is it so important to you?
AZIZA BIZA: [translated] It is very important for me, because I want the liberation of my country, because I want to live like other women in the world, in freedom, and to see my children and my country free.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you calling for?
AZIZA BIZA: [translated] I call on the free world to help us free our country, to get liberated, so that we can live our lives like normal women around the world.
AMY GOODMAN: After leaving the activists, we return to our hotel. It’s dark. We’re certain we’re under heavy surveillance.
DENIS MOYNIHAN: There goes another new car. Should we turn off the light?
AMY GOODMAN: Soon there’s a commotion outside our room on the boulevard below. Cars are making U-turns outside of our hotel, their drivers clearly alarmed over something happening further up the street. Jamal gets a phone call from Mohamed Mayara of Equipe Media. He describes the police violence he’s witnessing nearby.
MOHAMED MAYARA: I’m seeing police throwing stones and raiding houses. It’s not far from you.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go upstairs.
AMY GOODMAN: We climb a set of stairs to the hotel’s rooftop. We spot protesters on a sidewalk below, a few hundred feet away. They begin to scatter just as the hotel’s night manager demands we leave.
JAMAL He says you’re not allowed to be here on the roof.
AMY GOODMAN: We quietly descend and return to our room. From our window, we spot about a dozen men throwing stones, then turning and running away. Moments later, police in riot gear arrive, charging the protesters and throwing rocks of their own.
As the night wears on, the confrontation between Sahrawi activists and the police winds down. We heard later there had been arrests.
We spend our few remaining hours at the hotel taking precautions to protect the footage we had recorded over our trip to occupied Western Sahara, then make our way to the airport.
JAMAL: All right, now we’re leaving the hotel.
AMY GOODMAN: At the gate, we pass through a final gauntlet of Moroccan Mukhabarat, or intelligence agents. As we head to the plane, one of them says, “I hope you had a good time in Moroccan Sahara.” “Moroccan Sahara,” the term the Moroccan government uses, but no country in the world officially recognizes. Morocco occupies Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony.
For Democracy Now!, I’m Amy Goodman, with John Hamilton, Mike Burke and Denis Moynihan.
This has been a Democracy Now! special, “Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony.” A nearly three-decade ceasefire in Western Sahara recently ended, after the Moroccan military broke into a southern no-go buffer zone on November 13th to attack Sahrawi civilians and exchanged fire with the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence. As Morocco and the Polisario engage on the battle front, dozens have been arrested in the occupied territory. Many of the Sahrawis in this film are currently under police siege or in hiding.
“Four Days in Western Sahara” was directed by John Hamilton and produced with our news director Mike Burke and Denis Moynihan. Special thanks to María Carrión, Julie Crosby, Miriam Barnard, Brendan Allen, Hugh Gran and all those who helped us along the way. All music by the late Sahrawi singer Mariem Hassan. I’m Amy Goodman.