Trip to the Liberated Areas

Andrea in the endless desert...

Our driver Batchir is making lunch for us.

And after lunch, a camel herd of about 100 camels passed by, some of them even had the nervs to finish the rest of our lunch!

Marzog Omar, an impressing man that have been fighting for its peoples freedom since 1973.

Grass is growing after heavy rain fall in Tifariti

Abb, our coordinator, and Andrea in front of a Moroccan tanks from the early years of the war

Climbing the mountains in search of cave paintings taht are thousands of years old

Making lunch in the desert with Batchir and Abba.

Singing with the girls

It is a stary night. And to see the stars here is as if you see them for the first time. Around us it´s completely dark, and the stars and the moos are like burning fires in the Saharan night sky.

We are sitting outside in the warm night with a group of 12 year old girls, and they are doing what they love the most. They are singing.

Every now and then, they gather up, get a big metal plate that they use as a drum, and they sing. They sing everything from “a star for Polisario”, Saharawi traditional songs to Shakira.

Many people back home have a pretty fixed idea about what the life of a refugee is like. And even though these girls certainly have had their fair share of hardship, when they gather around their metal plate, they are just like any Norwegian grils just wanting to have some fun with their friends.

The absurdity of the weather

If I told you about rain so heavy that it can make buildings collapse in a matter of minutes, would you belive me?
If I told you about a sandstorm, heavy rain and extreme heath, all at the same time, wold you belive me?
If I told you about it raining in one neighourhood, but not in the other, would you belive me?
And if I told you about a giant cloud of sand racing towards you against the wind, would you belive me?

I wouldnt.

However, this is the reality under which the Saharawi refugees are have been living for more than 30 years. Living in the Sahara desert you really learn the meaning of extreme weather. When it rains the rain can destroy buildings in a matter of minutes, as it did in the camp of Smara just a few days ago. The water falls on sand that can not absorb it. When it is cold, it gets freezing cold. And when it is hot, like it is for the most part of the year, the heath is unimaginable. The Saharawis themselves call this land "the buring land".
Over the last few weeks we have seen some of the extreme weather conditiones of the camps. We have seen thing we would never have belived if we had not seen it ourselves.
About a week ago, we went outside and were met by the sight of something looking like a giant mountain. It was a cloud of sand. In our history books back home, we have seen pictures of what it looks like when an atom bomb is dropped, and in front of us something very similar was streching out across the horison. And this isnt ever the weird part.
As we were standing there looking at the cloud of sand, Maren said "It is coming towards us!" I, however, had some problems accepting this statement, since the wind was clearly blowing in the opposite direction.
But basic physicis did not seem to concern this weather phenomenon much. 5 minutes later we were running into the house to escape the sand that was hitting the camps like a wall. As the cloud was over us we looked out of the window and saw that the world had turned red. It looked like the image of what many religions describe as Doomsday.
However, as the sun slowly sank down behind the horison the cloud gradually disapeared, only leaving behind it layers of sand covering everything. The weather conditions of the desert continues to amaze us.

For the refugees its just their everyday life.

walking in El Auin

one of many goats wandering the camps

Melhefa

caught in a sand storm

Andrea, Haja, Maren and Fatu

Sahara libre

Tfarra and an old rusty car in the camp

When richess becomes your curse

Dah is an 18 year old boy living with his family in the Refugee Camps of El Auin in the South-Western Algeria. He does not study, and never considered school to be of much importance. As he says "what can you do with an education here?" For him the most important thing is being able to contribute to his family´s income. It is not easy to get a job in the camps, but Dah is lucky and works with his father fixing cars. For Dah working is not just about filling the long days in the desert. His wish is that is mother can have more than just the basic things the family needs to survive. He wants her to be able to buy new clothes, to make a good dinner or get some new shoes for his little sister, things any boy would want for his mother. And, if he does not help, who will?

Ever since the Refugee Camps of Western Sahara was established in 1976, the Saharawi refugees have been dependent on aid given by the International Community. However, as time passes and politics change, the aid given to the camps is decreasing by the year, making the amount of food Dah´s mother can put on the dinner table less and less. Reports from the UNHCR and the World Food Program in 2007 estimated that one third of the children in the camps between 1 and 5 years old are chronically undernourised. The Norwegian Church Aid puts the number as high as 40%. When the International Community decides to decrease its aid to the refugees, it is families such as Dah´s that suffers, and it is the refugees themselves who must find a way to make up for the shortfall.

What is ironical, is that while Dah is working with is father fixing cars in the Sahara desert, huge amounts of his peoples resources is being shipped out of the occupied areas of Western Shara. The same countries that every years reduces their aid to the Refugee Camps is robbing Dah and his fellow Sharawis of their natural resources and of their future. From the beginning of this conflict Western Sahara´s resources have been at the very heart of the issue. The area is rich in fish stocks off the coast, large deposits of phosphate and even possible deposits of oil. Unfortunatly for the Saharawis their richess has become their curse. Even though the reasons for Marocco´s occupation of Western Sahara are many and complex, there is no doubt that foreign interests in the areas resourcess makes finding a solution more difficult.

In 2001 the European Union signed their free trade fishing agreements with Marocco. The agreement involves Maroccan waters and "waters under Maroccan control". Despite the fact that International Law clearly states that an occuping power is not allowed to exploit the resources of the occupied area without the consent of its people, Western Sahara´s fish resources is each day being shipped out of the area. The money ends up in the pockets of the Maroccan authorites. And the EU is not alone.

In August this year, the Norwegain company Yara was exposed after buying phosphate from the occupied areas of Western Sahara. Despite the fact that the company is partially stateown, and that the Norwegian goverment discourages trading that includes the occupied areas, Yara imported phosphate with a value of about 38.4 million Norwegian kroners. Even though the company insists the phosphate was only a one time shipment to use as a test in their new facilites, the value of the phosphate is 12 times what the Norwegian goverment gives in aid to the Refugee Camps each year. Maybe this is not a lot for a big company such as Yara, but for Dah and his family, it is money that could have meant a world in difference.

When countries and big companies such as Yara buys Western Sahara´s resources from the Maroccan government, they do not only act in a highly unethical manner. They also contribute to legitimize Marocco´s occupation. And while they are shipping out the areas richess, Dah is still left fixing cars in the Saharan desert.

family reunion.

The other day we were invited to visit thehome of one of my students. He said he was getting a visit from some family membershe hadn´t seen in a long time. It was because they were living far away, he said.

He told us they were very exited about this visit. They had been preparing for weeks, putting up a big black tent that they use for special occations, buying sweets, decorating with the most beautiful carpets they have and of course, hanging up pictures of the president and their flag all over the tent!

We had seen similar tents beein put up in other places of the camp as well in the camp, and we did not quite understand what this was all about. As it turns out, a family reunion here is not the same thing as it is at home.

Many people back home would assosiate famliy reunions with their father and their uncle fighting over who has got most ram on their computer, 16 cousins that they never can remember the names of , children crying and running around high on sugar, and some aunts discussing apple pie recepies.

However, exept for the part about children running around high on sugar, family reunions here has a completaly different meening for people. It is a family reunion in the true sence of the word.

Whe Morocco bombed Western Sahara in 1975, they did not only distroy buildings and military targets. They also distroyed and seperated families. Thousands of families had to flee from their homes and leave all their earthly belongings, and most of them also had to leave their loved ones behind.Parents in one country, children in another, also seperated by a 2200 km long wall since 1986. Many of these families have been seperated ever since.

For some years now, the UN have been arrangin family reunionsfor Saharawi families that have been seperated by the conflict. You get to spend one week with your family, and when you leave, you don´t know if you will ever see your family again.

It was a family reunion like this that my student Yasaa had invited us to.

The family that was coming, was family from the occupied areas of Western Sahara. It was family that they had been seperated for 33 years, and it was family that many had never seen before.

Yasaas father ran from his home in Western Sahara the day that Morocco went into the country. He did not only leave his home, but he also left his wife and his children. After several years as a refugee, he married again and got Yasaa and his siblings.

The people coming from the occupied areas are Yasaa´s sisters and brotherand their children. Yasaa´s father left his children when they were young. 33 years have passed and this will be the first time he sees them since he left.


Yasaa and his father

We felt extremly honored to be able to take part in this great event that the family was experiencing. As we weresitting in the tent watching people dressed up in their most beautiful melhefas and draas (the traditional clothes here) they have, we could see the exitement and nervousness in peoples faces. I started to become a bit emotional myself thinking about what this reunoin must meen to people.


Suddenly we saw people starting to pack things together. A dissapointing look spread over peoples faces. We found Yasaa and asked what was going on.
"They are not coming after all" he said. " It is raining so much where they are so their plane can´t take off. They will come tomorrow inshallah".
We could see how dissapointed and sad he was, but as he said " What is one more day with waiting, when we have been waiting for 33 years?"

the rain

this is what the rain does to houses here. this is a resault from the rain in 2006