June 2000 4’50 Mins

00’00 UPSOUND

00’03

Sahara-wi children enjoying a break from school. They look happy enough, but these kids have never known a homeland.

00’18

They are refugees living in some of the harshest conditions in the world.

In summer, temperatures exceed 50 degrees Centigrade. In winter they fall below zero. At other times there are sand storms and rain.

00’27 UPSOUND

00’30

The Sahara-wis have lived here since 1975, after they were forced to
flee the Moroccan invasion of Western Sahara.

Nothing grows in the barren desert so all provisions and water have to be brought in by truck.

00’47 UPSOUND

00’48

There is no employment so everyone is reliant on foreign aid and livestock.

00’56

Their calls for a homeland have fallen on deaf ears. They have become forgotten exiles in a remote corner of the globe.

01’05

In this one tent live four generations of women from one family.

01:10
The great grandmother, Dada Geed, a widower, fled Western Sahara with her
daughter and grand daughter.

For 25 years this single tent has been their home.

Dada, who's 75, recalled their flight from Ayoun in Western Sahara to Algeria.

01’28
SB:

“We were bombarded by Moroccan planes. People were running on foot, some of them carrying a few essential belongings on their backs or by goat.”

01’51

Her 28-year-old grand daughter Gemila Hatra has not seen her father since she was three years old.

He was taken away by the Moroccan authorities in 1975, and they’ve heard nothing since.

02’08
SB
"I am hopeful that I will find him in the future when we return home," she
said. "For we will carry on our fight until we get our homeland and freedom."

02’32

This family like many others is losing patience.

02’40
These weapons were seized from Morocco in a bloody war, which led to a
U-N-brokered ceasefire in 1991.

The ceasefire was conditional on a referendum to enable Sahara-wis to vote for independence.

Eight years on, it still hasn't happened.

02’53
The latest date for a referendum has been December. But even that seems
unlikely.

03’00
One of the reasons for the delay is that thousands of people who live in Western Sahara have been told that they are not eligible to vote in the referendum because they are not ethnic Sahara-wis.

They are appealing against this decision.

03’12

And this is all adding to the delay.

03’17
The Polisario Front, the Saharawi’s political body, is warning it will return to war if it does not take place in December.

03’27
SB Foreign Minister
“The Saharawis are tired to be in these refugee camps and see that there is no seriousness in the Moroccan attitude, and there is no pressure from the international community, so they are going to continue their fight for their land."

03’48
The Polisario controls this narrow strip of land known as the "liberated territories" within Western Sahara.

It was the scene for much of the 16-year-old war.

Today there's no fighting, but a tense stalemate exists.

Border guards monitor the frontline.

04’06
Seven kms away is Hassan’s Wall, the Moroccan frontline, which was built by the late King Hassan.

04’15
The Polisario has between 10 and 15-thousand men training here in preparation for war.

After nine years, it remains to be seen how much longer these soldiers will be willing to sit and wait.

04’30

They would rather go back to war than see yet another generation growing up in the refugee camps.

ends