Casablanca - A Moroccan truck driver posted a video on social media documenting a Polisario-armed militant blocking the road in southern Morocco leading to Mauritania and telling drivers to either comply with his directives or die.
Casablanca – A Moroccan truck driver posted a video on social media documenting a Polisario-armed militant blocking the road in southern Morocco leading to Mauritania and telling drivers to either comply with his directives or die.
The video demonstrates disregard of international law by the militia of the Polisario Front, at a time when the United Nations is requesting the Polisario and Morocco to shun violence and invoke peaceful, diplomatic ways to ease tension.
The truck driver’s assistant who shot the videotape described the blockade by the armed militant by saying, “Look at these people and how they have blocked us here. They told us to remove the Moroccan road tax disc and license plate. This is utterly shameful.”
The driver of the truck confirmed what his assistant said and showed the road tax disc glued to the truck’s windscreen. He said they tried to hide it with tape, but it was not enough. The armed Polisario militants asked them to remove it entirely along with the license plate. He added that they began insulting them and all Moroccans.
As one car in the video passed toward the checkpoint imposed by the Polisario militias that appear in the distance erecting the flag of their front, the driver stated that they threatened the drivers saying that they would kill them if they did not follow their orders.
“They told us, ‘if you come our way [without authorization] we will shoot you,’ they even pulled out the Kalashnikov.”
The driver and his assistant continued to denounce the actions of the Polisario militants, saying that access to Mauritania “is now at gunpoint.”
The UN called upon Morocco and the Polisario to withdraw from Guerguerat in the south of Morocco, following the escalated tension that began last July.
Morocco’s quick response came in the form of a unilateral and unconditional withdrawal from the area. In contrast, the Polisario Front refused to withdraw its militia from the area even after the UN Secretary General dispatched the Head of the MINURSO to negotiate with the Polisario’s “Defense Minister” last week.
Edited by Elisabeth Myers
