In a short phone call form the occuppied territory, one of my relatives described to me the arrival of one of the Sahrawi groups in the Aiun airport. He told me: "When they arrived in Aiun airport one man thought to kiss the ground. He cannot do so, but when he met some members of his family he kissed them with fall of tears. After one hour he told someone: "I am not sure if they are them or not. Thirty years is not a short time. Every thing is changed here". The man wiped his tears and his relatives started weeping like him.

My relative cannot narrate more. There is abnormal noise in the line between us. The telefonic communication had been cut off. He told me lately: "We cannot speak about what is happening here. They know all the phones we have here. They listen to us."
I understood that the Moroccan Police listen to all the phone calls, and intentionally they make the abnormal noise in the aire.

When Morocco invaded, forcibly, the territory of  Western Sahara in 1975 no one thought that the event will become a tragedy. In some days the Sahrawis found theirselves outside their territory. They opened their eyes on the most horrible day in all their history. They left their homeland leaving every thing behind them. The horror of the death obliged them to leave their houses and their families under the ocuppation. Some people thought that they will return back to their houses in some days, others thought that there is no situation, even it is hard, could oblige them to live outside their country till death, for life or at least for a time in which they could forget the faces of their families. Others thought that there is no situation could separate them of their families for a long time.

The Sahrawis who thought that they will return back is some days passed about thirty years in the exile and now do not know how many years will stay in the same exile again.

The others who left their families, maybe will meet them, and if they will do so they could not recognize them after thirty years without pictures or meeting. The children who were left in beds are men now with families and homes, the others are old now with white hairs and different faces, the grand-fathers has lost their memories or died.

After thirty years of the begining of the tragedy Morocco still refuses to recognize the right of the Sahrawis in freedom, their right in meeting each others, and the official world of principels still looks with closed eyes to the Morroccan's tragedy in Western Sahara without reaction.

If Morocco, under the pressure of the no-official organisations, allowed to some Sahrawis to meet each others, for counted days, it is not a solution for the real problem of occupation. The illegal occpation of Sahara is the root of the tragedy which let someone said with tears:" I am not sure if they are them or not."

The Sahrawis can go to the occupied towns - if they want- to meet their relatives, but the problem is that they refuse - and still refuse- to live under the occupation since thirty years. It is illegal since the begining and still illegal till the Sahrawis return back with dignity. The Sahrawis are a brave, democratic people, they are not a group of weak poors who surrender to the occupation. Those who live under the occupation say to those outside the territory:" Do not return back here till the end of the occupation. We prefer you to get died standly without giving up to Morocco.".

There, in the occupied territory, the Sahrawis say when they compare the Moroccan occupation with the Spanish colonialism: "Yes, Spain colonized our territory for one hundred years but it was better than the thirty years we are occupied by Morocco". They argued that Spain did not separate them forcibly, did not jail or kidnappe women or children.

The question now and forever is: What crime did the Sahrawis to get separated or why the crime is done on them to stay separated.?

SID HAMDI YAHDIH
Writer from Western Sahara