Muhammad Bassiri

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Moroccan leftist dissident, see Fqih Basri.
Mohammed Bassiri
محمد بصيري
Sahrawi activism
MovementMovement for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab

Muhammad Sidi Brahim Sidi Embarek Basir (

nationalist leader, disappeared and presumedly executed by the Spanish Legion in June 1970.[4][5]

Biography

Muhammad Bassiri was born in a Sahrawi family in

Cap Juby in Spanish protectorate in Morocco)[3] The Tarfaya strip, which included Bassiri's hometown, had been attributed to Morocco in a clause imposed by France in the Franco-Spanish Treaty of 1912, despite the fact that Morocco had never had either sovereignty, territorial right or actual control over it, as ruled by the International Court of Justice in 1975. Its cession to Morocco in 1958, which caused a clash between Sahrawi guerrillas and Moroccan troops in Tan-Tan, is interpreted by Sahrawi nationalists as an amputation of their historical territory.[10]

In 1957 he left Tan-Tan for the newly independent Morocco to attend school in Marrakesh. He proceeded to Cairo, Egypt where he studied the Quran and the Arabic language. In Damascus, Syria, he studied journalism and became familiarized with Pan-Arabism. On returning to Morocco in 1966, he founded Al-Shihab (The Torch), a Sahrawi nationalist newspaper.[1] He also worked as a journalist in Casablanca.

The Sahara has never been Moroccan. The Moroccan kingdom will never be able to justify that the Sahara was part of the Alauit kingdom. Through history, Morocco never sent any Moroccan governor to the Western Sahara, nor have the Saharawis ever pledged loyalty to any Moroccan monarch; there were only commercial relations between Saharawis and Moroccans.

— Muhammad Bassiri, [11]

In March 1968 he was allowed to enter

Harakat Tahrir) calling for end of Spanish occupation of the Sahara. Bassiri stressed non-violence (influenced by the peaceful struggle of Gandhi in the colonized India) and wanted to bring about change through democratic action, although the ruthless colonial rule imposed by Francisco Franco's Spain forced the Harakat Tahrir to remain clandestine. Bassiri didn't want a precipitated independence,[citation needed] but to negotiate with the Spanish authorities[citation needed
]

Disappearance

On early June 17, 1970 the organization appeared openly in a peaceful demonstration against the Spanish colonial rule, asking for autonomy (as a first step to independence) and self-determination in the Zemla neighborhood of

General José María Pérez de Lema y Tejero, went to Zemla to discuss with the organizers of the demonstration, but did not reach an agreement to make them leave the place and join the official demonstration. Tensions escalated between the growing mass of Sahrawi protesters and the Spanish reservist soldiers, who were stoned-throwed after detaining three speakers of the protest, answered opening fire on the mass at 17:30 PM. Disturbance continued until 19:00 PM, when troops of the Tercio "Juan de Austria" of the Spanish Legion brutally put down what remained of the protesters. The events were seen by the Spanish authorities as a defiance to the official demonstration organized by the General governor, made to show the world the supposed Sahrawi support to the Spanish regime and refusal to the UN involvement. These events have been dubbed the Zemla Intifada
by Sahrawis.

Bassiri, who had abandoned Zemla before violence erupted, was informed of the events. He was offered to escape to Mauritania by car, but he refused it. According to Salem Lebser, he replied: "Nobody could say I'm an adventurer who has led people to death and then disappeared..I already fled once Morocco, where I felt like a stranger. But I would not fled from my own land".

Hassan II.[16]

Present-day Sahrawi

disappeared" and a national martyr
for the Liberty.

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-61069-422-3
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-88208-151-9
    .
  3. ^ a b "Tan-Tan | History, Population, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84813-658-8
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7083-2381-6
    .
  6. ^ Biografía de Mohamed Basiri Desaparecidos.org (in Spanish)
  7. ISBN 978-2-902804-12-2
    .
  8. ISBN 978-84-414-3862-0
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-299-31840-6
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1-78316-118-8
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-78316-118-8
    .
  12. ISBN 978-84-233-3446-9
    .
  13. ISBN 978-84-233-3446-9
    .
  14. ^ Declaración de Mohamed Basiri ante la Policía Territorial, 19 de Junio de 1970 Desaparecidos.org (in Spanish)
  15. ISBN 978-84-233-3446-9
    .
  16. ^
    ISBN 978-84-233-3446-9
    .
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