However, he then went on to say (I’m paraphrasing, but this is a pretty faithful rendition) “You’re talking about the ‘Liberated Territories’ - this is a myth. Polisario has never liberated any of this land. It is a buffer zone set up by Morocco.” Needless to say I pointed out to him that I run a research project in these very territories, and work with the Polisario in this context. Having travelled extensively in the Polisario-controlled areas (Lajuad, Mijek, Tifariti, Zug, you name it), I’m fully aware that the “buffer zone” is a face-saving Moroccan flim-flam, a story concocted to conceal the reality that Western Sahara is in fact already partitioned between the two warring parties.The author gave Nick a copy of the book, so we can all look forward to a review (my attempt ata review copy has been ignored). Nick also found out that the Moroccan embassy is familiar with his blog--good deal! Why can't those embassy personnel be bothered to comment on blogs in response?
Nick Brooks emerges from the belly of the autonomy beast
Nick Brooks, Western Sahara's archaeologist about town, went to the launch and book signing of Sahara Conflict, a pro-autonomy book. He ran into the civil kind of occupation proponent, which is nicer to talk with but less fun to see lie their teeth:
