Dissenting Participation

Despite its constitutional assertion that the Polisario Front is the sole political voice of the Saharawi, the Saharawi state-in-exile (SADR) witnessed an expansion in political participation apart from official channels prior to the 2007 Polisario General Popular Congress. This report explores a key example of this phenomenon: the rise in prominence of one militant nationalist organisation in the Saharawi refugee camps, Khat as-Shahid. In the run-up to the 2007 Congress, growing debate among Saharawis about government reform and a possible return to war with Morocco brought camp residents into the public sphere through alternative channels to governmental mass-based organisations. Through a discussion of the political climate in the refugee camps during the Congress, this report considers the impacts of unofficial politics on the Polisario movement.