"The Sahrawi woman is very great; she's very powerful.
"The South African experience is very inspiring and holds many lessons for the Sahrawi," said Jadiya Hamdi, the Sahrawi government in exile's minister of culture.
These disappearances happened throughout Morocco during those years, not just in the Sahrawi area.
The Sahrawi have not been consulted about this and do not consent to it.
Now the Sahrawi people are trying to break the deadlock themselves – in the courts.
Then there was conflict between the two countries and the Polisario Front – the Sahrawi liberation movement.
I don't even think about getting married until the Sahrawi women become independent".
All three countries have taken an active interest in the fate of the Sahrawi – not always altruistically.
If it was neutral or even-handed, the EU would be heeding a statement issued by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (officially recognised as the representatives of the Sahrawi people by some 75 countries) in January last year.
Last Thursday, this was all that remained of the Sahrawi camp evacuated by the Moroccan authorities three days earlier.
Here Moroccan forces have waged a brutal war of repression against the Sahrawi people for the past 36 years.
