Mahfoud Ali Beiba
| Mahfoud Laroussi Ali Beiba محفوظ علي بيبا العروسي |
|
|---|---|
| President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic | |
| In office 10 June 1976 – 30 August 1976 |
|
| Prime Minister | Mohamed Lamine Ould Ahmed |
| Preceded by | El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed |
| Succeeded by | Mohamed Abdelaziz |
| Prime Minister of Western Sahara | |
| In office 4 November 1982 – 18 December 1985 |
|
| In office 16 August 1988 – 18 September 1993 |
|
| In office 8 September 1995 – 10 February 1999 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1953 El Aaiun, Spanish Sahara, Spanish West Africa |
| Died | July 2, 2010 "27th February" Sahrawi refugee camps, Tindouf, Algeria |
| Political party | POLISARIO |
| Spouse(s) | Muieina Chejatu |
| Children | three |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
| Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic |
 This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Other countries · Atlas Politics portal |
Mahfoud Laroussi Ali Beiba (Arabic: محفوظ علي بيبا العروسي; b. 1953 - July 2, 2010[1]) was a Sahrawi politician and co-founder of the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that seeks self-determination for Western Sahara. From 1975 until his death, he lived in exile in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria. He spoke Hassaniya (a variety of Arabic), French & Spanish.
Contents |
[edit] Youth and background
Ali Beiba was born in 1953 in El Aaiun, the capital of the territory known as Spanish Sahara. He studied in several coranic schools, then the Primary and Secondary education at Spanish colonial schools, although he did not finished his studies because of familiar causes. He was a child when he lived in El Aaiun the event known by Sahrawis as the Zemla Intifada, in wich an unknown number of Sahrawi civilians were killed by the Spanish Legion in a demonstration.
[edit] Polisario Front
In 1972, after hearing about the Sahrawi nationalist demonstrations during the mussem (an event that is both religious festivity and cattle show) of Tan-Tan, he travelled to the former Spanish protectorate, being the nexus between the Sahrawi groups in Western Sahara and Southern Morocco. In the foundation of the POLISARIO, he was designated as the head of the El Aaiun delegation. He also joined the first cell of special operations within the POLISARIO.
In 1974, he was elected as head of the Political Affairs Committee, during the II General Popular Congress of the POLISARIO.
On the night of February 27, 1976, he was one of the POLISARIO leaders present in Bir Lehlou during the proclamation of independence of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic by the Provisional Sahrawi National Council. Beiba briefly served as the provisional POLISARIO's Secretary-General, the movement's top post, starting on June 10, 1976, as he had constitutionally succeeded the organization's first leader, El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, who had been killed in combat in Mauritania the day before.[2] After about two months, the III General Popular Congress (GPC) was convened, and in the elections Beiba was replaced by long-standing Sahrawi president Mohamed Abdelaziz, who was last re-elected in 2011.
Following his service as Secretary-General, Beiba held several high-ranking posts in the POLISARIO structure and as a minister of the exile government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), including as Prime Minister in 1982-85[3] and 1988-93. In 1995-99 he again served as Prime Minister but was forced out of office after the exile parliament, the Sahrawi National Council, brought his government down with a vote of no confidence. He was replaced by Bouchraya Hammoudi Bayoun, who appointed him to the post of minister for the occupied territories. From 2003, Beiba served as president and speaker of the SNC, and in this capacity he was also a member of Polisario's executive organ, the National Secretariat.Sa Since 1997, he had been the head of the Sahrawi delegations on the successive negotiations with Morocco.[4]
[edit] Death
On July 2, 2010, Beiba suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in the February 27th camp (Sahrawi refugee camps, Tindouf). The SADR presidency declared a week of national mourning in his memory.[5]
On July 11, Beiba was replaced by Kathri Aduh as president of the SNC.[6]
A group of activists headed by the "Western Sahara Occupied Territories Human Rights Observatory" who had tried since late 2010 to made up a flotilla from the Canary Islands to sail to Western Sahara, in the shape of the Gaza flotilla, had named the expedition as "Independence Flotilla Mahfud Ali Beiba"[7].
The 13th GPC of the Polisario Front, celebrated between 15 and 19 December 2011 in Tifariti, had been named "Martyr Mahfoud Ali Beiba" in his honour[8].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Fallece el presidente del parlamento saharaui, Afrol News, July 5, 2010.
- ^ Los hombres que se marchitan como flores (Spanish)
- ^ Manuel Ostos (06-11-1982). "Un polisario del 'ala dura', al frente del nuevo Gobierno saharaui". El País. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/SAHARA_OCCIDENTAL/FRENTE_POLISARIO_/RASD/polisario/ala/dura/frente/nuevo/Gobierno/saharaui/elpepiint/19821106elpepiint_17/Tes. Retrieved 14-10-2010. (Spanish)
- ^ "Fallece el Presidente del Parlamento Saharaui". ABC. 03-07-2010. http://www.abc.es/20100703/internacional/fallece-presidente-sahara-frente-201007031326.html. Retrieved 25-09-2010. (Spanish)
- ^ "SADR declares national mourning for seven days following tragic death of President of National Council". SPS. 03-07-2010. http://www.spsrasd.info/en/detail.php?id=12273. Retrieved 03-07-2010.
- ^ "Sahrawi National Council approves successor to deceased Mahfoud Ali Beiba". SPS. 11-07-2010. http://www.spsrasd.info/en/detail.php?id=12499. Retrieved 11-07-2010.
- ^ "Willy Toledo, portavoz de la 'flotilla de la independencia' prosaharaui". Publico. 04-09-2010. http://www.publico.es/espana/335031/willy-toledo-portavoz-de-la-flotilla-de-la-independencia-prosaharaui. Retrieved 10-01-2012. (Spanish)
- ^ 13th Congress: Mahfoud Ali Beiba SPS
