Yearly Archives: 2011

Media Release 18 May from Janelle Saffin MP Federal Member for Page

Media Release:
Wednesday, May 18, 2011.
Federal Parliament shows solidarity for Western Sahara

FEDERAL Labor Member for Page Janelle Saffin has been elected Chair of the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Western Sahara Group, relaunched when Saharawi human rights activist Aicha Dahane visited Canberra last week as part of her national speaking tour.

Media Release >>

Killed in Western Sahara by a bomb shaped like a ball

Hassan Hassan now herds his goats alone
By Louise Orton Western Sahara
BBC News Africa, 17 May 2011
Twenty years after a ceasefire brought a halt to a long-running conflict in Western Sahara, cluster bombs used by the Moroccan armed forces are still claiming victims – among them children attracted by their toy-like size and shape.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13413947

Geelong Advertiser 10 May ‘Activist targets Incitec Pivot’

Activist targets Incitec Pivot
By: DANNY LANNEN
Geelong Advertiser (Regional Daily), Edition 1 – First  Edition
TUE 10 MAY 2011, Page 010
AICHA Dahane says people in her  native Western Sahara are hurting and Geelong’s  Incitec Pivot phosphate operation is multiplying the pain.
The human rights  activist visited Geelong yesterday, sharing a plea for awareness and action  over what she branded as illegal exporting of rich phosphate rock from  Moroccan-occupied West Sahara by Pivot and other  companies.
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Western Sahara: Winning the “war on words” and avoiding actual war

NewsTime Africa 6 May 2011
“People will easily be able to sympathize with our issues, but they need the information first.” Senia Bachir Abderahman is talking about the situation in the refugee camp that she grew up in and the frustration that her family and most of her fellow Saharawis (Western Sahara’s indigenous population) cannot escape from this refugee camp because their country is colonised by Morocco. (continued…)

Article at:  http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/19929

Australian tour of Aicha Dahane: Human rights activist and International Officer for Forum Future for Saharawi Women

aichabwp1020345.JPGAicha’s tour dates:
Melbourne 5-11 May
Canberra 11 May
Sydney 12-18 May
Perth 18-22 May

The Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) has invited human rights activist from Western Sahara, Aicha Dahane, to visit Australia.
In her role as a human rights defender for Western Sahara while a law student in Rabat, and because of the involvement of her brother, Brahim Dahane, president of the ASVDH (Saharawi Association for Victims of Human Rights Violations by the Moroccan state) in political activism, Aicha was subject to serious pressure, intimidation and harassment by the Moroccan regime. As a result she sought political asylum in the UK in 2002. Aicha is in daily contact with her family living in occupied Western Sahara, a life she knows well and which she shared for 28 years.

Melbourne program 6 & 10 May >>

Sydney program 12 – 18 May >>

Perth event, Thursday 19 May 6:30pm, Reception Room, Fremantle Town Hall

High tension expected at the Security Council on human rights in Western Sahara

Australia Western Sahara Association
Press Release:  For immediate release 17.04.11

High tension is expected during Monday’s negotiations on the renewal of the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara over the controversial issue of human rights in the disputed territory, and the Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) has joined with international Western Sahara support groups to demand that the UN mission in Western Sahara be given a mandate to monitor human rights when the whole Security

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Four Saharawi prisoners of conscience released from Salé and Casablanca prisons

3politicalpreseners.jpgThe Moroccan state has released the Saharawi detainees Ali Salem Tamek, Brahim Dahane and Ahmad Naciri on 14 April 2011. The three political prisoners have spent 18 months in the prisons of Salé and Casablanca/Morocco. The Moroccan authorities have also released Ahmad Mahmoud Haddi Elkainan, who was arrested on 18 October 2009 and sentenced to four years in prison by the Court of Casablanca.
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NY City Bar Association report on legality of Moroccan natural resource use in Western Sahara

Committee on United Nations Report April 2011
The report concludes that by ” treating Morocco as an administering power in the territory – to the extent Morocco is using natural resources located within the territory of Western Sahara, unless such use is in consultation with and to the direct benefit of the people of Western Sahara, Morocco’s use of the natural resources of the territory constitutes a violation of international law”

Read full report >>