Monthly Archives: August 2012

A Brush with Morocco’s Secret Police in Laayoune, Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara

(2012-08-28) The following op-ed by Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, appeared yesterday in the Huffington Post. Ms. Kennedy is currently leading a human rights delegation in Western Sahara.

She wrote this article while the delegation was in Laayoune, meeting with members of civil society including RFK Human Rights Award Laureate Aminatou Haidar.

Read Kerry Kennedy’s report >>

Photos >>

Morocco denies shameful beating of woman human rights defender

Morocco denies shameful beating of woman human rights defender.
Frontline Defenders: Mary Lawlor’s blog

“I got news that police were breaking up and beating demonstrators. News came that a woman human rights defender had been badly injured and was asked would I like to see her. I went to the hospital with Eric Sottas, where I took this photo, as she lay waiting to be treated. Her name is Soukainajed Ahlou and she is President of the Forum for Sahrawi women. ….(cont.)

Read full post >>

Ban Ki-moon rejects Morocco calls to replace Western Sahara envoy

August 26, 2012, RECORDER REPORT

UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Saturday told Morocco’s monarch he would not give in to demands to change his peace envoy on the Western Sahara conflict, diplomats said.

Morocco announced in May that it no longer has confidence in UN envoy Christopher Ross, who it accused of being “unbalanced and biased” in attempts to mediate a solution for the disputed territory at the heart of one of Africa’s oldest conflicts.

Read article >>

“No other choice” than self-determination for Western Sahara

Peter Kenworthy, NTA Newstime Africa, 
“There is no other choice but self-determination,” says a lady interviewed in a new documentary about Western Sahara made by 31-year-old English independent film-maker and journalist, Dominic Brown. She is the wife of one of the many activists belonging to Western Sahara’s indigenous population, the Saharawis, who have been imprisoned and tortured for campaigning for independence for Africa’s last colony….(cont.)

Read more >>

Kerry Kennedy leads high level delegation to assess human rights situation

21 August : Press release

On Thursday 23 August Kerry Kennedy of the Robert F Kennedy Center and Mary Lawlor, Founder and Executive Director, Front Line Defenders will take part in a high level delegation to Western Sahara to assess the human rights situation on the ground in both Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria.

Read article and press release >>

New phosphate vessel arrives in Tasmania

alycia-080812-7.jpg
9 August 2012
The vessel ‘Alycia’ arrived on Tuesday 7 August 2012 at Risdon dock in Hobart, ready to discharge its controversial cargo of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara for the local fertilizer producer Impact Fertilisers.

The Tasmanian fertiliser company Impact has for a number of years purchased phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara.

Read full report >>

Who speaks For Fetim Salam?

Overland : Online Blog, 24 July 2012

Carmela Baranowska writes about Robbed of Truth: The Western Sahara Conflict and the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking (directed and produced by Carlos González)

Fetim Salam is a refugee who lives in a remote and inhospitable part of North Africa. She is one of an estimated twelve million refugees worldwide. However, her life is neither obscure nor forgotten. Fetim Salam is represented in two recent documentaries, Stolen (directed by Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw; produced by Violeta Ayala, Dan Fallshaw and Tom Zubrycki) and Robbed of Truth: The Western Sahara Conflict and the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking (directed and produced by Carlos González)

Continue reading ‘Who speaks for Fetim Salam?’ >>