Yearly Archives: 2012

Amidst series of meetings, UN envoy urges resolution to Western Sahara dispute

UN News Centre, 12 November 2012

Amid the rising threat of extremist elements in Africa’s Sahel region, the dispute over Western Sahara must be resolved before lingering hostilities consume the North African territory, the United Nations top official on the issue warned today.

In a press statement released following his visit with the Foreign Minister of Spain in Madrid, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, cautioned that the crisis had lasted “far too long” and called any acceptance of the status quo a “serious miscalculation.”

Read UN News report >>

W.Sahara sands shift in UN favour: Analysts

By Guillaume Klein
Times Online, Saturday, 03 November 2012

RABAT, Nov 03, 2012 (AFP) – Morocco and the UN envoy for Western Sahara, who was spurned by Rabat in May, are back on speaking terms, but analysts say the situation over the disputed territory has noticeably altered to the kingdom’s detriment.
The rising importance of the security issue in the Sahel region, where a military intervention could take place against Islamists in northern Mali, is lending weight to the regional influence of Algeria, a supporter of Western Sahara’s independence-seeking Polisario Front.
Christopher Ross’s return to Morocco six months after the kingdom said it had no confidence in the UN envoy came without fanfare. (cont.)

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Latest news on crowd funding campaign for documentary on Saharawi women’s stories

sahara_002_1297318778.JPGAbout the project:  documentary makers, journalist Emanuela Zuccalà  and award winning Italian photographer Simona Ghizzoni write “JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I’M ALIVE’ is a multimedia 25 minutes documentary that for the first time collects Saharawi women’s stories and voices with a feminine sensibility, combining video footage clips, photographs, music and valuable stock material.”

Aim:  To raise $12,200 – campaign ends in 18 days on 22 November

Total so far =$5,662  You can donate here >>

Latest news: $1,000 has just been donated by the film director and scriptwriter Maite Bulgari, passionate about documentary and committed to promote women’s rights around the world with her NGO called Agenda Sant’Egidio.

Human Rights Defender Brutally Attacked by Moroccan Police

RFK Centre for Justice and Human Rights, Press Release

Washington 2 November:  Retaliatory violence by the Moroccan government continues to rise during United Nations Envoy’s visit to militarily-controlled Western Sahara.

RFK Human Rights Laureate Aminatou Haidar is the latest victim of systemic violence and police brutality by the Moroccan government against the Sahrawi people. The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center) has received multiple reports in the last week…(cont.)

Video of attack on Aminatou Haidar >>

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Javier Bardem: I’ll say “whatever the hell I think is right”

Salon,  Oct 19, 2012
By Andrew O’Hehir
“….Since 2008, when he first visited the Algerian refugee camps where up to 150,000 Sahrawis — the formerly nomadic people native to the Western Sahara — have lived for more than three decades, Bardem has become a leading international activist on an issue that few in the Western world even know about, let alone want to touch   (….cont.)

Read more about Javier Bardem’s advocacy for the Saharawis >>

Western Sahara: Wesfarmers agrees to stop using stolen phosphate, but doubts remain

village-western-sahara_0.jpgBy Ron Guy, Green Left Weekly,
October 20, 2012

Over the past three years Christian Super, a not-for-profit industry fund, has engaged in dialogue with Australian company Wesfarmers over its sourcing of phosphate rock from Western Sahara. Phosphate is used in its production of agricultural superphosphate……(continued..)

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Australian importer temporarily avoids Western Sahara phosphates

Western Sahara Resource Watch,  06.10 – 2012

The Australian company Wesfarmers stated in its annual report that it for the coming production year, it will avoid phosphates from Western Sahara. Its fertiliser subsidiary company, CSBP has been a main importer of the controversial resource from the occupied territory.
On 27 September, Wesfarmers published its 2012 annual report. The company, which has for over two decades been a major importer of phosphate rock from Western Sahara, wrote:
“In late 2009, the division announced an investment of almost $5million in a regenerative thermal oxidiser (RTO) to allow diversification of phosphate rock supply options…..(cont.)

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