Monthly Archives: March 2015

AWSA Press Release: Australia urged to make Western Sahara imports illegal

Australia Western Sahara Association – Press Release, 25 March 2015

Following the inaugural International conference on the illegal exploitation of Western Sahara resources held in Melbourne on 20 March, the Australia Western Sahara Association called on the Federal Government to prohibit Australian company trade in Western Saharan resources from the occupied territory and to push the UN to force a breakthrough in the 40 year stalemate of Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.

Professor Stephen Zunes states that “International law makes it clear that Morocco has no entitlement to control and exploit Western Sahara’s natural resources (…cont. )”

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President of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic decorates Australian supporter with 2O May Medal

Sahara Press Service
Melbourne March 23, 2015 (SPS)

The President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, decorated Kate Lewis, vice president of the Australian Association of solidarity with the Saharawi people (AWSA) with the 20 May Medal for supporting the people of Western Sahara.

Saharawi women protest plunder on International Women’s Day

Western Sahara Research Watch (WSRW)
9 March 2015
In celebration of International Women’s Day, yesterday 8 March 2014, the women of the Saharawi refugee camps held a protest against foreign companies that are complicit in Morocco’s plunder of their occupied homeland: Western Sahara.
In Boujdour camp, one of the Saharawi refugee camps in the south-western Algerian desert, women yesterday gathered to demand an end to the illegal exploitation of their homeland, urging the involved foreign companies to leave the territory.

Facebook campaign against oil exploration in Western Sahara

Kosmos Enough is enough

A campaign against Kosmos Energy illegal activities in Western Sahara. The people of Western Sahara are determined to make their voice heard in protest against these unethical and illegal activities.

Facebook campaign

Western Sahara: West’s resource theft prolongs occupation

GreenLeft Weekly, Friday 6 March 2015 by Tony Iltis

Offshore oil drilling operations off Western Sahara, carried out by the US firm Kosmos Energy, were denounced by Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) on March 2.
“Kosmos Energy did nothing to obtain the consent of the people of Western Sahara,” said WSRW chair Erik Hagen.
The Dallas-based company said its exploration well had not yielded a commercial find and would be plugged, Associated Press said on March 2.

Australian fertilisers helping prop up Africa’s last colony

Kamal Fadel
20 March 2015, The Age, BusinessDay

An international conference was held in Melbourne on Friday March 19 to explore the fraught history of Western Sahara – Africa’s last colony – and Australian companies’ role in supporting a regime that disallows the local people, the Saharawis, the same rights to their environment Australians not only take for granted, but which built this country.

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Thirty-ninth anniversary of SADR proclamation celebrated in Australia

Saharawi Press Service reports on recent and forthcoming Australian action for Western Sahara, Canberra, March 4, 2015 (SPS)

The thirty-ninth anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi Republic (SADR) has been commemorated in several Australian cities.
On the occasion, the Saharawi flag was raised in the cities of Melbourne, Ballart, Geelong and Victoria as a form of solidarity with the Saharawi people.
As well, Melbourne will later this month host an international conference on the Saharawi natural resources.
The conference will be attended by experts, professors, lawyers and representatives of international companies. (SPS)

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Flag raising pictures >>

Western Sahara’s ‘conflict tomatoes’ highlight a forgotten occupation

Ian Black Middle East editor,
The Guardian Wednesday 4 March 2015

Morocco’s control of the ‘last colony in Africa’ is at the centre of campaigners’ legal challenge to the labelling of Saharan produce and the tax breaks it receives. Accurate labelling of consumer produce is a familiar part of the struggle for Palestinian rights under Israeli occupation and a striking example of global citizen empowerment. Now campaigners for the freedom of Western Sahara are making similar demands to try to undermine Morocco’s control of the territory.

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Free Wafaa Charaf: Jailed champion of Moroccan immigrant workers and the Saharawi struggle

Ben Hamblin
Freedom Socialist Organiser, January 2015

Wafaa Charaf is a high-profile Moroccan political prisoner. The growing campaign to free her — which has broad support beyond Moroccan borders, especially in Europe — is drawing international attention to national and political oppression in Morocco.

The Responsibility of the UN Security Council in the Case of Western Sahara

Hans Corell, Former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations
International Judicial Monitor, International Law Analysis and Commentary, Winter 2015

In this Commentary Hans Corell raises the question of Western Sahara saying “that it is a situation where the Security Council risks falling short in fulfilling its mandate. Under the UN Charter the Council has a legal obligation to take action in situations like the present.” (…continued)

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