Yearly Archives: 2015

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.

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Australian fertilisers helping prop up Africa’s last colony

s.jpgKamal 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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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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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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19-20 March 2015:Conference, Melbourne ‘Natural Resources-the Key to Western Sahara’s Future’

Natural Resources : the Key to Western Sahara’s Future
19-20 March 2015 in Melbourne

International conference with Mouloud Said, Sultana Khaya, Stephen Zunes, Damien Kingsbury, Ben Saul, Erik Hagen, Kamal Fadel…

Program:

Thursday 19 March – Conference Dinner Keynote speaker Mouloud Said – the Saharawi Minister Delegate in charge of Asia and the Pacific. Former Saharawi Representative to the United Nations and to the Organization of African Unity (OAU)

Friday 20 March – Conference speakers at CQ, 113 Queen Street, Melbourne

Hosted by Deakin University’s Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human Rights in conjunction with the Australia Western Sahara Association

See:
Conference program
Registration and further details

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AWSA letter condemns Board of Crans Montana Forum decision

12 February 2015
To the Board of Crans Montana Forum

I am writing on behalf of the Australia Western Sahara Association to condemn your decision to hold the annual Crans Montana Forum in Dakhla in the occupied territory of Western Sahara and to urge you to reschedule the forum in an appropriate location.

As a Swiss-based organisation the Crans Montana Forum should be concerned that its international conference is to be held in a country where there is ongoing conflict over sovereignty, breaches of international law and ongoing reports of abuses of human rights by the occupying Moroccan administration. It violates fundamental ethical norms and is surely contrary to the commitment of the Crans Montana Forum to building a better World, more humane and impartial and to its forum aim to consider Africa’s major concerns and to foster its hopes and ambitions   http://www.cmf.ch/events/upcoming-events.
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An Open Letter from CODESA urges cancellation of the Crans Montana Forum

Laayoune /Western Sahara, 9 February 2015

CODESA (the Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders, of which Aminatou Haidar is president) has written an open letter to the President of the Crans Montana Forum urging the Forum President to cancel its planned meeting on 12th to 14th March 2015 in Dakhla city /Western Sahara to discuss the issue of ” Africa and south–south cooperation.
The decision to hold the meeting in Western Sahara which is known internationally as a disputed territory is an affront to the Saharawis who continue to be subjected to human rights abuses and oppression under the Moroccan regime.  (Continue to read CODESA letter)
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