Monthly Archives: October 2022

Saharawi government condemns Incitec Pivot illegal import of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara

Media Release ~ Communiqué
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
17 October 2022 – Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara & Sydney, Australia.

The Government of the Saharawi Republic (Western Sahara) today condemned the renewal of the illegal import in plundered phosphate mineral rock to Australia.

On 17 October, a cargo with an estimated market value of more than $15 million AUD arrived aboard a bulk carrier, the m.v. Clipper Isadora, at Geelong. The purchasing company is Incitec Pivot Limited, which has not traded in the Western Sahara commodity in more than five years, at the time the last Australian company to do so. Incitec Pivot Limited has made no public statement about the resumption of purchases and has not responded to inquiries and expressions of concern from Saharawi officials.

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Maritime Union condemns import of illegal cargo of natural resources from Western Sahara

MEDIA RELEASE, 18 October 2022

The Maritime Union of Australia condemns the actions of Incitec Pivot, an Australian company, which has recommenced importing illegal cargo from the occupied Western Sahara through the Port of Geelong. The Clipper Isadora vessel is currently discharging 33,000 tonnes of plundered natural resources – a cargo of phosphate mineral rock – worth A$15 million at the bulk terminal in Geelong.

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Incitec Pivot’s importation of Western Sahara phosphate is first since 2016

Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW), 13 October 2022.

For the first time in 6 years, a cargo of conflict minerals is heading its way to Australia, expected to arrive on 18 October. On 12 October a group of Saharawi refugees protested against the shipment. The demonstration took place in one of the Saharawi refugee camps in the middle of the Algerian desert where half the people of Western Sahara have sought refuge after Morocco brutally invaded their land. (cont…)

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‘Sons of the Clouds’: Oral tradition and resistance in Africa’s last colony

Alex Whitehead
Honi Soit, August 7, 2022

The continued colonial occupation of Western Sahara is rife with state-sanctioned human rights abuses, brutality, and ethnic cleansing. Still, within the state, resistance thrives.

Saharawi refugee camp Auserd on January 21, 2010 in Tindouf, Algeria. Photo by Stefano Montesi.

Western Sahara, a territory situated in the North-West of Africa’s Maghreb, has been left behind by history. A victim of Moroccan ideas of national restoration and Spanish colonial objectives, the nation, which is home to almost 200,000 Indigenous Saharawi people, still struggles to decolonise (cont).

Article by Alex Whitehead…

AWSA Film screening: Tuesday 25 October 2022, Kambri Cultural Centre, ANU Canberra


Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) is delighted to present our first live event post COVID-19 – a screening of the award-winning film, Life is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara, followed by a panel discussion.

AWSA is partnering for the event with ANU Film Group, ANU Law Reform and Social Justice and the ANU Latin American Students’ Association (LASA).

Film director Iara Lee from the Cultures of Resistance Network will introduce the film (pre-recorded)

Film screening: FREE EVENT
7.30pm – 8.30pm
Followed by panel discussion

REGISTRATION

Ahead of UN session, Sahrawis recollect decades of betrayal that enabled Moroccan colonization

https://peoplesdispatch.org/, October 10, 2022
by Pavan Kulkarni

The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) became “hostage to the Moroccan authorities,” unable even “to report on the human rights situation in the territory,” said Kamal Fadel, Western Sahara’s representative to Australia and the Pacific…

Report from Pavan Kulkarni

Western Sahara: Australian company importing phosphate from occupied territory

Kerry Smith, Green Left Weekly, Issue 1363, October 5, 2022

According to Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW), Australian company Incitec Pivot (IPL) confirmed in a meeting with Australian trade unionists on September 27 that it is expecting a delivery of phosphate rock exported by Morocco from occupied Western Sahara.

Green Left Weekly article

Morocco’s Economy Is Sinking, but Its King Prefers the Bright Lights of Paris

Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz | Middle East News, Sep 22, 2022

The king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, is a sick man. He underwent heart surgery two years ago and this year came down with the coronavirus.
The country has been spending millions of dollars on military hardware but still hasn’t recovered from the effects of a serious drought and the COVID pandemic. Youth unemployment is soaring, along with rental prices and public outrage

Article