Author Archives: appleton

In Victoria the AWU and councils observe Western Sahara’s National Day

Western Sahara flag is raised at Richmond Town Hall

27 February 2020 was the 44th anniversary of the declaration of the Saharawi Republic.
The Australian Workers’ Union – Victorian Branch proudly observed Western Sahara’s National Day with the Saharawi flag raised high.

Western Sahara National Day was also marked on Thursday 27th Feb with the raising of the Saharawi flag at Richmond Town Hall, VIC.

Sydney AWSA raises the flag at Leichhardt Town Hall to commemorate Saharawi National Day on 27 February

Leichhardt Town Hall flag raising ceremony [Image: Bill Hawker, 2020]

Thursday 27 February marked the 44th anniversary of the declaration of the Saharawi Republic.

In recognition of this anniversary the flag of Western Sahara was raised in solidarity at Leichhardt Town Hall by Jamie Parker MP.

Also attending the flag-raising ceremony were Kamal Fadel (Polisario Representative Australia and New Zealand), Lesley Osborne (Secretary of the Australia Western Sahara Association, AWSA) and members of AWSA.

Aminatou Haidar announced as a Laureate in the 2019 Rights Livelihood Award

The Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Press Release, Stockholm, 25 September 2019

The 2019 Award goes to Aminatou Haidar (Western Sahara), Guo Jianmei (China), Greta Thunberg (Sweden) and Davi Kopenawa / Hutukara Yanomami Association (Brazil).
The Laureates were announced in Stockholm, Sweden, on 25 September 2019 at a press conference at the International Press Centre at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Foundation, commented: “With the 2019 Right Livelihood Award, we honour four practical visionaries whose leadership has empowered millions of people to defend their inalienable rights and to strive for a liveable future for all on planet Earth.

Rights Livelihood Award announcement

BBC interview, Business Daily: The conflict mineral that feeds the world

Morocco dominates phosphate fertilisers thanks to its disputed control of Western Sahara
Matt Davies, BBC Sounds podcast: Business Daily.  31 Dec 2019

Matt Davies travels to Morocco to speak to Nada Elmajdoub, an executive at the national phosphate company OCP. He also hears from Mohamed Kamal Fadel, a spokesperson for the Polisario Front, which is bringing legal challenges against Morocco’s phosphate exports in its bid to win independence for Western Sahara; Professor Stuart White of the University of Technology Sydney questions the sustainability of the planet’s usage of mined phosphates to boost crop yields, plus Stephen Zunes, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of San Francisco, explains the history of the Western Sahara conflict and how Morocco gained the upper hand.

BBC Business Daily podcast

Tecber Ahmed Saleh’s tour of New Zealand October 2019

Tecber Ahmed Saleh in Auckland

New Zealand Press coverage, October 2019

Tecber Ahmed Saleh spoke at events in Auckland, Hamilton , Christchurch, Dunedin, Lower Hutt, and Wellington

Western Sahara delegate urges halt on phosphate imports, by Emma Hatton, RNZ, 16 October 2019

Western Sahara refugees in NZ to urge Government to ban imported phosphate, NZTV, 14 October 2019

Western Saharan activist aims to end phosphate trade, Gerard Hutching, Stuff, Oct 15 2019

24/10/19: ACFID Members Support Call for Independence of Western Sahara

Press release: ACFID Members Support Call for Independence of Western Sahara
24 Oct, 2019
Members of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) have backed a resolution at the Annual General Meeting to support the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence.
ACFID’s members, Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA and ActionAid Australia, put forward the resolution at the AGM which was held during the ACFID National Conference in Sydney and received the support of the ACFID membership.

Press release
Text of resolution

Western Sahara refugees in NZ to urge Government to ban imported phosphate

1 NewsNow, 14 October 2019

Refugees from Western Sahara are encouraging the New Zealand Government to stop two New Zealand companies importing phosphate from disputed land.  NZ’s Ballance Agri-Nutrients’ spokesperson Mark Wynne told 1 NEWS, “I think it’s fine, there’s a United Nations framework in place for purchasing product out of disputed territories and we comply 100 per cent with that.” But human rights lawyer Craig Tuck strongly disagreed. (cont.)

Read full article

An exiled nation; Saharawi advocates call on the world to support self-determination for Western Sahara

Tecber Ahmed Saleh, a health worker in the Western Sahara Ministry of Health, speaks to an audience of trade unionists at Unions NSW, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Timothy Ginty, used with permission.

Journalist Tim Ginty reports on an exiled nation, Western Sahara in the online publication Global Voices, dated 4 October 2019

“For 40 years, the Saharawi people have been exiled from their homeland, cast out into what is known as the “desert of deserts”, where they live in hope of one day experiencing a long-awaited return to their promised land: their homeland of Western Sahara.

Their wait has been so long that entire generations have lived and died hoping for a return. One young Saharawi woman, Tecber Ahmed Saleh, tells me: “My grandmother, she died holding the radio, thinking that tomorrow they would call a referendum.”

Global Voices article

Highly successful Australian tour by WS human rights advocate Tecber Ahmed Saleh!

Balmain fundraiser lunch Tecber Ahmed Saleh and Kamal Fadel. Photo courtesy of Michael Hanna

Tecber Ahmed Saleh’s tour of Australia has been a great success. Thank you to all those who attended the public events in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

The New Zealand tour is currently underway from 5-16 October – NZ events

Below is a summary of the main press coverage in Australia

Print and online media
Interview with Tony Iltis in Green Left Weekly on 13 September 2019:

Jacqueline Maley: Lunch with activist Tecber Ahmed Saleh Saturday 14 September 2019

Ben Doherty : Foreign interference fears after Sydney University cancels Western Sahara Speaker 22 September 2019
[The event was transferred to the University of Technology of Sydney on the same day and time as previously planned.]

Tim Ginty: An exiled nation; Saharawi advocates call on the world to support self-determination for Western Sahara, Global Voices 4 October 2019

Radio
Jon Faine : Conversation Hour with Damien Kingsbury and Tecber Ahmed Saleh 11 September 2019

Philip Adams Late Night Live Monday 2 September

Jan Bartlett Radio 3CR, on Tuesday 10 September. Tecber’s interview is about 40 minutes in:

Talking Point: Stop New Zealand’s role in controversial phosphate trade

Amoy Dream is scheduled to land in Napier today.

Hawkes Bay Today
New Zealand Herald, Opinion, 26 August 2019
By: Kamal Fadel

A vessel named Amoy Dream carrying about 55,000 tonnes of phosphate rock from Western Sahara is expected to arrive at Napier Port today.
Seventy per cent of all New Zealand’s phosphate comes from Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco since 1975. It has, since then, been a shameful blot on the landscape of global justice and human rights.
Legal opinion is mounting that Morocco’s exploitation of Sahrawi resources, and the subsequent import of those resources, is illegal. (cont.)

NZ Herald article