Author Archives: appleton

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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Christian Super congratulates Wesfarmers for its course of action

Christian Today Australia, 3 October 2012

“Over the past three years Christian Super has engaged in dialogue with Wesfarmers over its sourcing of phosphate rock from Western Sahara. Phosphate is used in their production of agricultural superphosphate…….After Christian Super and other interested parties met with Wesfarmers in 2009, Wesfarmers made the decision to invest in a technology and plant upgrade to reduce itsreliance on phosphorous rock imported from Western Sahara”…..(cont.)

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Opportunity for ACTION – Petition to free Gdeim Izik group of Saharawi prisoners

Forthcoming trial of 22 Gdeim Izik prisoners

Add your signature to Avaaz petition >>

The trial has been set for 24 October in Rabat of the Saharawis arrested in connection with the Gdeim Izik protest camp. These are the people believed by the Moroccan authorities to be the ring leaders of the peaceful month-long protest in which Saharawis left the towns of occupied Western Sahara and camped in the desert about 12km from the occupied capital El Aaiun.

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Crowd funding campaign for documentary on Saharawi women’s stories

We can contribute to the making of this important documentary about the experience of violence and oppression amongst Saharawi women

‘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.

The documentary makers, journalist Emanuela Zuccalà  and award winning Italian photographer Simona Ghizzoni write “It’s a new chapter of our personal research, that since longtime pushes the both of us to report – through photography, video and writing – the different forms of violence against women in several places of the world…..” (continued)

GO TO CROWD FUNDING WEBSITE  >>

At this page you can view footage and contribute to the campaign.

Morocco must do more to eradicate torture, says UN rights expert

UN News Centre,  24 September 2012
While a culture of human rights is emerging in Morocco, the authorities must do more to eradicate torture and ill-treatment, says an independent United Nations human rights expert.

“The situation on the ground regarding the practice of torture has generally improved from the past decades when there were widespread disappearances, secret detention and torture,” said Juan E. Méndez, the Special Rapporteur on torture….(continued)
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Phosphate plundering in Western Sahara:the illegal explotation goes on

09.09 – 2012
Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) continues to monitor phosphate rock exports from occupied Western Sahara.  This update report provides details of exports and vessels involved in the trade over the period from 1 June until 31 August 2012 (the Observation Period).

There are two Australian shipments on the list, Alycia to Impact Fertlisers in Hobart on 8 August and Maple Crystal to IPL, currently discharging 9000 tonnes of phosphate in Portland, Victoria.

Full report >>

AWSA press release: Shipment of Conflict Zone Phosphate arriving in Geelong Wednesday

4 September 2012: Australia Western Sahara Association  PRESS RELEASE  – for immediate release

As the Margiris super trawler arrives in Australian amid controversy, another ship, the bulk carrier, Maple Crystal is due at Lascelles wharf in North Shore Geelong on Wednesday 5 September, bringing a stolen cargo of phosphate rock from Western Sahara for the Australian Fertiliser company, Incitec Pivot (IPL).

The cargo is bought by IPL from the autocratic regime of Morocco which has no ownership of these phosphates.

“We do not see how IPL can have legal title to import this mineral”, says Cate Lewis of the Australia Western Sahara Association.

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