Copenhagen (DanWatch) – Denmark is joining an increasing number of governments with official policies against trade in non-renewable resources from Western Sahara. The Danish position echoes the non-trade policies of fellow Scandinavian governments Sweden and Norway.
“Taking the principles of international law regarding non-renewable resources from Non-self Governing Territories as a point of reference, it is the opinion of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that such exploitation should not take place,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

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London, Oslo, Wellington, 20th of June 2008
29 parliamentarians from UK, Norway and New Zealand this morning sent a letter to the shipping company Gearbulk, urging the company to stop their phosphate shipments from occupied Western Sahara.

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Senate Estimates: 02 June, 2008
STANDING COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE: Discussion

Senator ALLISON—I wonder if I could ask about Western Sahara. Does the new government have a different position on Western Sahara, and Morocco’s status as an occupying country?
Ms Stokes— (FIRST ASSISTANT SECRETARY, South and West Asia, Middle East and Africa Division) I am terribly sorry, Senator; could I ask you to repeat the question.
Senator ALLISON—I was just wondering whether there was any shift at all in attitudes to Western Sahara and in particular the peace plan and the requirement under it and under the UN for there to be a referendum on the sovereignty of Western Sahara. The question really was whether the new government has a different position on Western Sahara than the previous one.
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9 June 2008, ABC, 7.30 Report.

Report on Western Sahara went to air tonight.

Thanks to ABC’s James Carleton for a great report.

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The third “Norwegian” shipping company in half a year says it will not longer visit ports in occupied Western Sahara. Jinhui Shipping, registered on Oslo Stock Exchange, says to South China Morning Post that it will not contract any more business in the country.
By Erik Hagen, Norwatch
5 June 2008

In February, Norwatch wrote about the Hong Kong based shipping company Jinhui Shipping, that was involved in transporting phosphates from Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco.
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The Norwegians have had a great result from an excellent open letter to a shipping company, R-Bulk, whose ship, Radiance, was used to transport phosphate from Western Sahara to Colombia and possibly Venezuela. The company has apologized and promised to try to avoid such trade in the future,
See report published on the Western Sahara Resource Watch website

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Radio New Zealand
8th May 2008, 7:19 am

The Western Saharan Resource Watch human rights group says Sealord owns shares in the company Europacifico, which processes fish caught by a Moroccan company in waters off Western Sahara.

“Accepting a phosphate rock shipment from Moroccan authorities in the occupied Western Sahara is a serious violation of fundamental ethical norms and international law. It gives the impression of political legitimacy to a brutal occupation, and undermines the UN peace process to find a solution to the conflict. Please put further importations on hold until the conflict in Western Sahara is settled”, Cate Lewis wrote in a letter to the company on behalf of AWSA on 6 May.

Read AWSA letter to Impact Fertilisers Aust. >>

Radio New Internationalist
Kamal Fadel, Polisario representative in Australia, recently contributed to a Radio New Internationalist program which is on-line. Just go to http://www.newint.org/  and then click on ‘Radio’ on the contents bar at the top of the page. The program is entitled ‘Not so supermarkets’. A summary of the program is attached.
Program summary >>