Overland : Online Blog, 24 July 2012

Carmela Baranowska writes about Robbed of Truth: The Western Sahara Conflict and the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking (directed and produced by Carlos González)

Fetim Salam is a refugee who lives in a remote and inhospitable part of North Africa. She is one of an estimated twelve million refugees worldwide. However, her life is neither obscure nor forgotten. Fetim Salam is represented in two recent documentaries, Stolen (directed by Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw; produced by Violeta Ayala, Dan Fallshaw and Tom Zubrycki) and Robbed of Truth: The Western Sahara Conflict and the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking (directed and produced by Carlos González)

Continue reading ‘Who speaks for Fetim Salam?’ >>

20 July 2012: BBC News report confirms hostages freed

A prisoner exchange enabled three European aid workers held hostage to be released on Wednesday in Mali, negotiators have revealed.

“It was a release in exchange for a release,” said Gen Gilbert Diendere, who headed the mediation team, according to Reuters news agency.

BBC report >>

MADRID/BAMAKO (Reuters) – An Italian and two Spanish hostages were freed in northern Mali on Wednesday by the al Qaeda-linked MUJWA Islamist group, the Spanish government said on Wednesday.

The three aid workers were seized in a refugee camp near Tindouf, Algeria, last October and were then believed to have been transferred to northern Mali, which is now controlled by a mix of Islamist groups.

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New Statesman, 6 June 2012
by Tom Stevenson

What does Morocco mean to an Englishman?” George Orwell asked in one of his finer essays. “Camels, castles, palm-trees, Foreign Legionnaires, brass trays and bandits.” That was 1939. But whatever Morocco means to an Englishman today it probably isn’t “occupation, refugees, and landmines”.
Morocco is a standard tourist destination and is held up as a model for Arab and African development alike. It may, therefore, come as something of a shock to hear that Morocco is the only African country excluded from membership of the African Union (Madagascar, Mali, and Guinea-Bissau have all been “suspended” since 2009 and 2012 respectively).

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Thursday 17 May – 6.30pm to 8.30pm at Sydney Mechanics School of Arts 280 Pitt St Sydney

$10 entry / Students by donation
Music, Drinks and Nibbles
Organised by Australia Western Sahara Association and Sydney University Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies

Join us for an evening with Saharawi human rights activist, Malak Amidan, as she talks about the situation in Western Sahara, one of the longest and most neglected conflicts of our time.

Malak will expose the systematic political, environmental, social and cultural human rights abuses endured by the people of Western Sahara

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Event flyer.pdf >>

Malak Amidan >>

Green Left Weekly, Thursday, April 26, 2012
By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim, Adelaide

Sahrawi human rights advocate and trade unionist Malak Amidane will visit Australia this month to share her experience of campaigning for justice in her homeland.

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European Parliament resolution of 18 April 2012 on the Annual Report on Human Rights in the World and the European Union’s policy on the matter, including implications for the EU’s strategic human rights policy

“91. Recalls its resolution of 25 November 2010 on the situation in Western Sahara; condemns the ongoing repression of Sahrawi people in the occupied territories and calls for their fundamental rights, including freedom of association, freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate, to be respected; calls for the release of the 80 Sahrawi political prisoners and, as a matter of priority, of the 23 who have been held without trial in Salé prison following the dismantling of the Gdeim Izik camp; reiterates its call for the establishment of an international mechanism to monitor human rights in the Western Sahara and for a fair and lasting settlement of the conflict on the basis of the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people, in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions;”

European Parliament resolution >>

Press Release from the Polisario Front Representation for Europe