Is One of Africa’s Oldest Conflicts Finally Nearing Its End? The New Yorker Dec 2018

Women at a traditional festival at the Boujdour camp near Tindouf, Algeria
Photograph by Nicolas Niarchos

The New Yorker, December 29, 2018
By Nicolas Niarchos
December 29, 2018

John Bolton and a former German President have helped spur the first negotiations over the Western Sahara in six years.
……”Since Bolton’s appointment, in March, there has been a flurry of activity regarding the Western Sahara conflict at the U.N. and in the State Department. “There are two Americans who really focus a lot on the Western Sahara: one’s Jim Baker, the other’s me,” Bolton told me. “I think there should be intense pressure on everybody involved to see if they can’t work it out.” This spring, at the insistence of the U.S. and to the chagrin of Moroccan and French diplomats, the U.N. peacekeeping mandate for the Western Sahara was extended by only six months rather than a year…”

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Australian Labor Party Resolution on Western Sahara, 18 Dec 2018

Lesley Osborne, Professor Damien Kingsbury, Kamal Fadel, Polisario Representative, ALP Conference, Dec 2018

The Australian Labor Party National Conference held in Adelaide on 16-18 December 2018 adopted a positive resolution on the question of Western Sahara urging the UN to proceed without further delay with the organisation of the referendum of self-determination and to press Morocco to implement all UN resolutions pertaining to Western Sahara and calling on the Australian Government to ensure Australian companies have regard to international law regarding the importation of resources and products from the occupied areas of Western Sahara until the legal status of the Territory is determined and the Saharawi people are allowed to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with relevant UN resolutions and Peace Plan of 1991.

Text of the Resolution:
Australian Labor Party Resolution on Western Sahara
Adopted by the National Conference on 18 December 2018 in Adelaide
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AWSA Press Release, 14 December 2018 – AWSA welcomes progress in Geneva negotiations

Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) PRESS RELEASE, 14 December 2018

The Australia Western Sahara Association welcomes the recently concluded first round of negotiations held on 5-6 December 2018 in Geneva on the UN mandate to conduct a referendum on the sovereignty of Western Sahara.

“We are very pleased that the two parties – the Government of Morocco and Polisario – have met after six years of suspended negotiations” said AWSA President, Lyn Allison.

“We thank the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Horst Köhler, former President of Germany, and all those who contributed to the resumption of the negotiations process.” (continued…)

AWSA press release 14 Dec 2018

Stop Western Sahara plunder, Jacinda

Photo credit: The Atlantic

By Peter Kenworthy
Pambazuka News, Voices for Freedom and Justice, Oct 08, 2018

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke of human rights and international cooperation when she addressed the United Nations in September.
But what will she do about the fact that two New Zealand companies are the last buyers of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara?
Read article from Pambazuka News >

Thanks to New Zealand, I have spent all my life in a refugee tent

Najla Mohamed-Lamin in the refugee camp in Algeria where she grew up

By Najla Mohamed-Lamin – a Saharawi refugee now studying in the United States
stuff.co.nz; 21 September 2018

OPINION: I have never been to New Zealand. But what happens in the ports of your country is deeply affecting me and my people. As a refugee, living on the other side of the world, I am disturbed by the role that a country, so far away, can play in the conflict that has made my life so complicated.
A series of articles has recently been published by Stuff, regarding New Zealand’s imports of phosphate rock from Western Sahara. That is my homeland, occupied by Morocco.
New Zealand is the now the only country in the world that buys phosphate rock from Western Sahara. Importers in the United States and Canada have just terminated the controversial imports.
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Expert says New Zealand doesn’t need to keep buying phosphate from Western Sahara

Tony Wall, National Correspondent, www.Stuff.co.nz
14 September 2018
New Zealand could easily stop buying “stolen” phosphate from the occupied Western Sahara and use a more environmentally friendly version, a soil scientist and independent fertiliser operator says.
The Stuff series Growing Pain has shone a light on how New Zealand has been thrust into the centre of the world’s most protracted refugee crisis by continuing to buy phosphate from the bitterly disputed region.
The Saharawi people consider the phosphate to be stolen by Morocco, which annexed their territory in the 1970s

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FREE MOVIE NIGHT: Western Sahara Mini Docos 6.30-8.30pm, Thurs 20 September Leichhardt Town Hall

The Australia Western Sahara Association invites you to join us for a free film evening

A showcase of two mini-documentaries (30min each) on the plight of Western Sahara – Africa’s last colony and a UN-disputed territory.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A.
Learn about this ongoing and little known conflict that has persisted unresolved since Morocco’s invasion of Western Sahara in 1975

Date:  Thursday 20 September 2018
Where:  Leichhardt Town Hall
Time:  6.30 – 8.30 pm
Details:   https://m.facebook.com/events/478935722575021/

Drinks and nibblies will be available with proceeds going to support awareness-raising for Western Sahara.
Invite your friends and family and make a night of it.   Event flyer attached

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Western Sahara refugees urge PM Jacinda Ardern to step in over phosphate trade

The NM Cherry Blossom, which had been headed for Tauranga, was forced to anchor 4km off the South African coast, costing $10,300 a day.

Charlie Mitchell
Stuff NZ, September 12 2018

Refugees who blame New Zealand for a long-running stand-off in the Western Sahara have made a direct plea to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is among the few Westerners to have visited their camps.
A delegation of representatives from Morroco is in Wellington this week to make their case over the ongoing purchase of minerals from the region by two New Zealand fertiliser co-operatives. Phosphate taken from a mine in the region is considered by the Saharawi people to be stolen by Morroco, which annexed the area in 1975.
The Green Party is calling for a select committee inquiry into the trade and will meet with the Moroccan delegation on Thursday to raise its concerns…

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NZ’s reliance on ‘stolen goods’

The world’s longest conveyor belt in the Sahara Desert.

A series of three special reports by Charlie Mitchell
Stuff NZ, September 12 2018

* In Part one: Precious rock New Zealand is accused of stealing from the Sahara
*  part two of Growing Pain, a Stuff series, Charlie Mitchell reports on New Zealand’s tarnished reputation as a humanitarian nation in the eyes of those stuck in refugee camps in Algeria.
* In part three of Growing Pain, a Stuff series, Charlie Mitchell explains the strange bind that keeps New Zealand companies returning for more phosphate from Western Sahara.

Favors To Morocco Followed By $28 Million For Clinton Foundation

Hillary’s Two Official Favors To Morocco Followed By $28 Million For Clinton Foundation
Daily Caller, 12:21 AM 10/31/2016
Richard Pollock | Reporter

Hillary Clinton did two huge favors for Morocco during her tenure as secretary of state while the Clinton Foundation accepted up to $28 million in donations from the country’s ruler, King Mohammed VI, according to new information obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Lisa Jackson tried to shut down the Florida-based Mosaic Company in 2011, operator of America’s largest phosphate mining facility.

Daily Caller article by Richard Pollock >>