3 US Senators today sent a letter to Kind Mohamed VI, asking for the release of the 7 Sahrawis who were jailed for visiting their countrymen in the Sahrawi refugee camps.
Leading human rights activists from Western Sahara were last week subjected to serious violations of their rights by Moroccan authorities. 18 Norwegian organisations, including all 8 political youth parties, ask the Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs to protest.
Four Sahrawi students spoke before the UN committee for decolonisation this week. Read their talks here.
The Norwegian Government Pension Fund has invested billions of Norwegian kroners in companies that participate in the plunder of Western Sahara. An examination carried out by Norwatch shows that Pension Fund companies are behind two-thirds of all phosphate purchases in the occupied country. Norwatch, 06.10.2009.
The Norwegian seismic services company PGS has entered in on the ownership side of the Irish oil company San Leon Energy. The funds placed by PGS will help enable increased oil exploration in occupied Western Sahara.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees announced today that its annual Nansen Refugee Award will be awarded to the late Senator Edward Kennedy for his achievements as an unparalleled champion of refugee protection and assistance. For years Kennedy fought for the rights of the Saharawi people and refugees around the world. Press release, 15 Sept 2009.
Statement from Amnesty International today demands investigations into the events surrounding the forcible expulsion of 6 young Sahrawis from Agadir airport to Western Sahara.
Youth from Western Sahara and Morocco were this week to meet in London to discuss the Western Sahara conflict. Moroccan authorities have now sabotaged the talks, by denying the Moroccan and Sahrawi delegations exit from Morocco. "All the seven Moroccans had family problems", told the Moroccan ambassador to London.
Polisario and the Moroccan government will meet in Vienna to start informal talks after new US intiative. The new UN Special Envoy, Christopher Ross, travelled the region last month and expressed optimism after talking to the governments of SADR, Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Spain.
Mohammed Abdelaziz, President of SADR and General Secretary of Polisario was the Guest of Honor at the 2009 IUSY festival in Hungary. He gave a speech before the participants of a conference on Western Sahara organised by IUSY at the festival. Read full transcript below.
ZANKA, HUNGARY: The International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), met in Zanka, Hungary at the World Youth Festival under the theme ‘Development for Freedom - Our War on Poverty’ from June 15th to 21st. SADR President Mohammed Abdelaziz was invited as a Guest of Honor and IUSY passed a statement on Western Sahara for the occasion.
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2009 - President Obama's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Morocco seemed to confirm a U.S. policy shift on the Western Sahara in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Norway is now doubling its support to the Sahrawi people, making NOK 11.9 million available in 2009. “The support is mainly intended to alleviate the very precarious humanitarian situation in the refugee camps,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.
