The brilliant short movie "Children of the Clouds" gives an extraordinary feeling on how it must be for a youth in a country with more police and security forces than civilians.
Sahrawi students suffer under occupation. The ones who are imprisoned, are refused their right to study. Protest here!
"The UN must widen, without delay, the prerogatives of the MINURSO", said Daha Rahmouni, member of the Sahrawi human rights organisation ASVDH at the UN UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week. Rahmouni demands that the MINURSO also should work for the protection of human rights in occupied Western Sahara.
Members of parliament protesting in front of Incitec Pivot offices, importer of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara.
Read the statement here, published on the Norwegian government's homepages September 12th, 2007.
"Morocco has no right to exploit the natural resources in Western Sahara for its own benefit", said Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, in parliament this week.
The political prisoner El Ouali Amidane applied to be transferred to a prison in Agadir, in order to pursue his studies. The demand was turned down by the prison authorities. Yesterday he started a hunger strike, demanding his right to study.
Read also: El Ouali transferred -but to wrong prison
Wednesday afternoon, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign affairs publicized on their webpages an announcement that they discourage Norwegian businesses from operating in Western Sahara. The statement was made at the same time as another Norwegian vessel was discovered transporting phosphates to New Zealand. See Norwatch films of the Norwegian phosphate exports, taken in New Zealand Wednesday.
Once more, it is revealed that the Norwegian owned but UK- based company Gearbulk is assisting the Moroccan occupying power in exporting phosphates from Western Sahara. One of their bulk transport vessels arrives New Zealand on September 9th. -This is war profiteering, says the Association of Sahrawis in Norway in a press release today.
Representatives of Western Sahara's Polisario Front (the Saharawi liberation movement) and the Moroccan government met in Manhasset, New York, on August 10 and 11 with a view to "achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara" - the words of UN Security Council's Resolution 1754, adopted on April 30.
Read the testimony of Tarruzi Yehdih, a Sahrawi human rights activist and former political prisoner. Yehdih was released on July 14th, 2007 from the Black Prison in El Aaiún, Western Sahara.
“Someone must stop these terrible violations of human rights against my people.” This summer the Sahrawi student Elkouria Amidane visited Norway. She came to tell her side of the story about what is happening in the occupied territory of Western Sahara. Through demonstrations and protests against Moroccan authorities, and her fight for the freedom of a people, she has endured both torture and persecution.
...The case of Western Sahara.
Article published by Dr. Juris (PhD) Hans Morten Haugen, University of Oslo in Law, Environment and Development Journal.
Written by Agaila Abba Hemeida, this poem is dedicated to all the Saharawi children, especially the children who lost their fathers in the war for the freedom of Western Sahara. Agaila has lived and studied in the US for the last 6 years.
The student Elkouria Amidane from Western Sahara visited Norway from July 20th to August 6th 2007.
Norwegian-Japanese owned company Gearbulk transports phosphates from occupied Western Sahara to New Zealand. Check out Norwatch video documenting the illegal exports.
A visiting journalist from Western Sahara today appealed for support from New Zealand to block trade supporting the military occupation of his country by Morocco. Pacific Media Centre, New Zealand, 23 July 2007.