Clear message from Sahrawi human rights defender Elkouria Amidane to the new EU Fisheries Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, on Swedish national TV today.
Here is the 11 page statement from the European Parliament's Legal Service which slams the European Commission. The statement - concluding that EU fisheries in occupied Western Sahara under its current shape is in violation of international law - has been kept from the public for 7 months.
The party congress of the Swedish Social Democratic Party demands that Sweden recognise the Western Sahara republic.
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.
See pictures and video here.
The Norwegian investor KLP has today announced that they have kicked out the Australian firm Incitec Pivot from its funds. The company imports phosphate rock from Western Sahara, which is occupied by Morocco. Norwatch, 2 June 2009.
The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara demanded in a letter on 19 March 2009 to the scientific journal Tectonophysics, that research done by a PhD student at the Norwegian Geological Survey should not be published. The geological research in occupied Western Sahara is done in cooperation with Moroccan oil authorities, but without the consent of the Sahrawi people.
A research fellow attached to the Norwegian Geological Survey has been working on an oil research project in the occupied Western Sahara. The Support Committee requests that a scientific geological journal temporarily suspend further publication of her research data. The research institute is itself sceptical of the research project.
This statement was adopted by South Trøndelag Labour Party during the annual meeting, 14 and 15 March 2009
The US lawfirm Covington & Burling helps Morocco in the illegal plunder of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara. The Sahrawi student Senia Bachir Abderahman is trying to get answers from the lawfirm as to how they can defend the plunder of her homeland.
The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU), demands a stop to the oppression of Sahrawi students in a resolution from the 55th Landsting. The NSU counts close to 93.000 members and have been working for students rights since 1936.
The company Thor Offshore from the Faroe Islands participates in the plundering of occupied Western Sahara. The unethical business helps the Moroccan occupying power's illegal oil search in the territory, and contributes to strengthen the brutal occupation. News coverage in Faroese TV, Dagur & Vika, 26 January 2009
Student Peace Prize Ceremony, 2009, Olav Concert Hall, Trondheim, 27 February 2009.
Two Sahrawi girls were stopped on the street and harassed by Moroccan police Sunday. One was the rape victim from February, the other was the sister of Elkouria Amidane, Maimouna.
Seminars and benefit concerts at Mount Holyoke, South Hadley.
A group of three Norwegian shipping companies have stated that they desist from future assignments in Western Sahara.
The Norwegian Council for Africa wrote in February about the shipping company Atlantic RTI which transported fish from occupied Western Sahara. The company now says they will prevent their vessels from being used for such purposes in the future.
For a few days more you will still find tomatoes from occupied Western Sahara on the vegetable counters of the Norwegian grocery store Coop. On Wednesday they stopped the controversial import. Norwatch, 11 March 2009.
The Moroccan Navy was asked to support Fugro-Geoteams oil assignment outside occupied Western Sahara. This is shown by an internal Moroccan government document that Norwatch has obtained. Norwatch, 17 March 2009.
The Saharawi woman who was raped at the end of February has now reported the incident to the police. The Moroccan Ministry of Domestic Affairs denies that policemen have raped the woman.
When The Norwegian Council for Africa visited occupied Western Sahara between Christmas and New Year's Eve, we photographed a freighter that later turned out to be Norwegian. The shipping company Atlantic RTI confirmed the fish transport and said they dislike that their ship has been utilised in the occupied area.
On 27 February 2009 the flag of the Saharawi Republic (SADR) has been raised on the Town Halls of Leichhardt (Sydney), Newcastle and in various cities and towns of Australia such as Melbourne, Perth, Hobart and Geelong. The flags are raised to mark the 33rd anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi republic.
Despite heavy snowfall, approximately two hundred people attended a torch march for the Students' Peace Prize 2009 laureate Elkouria Amidane, in Trondheim, Norway, 27 February 2009.
The Sahrawi student Elkouria Amidane received the Students' Peace Prize 2009 on 27th February 2009. “A brave and worthy winner”, said Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister. Nobel peace prize laureates praised her work.
Op-ed by Thor Richard Isaksen, Leader of the Students' Peace Prize, and Ole Danbolt Mjøs, Committee Member, and former chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, the Students' Peace Prize, 2009.
The Nordic Committee of Co-operating Social Democratic Youth Organisations (FNSU), consisting of organisations from all the Nordic and Baltic countries, adopted on its board meeting 13 February 2009 a statement demanding the termination of the occupation of Western Sahara.
The 16-year-old was undressed and raped during interrogation.
Tuesday the mayor of Trondheim, Mrs. Rita Ottervik, and deputy mayor, Mr. Knut Fagerbakke, invited peace activists Shirin Ebadi and Elkouria Amidane for lunch and talks in city hall.
Fertilizer producer Yara receives critisicm in Norway for its last year phosphate purchase from occupied Western Sahara. The company answers they hope Western Sahara "will be liberated one day, and then the inhabitants will benefit if we can receive their phosphate quickly".
The students of Red Cross Nordic United World College (RCNUWC) addressed a letter to the Norwegian company, Fugro Geoteam, to withdraw their vessel ‘Geo Caribbean’ from the occupied waters in Western Sahara. The letter was handed over by the Sahrawi student Basiri Mulay El-hasan.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry knew about the transaction but did not try to stop the import of phosphate from Western Sahara. Norway may have broken international law.
In August Yara's plant on Herøya imported phosphate from occupied West Sahara, contrary to the advice of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yara may have paid 4,3 million euros to a Moroccan state company for phosphate stolen from its occupied neighbour.
Press Release from the Students' Peace Prize, Norway, 3 February 2009.
The Sahrawi Malak Amidane lost her job after pressure from Moroccan authorities. Amidane had received a foreign delegation in Western Sahara.
Click on photo for larger version. All photos can be used for free, provided each photo is credited as written in italic below each photo. Exception are photos by Ketil Blom.
Morocco has apparently launched a big onshore exploration programme in Western Sahara.
