Western Sahara News

By Louis Charbonneau  United Nations - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon suggested that Morocco may have been spying on the world body's monitoring force in the disputed territory of Western Sahara and hampering its ability to function, according to a new report obtained by Reuters. Ban's 28-page assessment comes after the latest round of U.N.-mediated talks last month between Morocco, the Polisario Front independence movement, Algeria and Mauritania on the future of Western Sahara failed to make any real progress. Previous rounds held during the past five years ended similarly. In his report to the U.N. Security Council, Ban complained that the U.N. force in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, is “unable to exercise fully its peacekeeping monitoring, observation and reporting functions, or avail of the authority to reverse the erosion” of its ability to function. He urged the 15-nation council to assist him “in reasserting the mandated role of MINURSO, upholding peacekeepi...

The new flight at Laayoune, Western Sahara, before departure for Tindouf in Algeria. Photo: UNHCR 12 April 2012 – The United Nations refugee agency on Wednesday launched the first flight in an expanded programme of visits for long-separated Sahrawi families in the Tindouf camps of Algeria and in the territory of Western Sahara. According to a news release issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR ), a Boeing 737 aircraft transported 150 visiting relatives from Western Sahara to the camps in Algeria, and returned carrying 137 Sahrawi refugees from the Tindouf camps back to Western Sahara. Sahrawi refugees started arriving in Algeria in 1976 after Spain withdrew from Western Sahara and fighting broke out over its control. Many of the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria have been living in the Tindouf camps for over three decades, according to UNHCR. Previously a 30-seat Antonov aircraft was employed for the family visits. With the new aircraft, up to 6,000 people are e...

At the invitation of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Western Sahara, Mr. Christopher Ross, delegations from the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente Polisario participated in a new round of informal talks at Greentree, Long Island, from 11 to 13 March 2012. The discussions took place in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1979. Delegations from the neighboring states, Algeria and Mauritania, were also present at the opening and closing sessions, and during the discussion of the Confidence Building Measures. As was the case in the previous informal meetings, the discussions took place in an atmosphere of serious engagement, frankness, and mutual respect. In order to find a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of th...

With Fatma Medhi, the Secretary General of the National Union of Saharawi Women Friday March 9, 2012 at 6.30 pm CUNY Graduate Center Room 5307 365 Fifth Avenue This event is free and open to the public. Fatma Medhi was forced to flee her Western Sahara home at the age of 7, escaping amidst bombs and napalm. Today Medhi is the Secretary General of the National Union of Saharawi Women. She is in New York to share the story of her compatriots with you, given the media blockage on the Western Sahara conflict, its history and its future dreams. In 1976, the national liberation movement of El Frente POLISARIO declared a Nation-State in a refugee camp: the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Having colonized the Western Sahara since 1884, Spain abandoned the country in 1975 when the territory was illegitimately handed over to Morocco. While Saharawi men combated the Moroccan army in a 16-year long guerrilla struggle, Saharawi women and children took refuge in Southern Algerian deser...

Deep in harshest Sahara, brightly dressed figures stand out against a white stadium. Scarves and sunglasses protect heads and eyes from the glare of the midday heat. A closer look reveals that some of the sunglasses are decorated with diamante; all these guards, just like most of the audience, are women.  This is just one example of the roles women are playing in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria’s southeast corner, one of the largest refugee communities presently under UN protection. The Polisario political movement that runs the area has enshrined women’s rights in their constitution, illustrated by the prominence of women in the public sphere. The deputy governor, Fatima Balla, a woman, says men and women are equal; they have the same voting rights and are regularly elected to political office. All heads of wilayas (districts) are women.  Compared with many societies, the Sahrawi are way ahead on women’s rights such as political inclusion and access to education. But a...

Question: Thank you. I am [correspondent gives his name] for the Moroccan TV. Okay, a new round of negotiation will take place between Morocco and Polisario. What are the topics to be discussed during this round of negotiations, and what is hoped from this round? Spokesperson: Well, let’s be very clear: these are informal talks which will be starting on Sunday afternoon at Greentree, on Long Island. And this, of course, is with the delegations of the parties to the conflict — Morocco and the Frente Polisario, and with the two neighbouring States — Algeria and Mauritania. As I think you are aware, Ambassador Ross is expected to make a statement to the press at end of this round of talks. I think that is provisionally set for around 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. This is the first round of informal talks since July of last year. And we obviously welcome the fact that the parties are meeting for this new round, and the United Nations remains committed to find a just, lasting and...

As the 2012 WOMADelaide Festival is in full swing at Botanic Park in Adelaide, Into The Music visits the music and politics of Mariem Hassan, ‘The Voice of Western Sahara’. With two electric guitars and two ground-drums played by women, her band has synthesized the spirit of traditional desert blues to drive her music into the 21st century. Mariem explores blues, jazz and contemporary sounds as no other Sahrawi musician ever has. Her concert at WOMADelaide 2010 introduced Australians to a powerful artist singing about the political struggle of her people, inhabitants of the Western Sahara which was annexed by Morocco in 1975. And Into The Music was there recording as Mariem’s intense voice led audiences down mysterious paths where tragedy meets tenderness.  Producer Sherre DeLys talks to Mariem at WOMADelaide about her music and her journey from desert refugee camps to the world stage. Producer: Sherre DeLys Engineer: Mark Don Radio National (Australia) , 10...