Western Sahara News

As peaceful protests take place in over 80 countries around the world against the corrupt financial and political systems one only has to go to the Western Sahara to see the other side of the coin. Since the peaceful protest by tens of thousands of Saharawis last October at the Gdeim Izik protest camp Morocco has been turning up the desert heat. What was the largest ever protest in the occupied territories culminated on Monday, October 10, with Moroccan forces brutally attacking peaceful protesters in El Aaiun. The Polisario claims some 30 Saharawis were injured and many others arrested.

The dark hypocrisy that lurks at the heart of the Libyan revolution So, Colonel Muammar Qadhdhafi – crafty tyrant, political funster and would-be leader of Africa – is dead, and Libya is entering a new era of hope. Hope that its people will live in a more open society in which they are free to determine their individual and collective fates, to talk about politics, to disagree with each other and with the government, to challenge their leaders, to engage with the rest of the world, and to prosper economically. As someone who has spent some time in Libya (some six months in total, between 2000 and 2006), I share this hope. Wars are always horrific, and civil ones often especially so, but I can’t be the only one who has seen the TV footage of plucky, cheerful rebels espousing broadly secular, democratic values in good English and thought, “these guys are, for want of a better way of putting it, pretty cool.” With Qadhdhafi out of the way, the National Transitional Council (NTC) should b

By Imad Mesdoua It is a conflict seldom talked about in the Western hemisphere and even less so in the United States. Whilst we like to pride ourselves in thinking that colonialism and the oppression of one people by another are things of the past, a remote desert territory in North Africa reminds us that this is yet to be the case. The Western Sahara, an arid territory caught between Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania, is often considered to be Africa’s ‘Last Colony’. Yet with the international community’s inability to solve this dispute, it would perhaps be more appropriate to refer to Western Sahara as ‘Africa’s Forgotten Colony’.

The ras-le-bol of the international community was clearly expressed by the British Foreign Minister, William Hague during his working visit to Algeria. In an interview with the Algerian daily El Khabar and in response to a question about Great Britain position on the Western Sahara conflict and how to solve it, Mr Hague said that "the status quo in the Western Sahara conflict has a negatif effects on the entire region. It hinders the establishment of an effective regional cooperation. I support the UN efforts to find a way to satisfy both parties and ensures the right of self-determination for the Saharawi people. I hope that these efforts lead to the resolution of this conflict that has lasted longer than was needed. As for the Arab spring, we emphasized with the EU for support under the new policy European Neighbourhood achieving economic integration with the countries of North Africa. "

ALGIERS , October 19, 2011 - The Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mourad Medelci said Wednesday in Algiers that "the process of self-determination in Western Sahara supported by resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations must give opportunity to Saharawi people to self-determination. " Medelci talked in a press briefing after a work meeting with his British counterpart, William Hague. "We simply want to accelerate the negotiations (between the Polisario Front and Morocco) as soon as possible so that this issue be resolved soon," said Medelci.

UNITED NATIONS (New York) – The Polisario Front took the Permanent Representatives of States to the UN on the “incongruity” of the application submitted by Morocco to occupy the seats of the non-permanent members of the Security Council.  The next election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council for 2012-2013 is scheduled for next Friday, in which two seats must be allocated to African countries instead of Nigeria and Gabon whose term has expired.  In a letter to the ambassadors of the States to the United Nations, the Polisario representative to the UN, Mr. Ahmed Bukhari said in presenting himself as one of the African candidates to the Security Council, “Morocco defies the unanimous decision by the Summit of Heads of State of the African Union in June in Malabo ( Equatorial Guinea), which endorsed the candidacies of Mauritania and Togo “for the two vacancies reserved for African countries in the decision-making body of the UN. 

Mr Kamal Fadel, Polisario's representative in Australia, and Mr Tim Robertson SC Wednesday 5 October, 2011 6pm – 7.30pm Dyason House 124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne Phosphate is essential to the production of our food and is used extensively in Australian agriculture. The main source for most of our superphosphate fertiliser is phosphate rock from the Bou Craa mine in Western Sahara. It is exported by Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, and has proposed to the UN that it be an autonomous region within the Moroccan state.