Western Sahara News

Foreign Office Minister for North Africa Alistair Burt and Algerian Minister Delegate Abdelkader Messahel met in London on 8-9 March for the sixth Annual UK/Algeria high level political talks.  Speaking after the talks, the Foreign Office Minister said: “These talks have helped to further strengthen our already strong bilateral relationship.  “Our two countries work closely together on a range of areas. Our economic relationship is good and is growing fast. UK exports to Algeria increased by 60% last year, and we are looking to increase this still further. We used the talks to today to discuss how to extend cooperation on renewable energy, where Algeria is looking to expand its capacity. “Political relations are also strong. Contacts between our respective legislatures are improving and I was very pleased by the recent creation of a UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Algeria. We hope that the UK’s experience can help the Algerian government as it seeks to extend political reforms.

Foreign Office Minister for North Africa Alistair Burt and Algerian Minister Delegate Abdelkader Messahel met in London on 8-9 March for the sixth Annual UK/Algeria high level political talks.Speaking after the talks, the Foreign Office Minister said: “These talks have helped to further strengthen our already strong bilateral relationship.  “Our two countries work closely together on a range of areas. Our economic relationship is good and is growing fast. UK exports to Algeria increased by 60% last year, and we are looking to increase this still further. We used the talks to today to discuss how to extend cooperation on renewable energy, where Algeria is looking to expand its capacity. “Political relations are also strong. Contacts between our respective legislatures are improving and I was very pleased by the recent creation of a UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Algeria. We hope that the UK’s experience can help the Algerian government as it seeks to extend political reforms.

Fatma El Mehdi, the Secretary General of the Sahrawi National Union of Women, arrived this week from the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria to represent the Pan-African network of women’s associations (WAELE) to attend the 56th Commission on the Status of Women held at the UN (see: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/55sess.htm ). This is an historic occasion for Western Sahara as this will be the first time that a Sahrawi representative has attended a women’s international conference at the UN. You can hear her speak and meet her in person at a brief talk sponsored by The Center for Place, Culture and Politics at CUNY’s Graduate Center 365 Fifth Ave @34th St. Rm. 5307. Friday, March 9th at 6:30 pm Visit: http://pcp.gc.cuny.edu/this-friday-march-9-the-struggle-of-sahrawi-women-for-freedom/ You can also listen to a brief interview on this morning’s NPR program TheTakeAway ( see: http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/mar/08/fighting-womens-rights-western-sahara/ ) For some backgro

In El Aaiun, the northern city of Western Sahara, Moroccan police officers were accused (Fr) to torture a Sahroui, Bazeid Abdallah Lehmad. According to the Sahara Press Service, Lehmad was part of a wedding when Morrocan policemen took him away and later was found injured. The United Nations Commitee Against Torture (UNCAT), called on Morrocco to end acts of toruture on Sahraouis. In a recent report, the UNCAT said ”the State party should immediately take substantive steps to investigate acts of torture and to prosecute and punish those who have committed such acts.” The UNCAT also expressed concerns about practices from the security forces of the government in Western Sahara, “The State party should put in place stronger measures for ensuring prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigations into all allegations of torture or ill-treatment of prisoners and persons taken into custody or in any other situation.” Meanwhile, on Monday in Casablanca, protesters demanded mo

News of the inauguration of a sex shop in the Moroccan city of Casablanca did not stir the ethical and religious controversy expected to take place in a conservative society, but also took a political dimension as suspicions arose over an anti-government ploy. The timing of the inauguration of the first sex shop in Morocco drove several activists to view the action as a political one aimed at embarrassing the new Islamist Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane appointed in November 2011. As their comments on social networking websites Facebook and Twitter revealed, they argued that the news might not be true in the first place and that the revolutionary February 20 Youth Movement, known for its criticism of Benkirane and his Islamist Justice and Development Party and for its protests demanding democratic reforms, might have spread this rumor on purpose. Activists explained that it is quite expected from a group that has previously waved a picture of the prime minister awaiting executi

Congrats to the Coop - more of that in a mo but first - the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) remains the only contemporary UN mission that does not monitor human rights. Last year the Western Sahara Campaign led the world wide campaign for the MINURSO mandate to include human rights monitoring. This was partially successful; though monitoring was not included, language on human rights was introduced into the resolution. However this has failed. To date the sum total of UN efforts consists of a 1 day visit to Dakhla by the UN Independent Expert on Cultural Rights. The Special Rapporteur on Torture has been trying to arrange a visit to Western Sahara for over six months; it is still being blocked by Morocco. It seems that torture, false imprisonment and violence continue. In August and September 2011 alone 34 instances of serious human rights violations perpetrated against Saharawi citizens by members of the Moroccan Security Forces were reported. The Security Council has a resp

by Peter Kenworthy “The strategy of the Moroccan regime is to starve the Saharawi refugees into accepting the Moroccan position. They pressurise the UN into not giving the refugees more aid,” says the Minister of Cooperation in Western Sahara’s exile government, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Hach Ahmed Barek Allah. “If the starvation in the refugee camps continues, we cannot control the reaction of the people. We want to follow the peace process and continue negotiations, but with the situation now this is becoming increasingly difficult.” Hach Ahmed visited Africa Contact’s offices in Copenhagen on Monday to discuss the increasingly desperate situation of the 150000 refugees, who have lived in isolated desert camps in the Algerian desert near Tindouf after they fled invading Moroccan troops in 1975, and the UN-led peace process that is meant to enable them to return to Western Sahara, but has been stalled by Morocco and its allies for more than 20 years. He is also visitin