Africa Contact congratulates Polisario on 40th Anniversary

The responsibility for the failure to resolve the Western Sahara conflict “lies with the individual members of the UN,” Danish solidarity organisation Africa Contact wrote in a letter congratulating Polisario on its 40th Anniversary.

But it also lies with “all the countries – including Denmark – who either refuse to actively recognise or support Polisario and a referendum on the status of Western Sahara or who are part of sabotaging the process by e.g. allowing their companies to take part in the plundering of the resources of Western Sahara.”

Young Saharawis are fed up with futile peace process

Young Saharawis are fed up with the United Nations-led peace process between the leaders of the Western Saharan liberation movement, Polisario, and the Moroccans who have colonized most of their country since 1975.

The peace process has lasted for over 20 years, but has yet to produce any significant breakthroughs for the Saharawis, who simply demand the referendum that is to determine the status of Western Sahara that they have been promised by the United Nations.

Danish ship sails from occupied Western Sahara – with illegal cargo?

Is the Danish vessel Marianne Danica illegally shipping phosphates from the occupied territories in Western Sahara?

Marianne Danica was spotted leaving the harbour in El Aaiun (Laayoune) in Western Sahara on June 6, according to Western Sahara Resource Watch. This has been confirmed by the website Marinetraffic.com, an academic community-based project that collects and presents naval data. According to the shipping company that owns the vessel, Danish company Folmer & Co., the ship will arrive at its next destination, Kaliningrad, on June 20.

Polisario rejects Siemens’ claim to be developing Western Sahara

Siemens have been accused by Western Saharan liberation front Polisario and several organisations – including Western Sahara Resource Watch, Danwatch and Africa Contact – of breaking international law by securing a deal with a Moroccan company, Nareva Holding, to build 22 windmills in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

According to international law, it is illegal to trade with or use resources from non-self-governing states such as Western Sahara without the indigenous population benefiting from and agreeing to the deal.

Danish government zigzagging over Western Sahara

Danish Minister for Trade and Investment, Pia Olsen Dyhr, says that Denmark will not support or subsidize Danish companies that operate illegally in Western Sahara.

A month ago, the Minister was rather less adamant when replying to a letter from Danish solidarity movement, Africa Contact. “The government will not oppose Danish companies operating in areas such as Western Sahara, but the External Action Service is reluctant to actively support such activities.”

In a response to the Danish Committee on Foreign Affairs in March, however, Pia Olsen Dyhr now says that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no tax-financed programmes or undertakings that seek to promote Danish business interests in Western Sahara, nor does the Ministry have any plans of such undertakings. Based on a concrete enquiry by the Danish Export Credit Agency (EKF), concerning whether the EKF could risk assess Danish investments in Western Sahara, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discouraged the EKF from working in areas, such as Western Sahara, where the question of sovereignty is presently unresolved.”

Siemens makes illegal windmill deal in occupied Western Sahara

The German multinational, Siemens, has landed an order for the construction and maintenance of 22 windmills to be built in a wind farm in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. The order is part of a larger deal with Moroccan company Nareva Holding.

“The wind farm is expected to be commercially operational in the summer of 2013” and the order includes “supplying, installing and commissioning the windmills, as well as 5 years service,” according to a press release from Siemens.

The problem is that, according to international law, it is illegal to trade or dispose of resources in occupied Western Sahara

Refugee starvation could trigger new war over Western Sahara, says Minister

“The strategy of the Moroccan regime is to starve the Saharawi refugees into accepting the Moroccan position. They pressurize 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.”

Springtime for Western Sahara?

In many North African and Arab countries, the demands for democracy and economic redistribution of the so-called “Arab Spring“, have sounded the loudest from the region’s youth. The press has covered the protests in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia closely. But further from the limelight, Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara has experienced its own “spring”.

Especially young Saharawis (the indigenous population of Western Sahara) demand that the Western Saharan liberation front, Polisario, adopts a more confrontational line against Morocco. They also demand that young people should have more influence on Western Sahara’s exile government, that has operated from a refugee camp in the desert in neighboring Algeria for over 30 years. Some youths even talk about the possibility of a military solution to the conflict because they do not believe that the peaceful UN-mediated approach, that has been pursued since the 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Saharawis, has yielded any results.

Morocco continues attacks on Western Sahara’s population

Morocco’s Human Rights record in occupied Western Sahara has always been poor. But since the peaceful protest by ten of thousands of Saharawis (Western Sahara’s indigenous population) near El Aaiun in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara in October last year– the so-called Gdeim Izik protest camp that was the largest ever protest in the occupied territories – this record is becoming increasingly poor.

On September 25 this year, Moroccan settlers and security forces again attacked peacefully protesting Saharawis, this time in Dakhla in occupied Western Sahara. Many were injured in these attacks, including women and children, and 28-year-old Saharwi activist Maichan Mohamed Lamin Lehbib was assassinated by Moroccan forces, according to the Saharawi liberation movement, Polisario.

Hvor blev udenrigspolitikken og Nordafrika af i valgkampens hede?

I en valgkamp som den igangværende, hører man ofte regeringens eller oppositionens forslag til nye indenrigspolitiske tiltag. Hvad man langt sjældnere hører, er hvad partierne har tænkt sig at gøre ved udenrigspolitiske spørgsmål som Nordafrika – herunder den 35 år gamle konflikt i Vestsahara - som ikke synes at have direkte indenrigspolitisk relevans for Danmark.

Vestsahara har siden 1975 været ulovligt besat af Marokko, der til stadighed bryder menneskerettighederne overfor Vestsaharas oprindelige befolkning, med tæv, tortur, og drab af kritikere af besættelsen. Ikke mindst under og efter den fredelige opstand i oktober sidste år, som faktisk var den første af de Nordafrikanske opstande – før Tunesien og Egypten.