Danish protest against Moroccan kangaroo court

Today, representatives of Danish solidarity organization Africa Contact, the Danish political party the Red-Green Alliance, Polisario, and others staged a protest outside the Moroccan Embassy in Copenhagen.

The focus of the protest was the Moroccan military court case against 23 human right activists from occupied Western Sahara that is to commence on the first of February.

”We are standing here because we want to show our solidarity with their struggle, and also because we want to show our protest with the Moroccan state and the way they are running court cases against political activists,” said Morten Nielsen, head of Secretariat at Africa Contact.

European Parliament to report on human rights situation in Western Sahara

“Dr Tannock is not in a position to answer your questions as the report has not been written and dates have not been set yet,” the personal assistant of the recently appointed Special Rapporteur of the European Parliament for Human Rights in Western Sahara, Dr Charles Tannock, wrote in a reply to Africa Contact.

The Danish solidarity organisation that has campaigned for justice and independence for Western Sahara for several years had requested information about the details of the report on the human rights situation in Western Sahara that Charles Tannock is in the process of writing.

Charles Tannock has been a member of the European Parliament for the British Conservative Party since 1999. He is presently Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Spokesman for the UK Conservative delegation, as well as being a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Human Rights subcommittee.

Flere krav og mere præstationsræs for danske NGO’er

”Udviklingsministeren har åbenbart lettere ved at tale om kontrol frem for muligheder og udvikling af civilsamfundsindsatsen.  Det er en skam og mange danske organisationer vil finde det svært forsat at engagere frivillige i deres udviklingsarbejde, da kravene tilsyneladende skal strammes yderligere,” udtaler Afrika Kontakts sekretariatsleder, Morten Nielsen, om Udviklingsminister Christian Friis Bachs planer om at opstille flere ”kriterier og krav”, samt øge kravet om egenfinansiering, overfor danske NGO’er.

Ifølge den uafhængige journalistiske portal, Altinget, skal udviklingsorganisationer der er på finansloven ikke længere modtage et fast beløb fra den danske stat, men i stedet ”belønnes i forhold til, om de klarer sig godt eller dårligt på en række parametre”.

Civile menneskerettighedsforkæmpere skal for marokkansk militærdomstol

Menneskerettighedsorganisationen ASVDH, der opererer i det marokkansk-besatte Vestsahara, opfordrer i et nyhedsbrev til at blandt andet menneskerettighedsforkæmpere, NGO’er, jurister, og repræsentanter fra ambassaderne i Rabat deltager i militærdomstolen imod 23 Saharawier, Vestsaharas oprindelige befolkning, som har været tilbageholdt i over to år.

De 23 Saharawier har været tilbageholdt siden den fredelige protestlejr Gdeim Izik, beliggende uden for hovedstaden i det besatte Vestsahara El Aiun (Laayoune), blev brutalt opløst af marokkanske sikkerhedsstyrker i oktober 2010.

Danish delegation stalked by Moroccan police in Western Sahara

”When we left our hotel, we discovered that we were being followed by a small army of Moroccan security officers. They obviously did not want the truth about the occupation of Western Sahara to be revealed,” says Danish MEP Søren Søndergaard.

He has just spent four days in both Morocco and the Moroccan-occupied territories in Western Sahara together with Danish MP Christian Juhl and two representatives from Danish NGO, Africa Contact. Here the group met with representatives from Moroccan opposition parties and Saharawi human rights groups.

Maxwell harassed by police again

“The external region of SWAYOCO is disgusted and disturbed by reports that [Swazi] student leader Maxwell Dlamini was arrested [on Friday] for allegedly not abiding by his bail conditions,” SWAYOCO’s Wandile Mazibuko wrote in a statement published on PUDEMO’s Facebook account yesterday.

“This is despite that Maxwell has been religiously observing and abiding by all the bail conditions as set out by the High Court. If anything, it has been the state that has been giving this reason or the other for failure to capture on the record books his reporting to the police station,” Mazibuko continued.

Fakta sælger igen konflikttomater fra det besatte Vestsahara

Coop, der ejer Fakta-kæden, lovede ikke at sælge flere konflikttomater fra det af Marokko besatte Vestsahara tilbage i 2009, efter at have indrømmet salget af disse. Alligevel er tomater, der efter al sandsynlighed stammer fra det besatte Vestsahara af mærket Azura, blevet fundet i to Fakta-supermarkeder – i henholdsvis Søborg i Københavnsområdet, og Arden syd for Aalborg – i de seneste par dage.

Coop hævder ellers at man driver etisk og ansvarlig handel.

SUDF to mobilise against undemocratic Swazi elections

In a New Year’s statement issued by Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) Coordinator, Wandile Dludlu, the SUDF says it will mobilise the population against Swaziland’s non-party elections that the organisation calls a “fallacy of royal supremacy.”

“We want [the Swazi political system of] Tinkhundla to record the lowest turn-out in history as we witnessed in the recently held local elections … to prove … that the current Swazi system of governance is illegitimate, unpopular and a mockery to democracy,” the statement said.