Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Delegation to Downing Street demands action on Western Sahara

Stefan Simanowitz | 14.06.2009 18:24

Brown called on to take action to “liberate Africa’s last colony”



On 12th June a high level delegation of MP’s, MEP's, High Commissioners and representatives of the exiled Western Saharan government went to 10 Downing Street to call on the British government to take action to resolve the 33 year conflict in Western Sahara. The delegation delivered a letter to Gordon Brown from the President-in-exile, Mohamed Abdelaziz, asking that Britain act immediately to ensure that the Moroccan government adheres to the International Court of Justice ruling and subsequent UN Security Council resolutions in recognising the right of the indigenous Saharawi people to self-determination. The delegation was followed by a meeting in the House of Commons to launch a major new awareness-raising campaign.

The aim of the delegation was to remind the world of the Saharawi people's forgotten struggle. It argued that the collective failure to address Morocco's violation of countless UN resolutions, to stop the illegal plundering of Western Sahara's natural resources and to allow human rights abuses to be committed with impunity diminishes Britain and the UN, and it is an affront to all those with a belief in justice.

Y.Lamine Baali, chief representative of the Polisario Front in the UK, handed in the letter to Gordon Brown. "In 1975 Moroccan forces occupied my country forcing tens of thousands of my people to leave their homes and walk hundreds of miles to refuge in camps in the Algerian desert” he told assembled journalists. “Even as they fled Moroccan planes rained napalm bombs down on them. 165,000 of us have been living in the camps ever since inspite of the ruling by the International Court of Justice and over 100 UN Resolutions. As leader of this democratically run nation-in-exile, I appeal to the people and government of Britain to actively support the legitimate right of my people for self-determination.”

Jeremy Corbyn MP who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara, said; “The plight of Saharawi people is a forgotten struggle. Our collective failure to address Morocco’s ongoing violation of countless UN Resolutions, to stop the illegal plundering of Western Sahara’s natural resources and to allow human rights abuses to be committed with impunity diminishes Britain, it diminishes the United Nations and it is an affront to all those with a belief in justice. We call on Gordon Brown to take a principled stand and take urgent steps to ensure that the UK takes a lead within the UN Security Council to fulfil its obligation to ensure the referendum on self-determination that was agreed under the terms of the UN ceasefire agreement in 1991.”

Contact: Press Office – 0794 9999 435 or  freesaharacampaign@gmail.com
Visit www.freesahara.ning.com

The delegation is a joint initiative by led by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Western Sahara, the Polisario Front, the Western Sahara Campaign UK, the charity Sandblast and the Free Western Sahara Network.

Delegates included

Jeremy Corbyn MP,
Her Excellency Lindiwe Mabuza (High Commissioner of South Africa)
Y.Lamine Baali (Polisario Front, chief-representative in UK and Ireland)
Mohamed Liman Ali Ami (Polisario Front)
Ken Ritchie (Western Sahara Campaign UK)
Jean Lambert MEP (European Parliamentary Green Party)
His Excellency Murad Ajali (Minister Consular, Algerian Embassy)
Ruth Tanner (campaigns and policy director, War on Want)
Glyn Ford MEP (European Parliamentary Labour Party)
Giles Forman (Sandblast)
Stefan Simanowitz (Free Western Sahara Network)
David Cameron MP, leader of the opposition, was unable attend due to diary constraints but requested that he be kept informed about the campaign.

Members of the APPG on Western Sahara
Sally Keeble MP David Drew MP
Ann Clwyd MP Joan Walley MP
Katy Clark MP Kelvin Hopkins MP
Paul Flynn MP John Grogan MP
John Austin MP John Bercow MP
Daniel Kawczynski MP Peter Bottomley MP
Nigel Evans MP Robert Walter MP
Sir George Young MP Mark Williams MP
Mike Hancock MP Bob Spink MP
Hywel Williams MP


Background to the situation in Western Sahara

Western Sahara is about the size of Britain and lies along the Atlantic Coast of Africa. King Hassan illegally invaded and occupied Western Sahara in 1975. Tens of thousands of indigenous Saharawi people fled the invaders to escape Moroccan napalm and bombing. Hundreds died and more were injured, forcing the survivors to seek refuge in neighbouring Algeria where they built refugee camps. Today more than 160,000 Saharawi people continue to struggle to build a life in isolated camps inside Algeria.

In 1975 the International Court of Justice and the UN recognised the right of the Saharawi people to their self-determination and condemned the invasion. Since 1975 75 countries have recognised the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). No country recognises either the Moroccan annexation or its sovereignty over Western Sahara. SADR is a full member of the African Union.

The Saharawi people refused to accept the illegal occupation and waged a war against the Moroccan forces. To defend against Saharawi attacks Morocco built the Berm, a 1500 mile wall of sand and stone protected with mines, radar and barbed wire, dividing the territory. This is manned by 120,000 troops. The wall, sealing in the majority of the territory and blocking escape, has also created a wall of silence sealing the territory from the outside world.

Following a cease-fire in 1991, the UN adopted a Peace Plan accepted by both parties. The plan allowed for the Saharawis to decide their self-determination in a referendum scheduled for January 1992. A UN mission, MINURSO was established to facilitate this operation. This referendum has still not taken place. Morocco now rejects any proposal that offers self-determination. MINURSO's current mandate runs until April 2010.

Human Rights: Inside the occupied territory, Saharawis are denied political rights and suffer continuing discrimination, and sometimes worse (there are around 500 Saharawi “disappeared”). Outside the territory, some 165,000 refugees who were driven out by the Moroccan invasion have remained in isolated desert camps in south-western Algeria, largely dependent on aid (much of it from the EU) and increasingly frustrated that their legal right to return to their own country will not be upheld. Unsurprisingly, there have been reports of demonstrations in towns of the occupied territory, violently broken up by Moroccan forces, and arrests and torture of Saharawis, the indigenous inhabitants of the territory. The prominent activist Aminatou Haidar, who was savagely beaten by Moroccan police and held on charges of defaming the Moroccan flag, has recently been awarded the R F Kennedy Human Rights Award for her work on behalf of the self-determination of Western Sahara and against government abuses and disappearances of prisoners of conscience. There are few if any outside journalists in the Western Sahara (and those that do visit are marshalled by the Moroccan authorities), so there has been little or no mention of these.

Profiting from the Occupation: While thousands of the Saharawi people struggle to survive in the Algerian desert, dependent for their every need on international aid, Morocco continues to plunder the rich natural resources of their country to fund its illegal occupation.

Generals and politicians associated with the occupation reap the benefits of Western Sahara’s fishing and phosphate industries. Some of the richest fishing grounds in the world are off the coast. Western Sahara is rich in minerals and natural resources with one of the largest concentrations of phosphates in the world as well as iron, uranium and oil reserves. Control of the Western Saharan phosphates, together with its own reserves gave Morocco control of 80% of the world’s phosphates; over the last two years phosphate prices have risen eight-fold so that Morocco gains $1.5 billion a year from its exploitation of Western Saharan phosphates.

Money spent within the territory is aimed primarily at Moroccan settlers while Saharawis continue to suffer from high unemployment. This drastically unfair distribution is sure to worsen if Morocco succeeds in exploiting the potential oil and natural gas reserves off the Western Sahara coastline.
The European Union has negotiated a fishing agreement with Morocco that fails to distinguish between the waters of Morocco and those of Western Sahara leading to the illegal overfishing of Western Sahara’s waters.


Stefan Simanowitz
- e-mail: freesaharacampaign.gmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.freesahara.ning.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech