Coming Crisis in Phosphate Supplies

Coming Crisis in Phosphate Supplies
Written by David Gabel
Wednesday, 20 July 2011 12:22

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Phosphate is a mineral that is used in fertilizer to boost agricultural productivity. It is greatly responsible for the "green" revolution and the increased output of farms around the world. Unfortunately, the world will be coming to a point, if certain trends hold, where we will run out of phosphate. The mineral is widely used, but utterly unrecycled. Like fossil fuels, phosphate may come to a point where it is too costly to use, and world hunger may be the consequence.
Phosphate is an inorganic chemical mined from the earth. It typically consists of one phosphorus atom surrounded by oxygen atoms. The addition of phosphates can have a huge impact to an ecosystem. Like water and air, it is literally essential to life on Earth. On cropland, it can greatly boost yields. However, from there it usually drains into waterways. In freshwater and marine environments, it acts as a limiting nutrient, often causing eutrophication (oxygen deprived water).
The largest reserve of phosphate rock can be found in the country of Western Sahara, just south of Morocco. Once a Spanish colony, it is now controlled by Morocco. One of the reasons the Moroccans are so interested is thought to be the vast phosphate reserves. The mines are at Bou Craa which produces several million tons of phosphate rock each year. It gets transferred down a huge 150-kilometer long conveyor belt to the Atlantic port of El Ayoun.
Farmers around the world use about 170 million tons of phosphate every year to keep their soils fertile. One ton of phosphate is typically used for every 130 tons of grain. Fifteen percent of all phosphate comes from Western Sahara and Morocco. The other big producers are the US and China which each use up their own. This makes Western Sahara and Morocco the biggest players in the international phosphate trade. The biggest nations which rely on this trade are India and Brazil which may be starving otherwise.
According to the US Geological Survey, the world has 65 billion tons of known phosphate reserves, but only 16 billion tons that are economically viable to mine. Almost 80 percent are found in Western Sahara and Morocco. The US, with only 1.4 billion tons, may run out soon, causing alarm among agronomists. Academic researcher, Dana Cordell, of the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative, has predicted that we could reach "peak phosphorus" production by 2030.
There are no substitutes for phosphate. On the other hand, the other vital nutrient for plants, nitrogen, can be found from a number of sources. It can be fixed from the atmosphere thanks to German chemist Fritz Haber. Phosphate cannot be fixed from anything. It must be mined and the mines are going to run out. Unless a solution can be found, the long term consequences may be lower yield crops and a hungrier world.
By. David Gabel
Source: Environmental News Network
http://oilprice.com/Metals/Commodities/The-Coming-Crisis-in-Phosphate-Supplies.html

Mariem Hassan on TV Link

Patricia habla saharaui

The Theft of Western Sahara

The theft of Western Sahara


Author: David Cronin
29 May 2011 - Issue : 937





Sahrawi women refugees chant slogans during Mohamed Abdelaziz' speech at a forum at the Echorouk Newspaper in Algiers, Algeria, on 10 November 2010. The President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and leader of the Polisario, Mohamed Abdelaziz, said during his visit to the paper, that dozens of civilians perished after the Moroccan security forces dismantled tents of the 'Gdaim Izik' camp that was the site of an anti government protest near Al Ayun city, according to Abdelaziz hundreds are either wounded or lost. |EPA/MOHAMED MESSARA When and where did the “Arab Spring” begin? Most observers of the tyrant-toppling uprisings would probably agree they kicked off after the Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December last year. Not for the first time, Noam Chomsky has highlighted an omission from the conventional discourse. The wave of protests really started a month earlier in Western Sahara, Chomsky has argued.
On 7 November, Moroccan forces occupying that territory destroyed tents set up by the indigenous Sahrawi people near the town of Laayoune, leading to a series of confrontations. Testimonies gathered by Amnesty International indicate that the tactics used in the operation were extremely aggressive, with elderly women beaten with batons. Amnesty says the tents were erected to highlight the Sahrawis’ “perceived marginalisation and a lack of jobs and adequate housing”. The word “perceived” is unnecessary, I believe. The marginalisation of the Sahrawis is a proven fact; we seldom see anything about Western Sahara – a former Spanish colony invaded by Morocco in 1975 - in our newspapers or on our TV screens.

Rather than imposing sanctions against Morocco over its acts of brutality in November, the European Union has effectively tightened its embrace of the Rabat authorities. Although a four-year fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco expired in February this year, both sides have decided to extend it for a further twelve months.

As EU representatives are constantly harping on about how much they cherish democratic values, the least we should be able to expect is that they would have published the information at their disposal about the agreement’s effects. Yet an evaluation of the agreement conducted at the European Commission’s request remains confidential.

Luckily, I have managed to have a peek at this report – drawn up by the French consultancy firm Océanic Developpement and dated December 2010. It concludes that the agreement with Morocco brings “the least favourable returns to the European taxpayers that we can find” in any of the fisheries agreements the EU has signed with countries beyond its borders.

Under the terms of the accord, the EU gives Morocco 36 million euros per annum. For every euro invested by the Union, the turnover generated is only 83 cents, the consultants calculate. In the 2007-2009 period, EU vessels availing of the agreement caught an average of 44,000 tonnes per year. With demand for fish in the Union reaching about 13 million tonnes per year, the agreement was making only a tiny contribution towards satisfying the requirements of Europe’s markets, Oceanic added.

More disturbingly, the consultants found that the agreement is having adverse ecological consequences. Trawlers are capturing demersal species – living near the bottom of the sea – that are already overexploited, while the capture of sharks in European nets runs contrary to the Union’s own policies on conserving endangered species. European vessels have targeted sharks in the same way as the industrial boats in the Moroccan fleet. Three large Portuguese vessels have been responsible for 70% of all sharks captured (more than 450 tonnes), according to the evaluation.

It’s not surprising that powerful figures in the EU bureaucracy want this evaluation kept secret. By extending the agreement, the Union has ignored advice that it spent good money to obtain.

This is part of a wider pattern. The agreement enabled European vessels to fish in the waters surrounding Western Sahara, on the condition that their activities brought tangible benefits to the Sahrawis. In an opinion made public during 2010, lawyers advising the European Parliament found there was no evidence that the Sahrawis had been aided in any way due to the accord’s implementation. Unless an “amicable settlement” could be found, European boats should be forbidden from entering a 200 nautical mile zone off Western Sahara, the lawyers recommended.

When I interviewed Maria Damanaki, the EU fisheries commissioner, in the autumn last year, she expressed sympathy with that legal opinion. Damanaki said she was “not persuaded” that the agreement was in the Sahrawis’ interests. Despite the clarity of her views, the European Commission still went ahead and clinched a deal with Morocco to prolong the agreement. Damanaki was clearly overruled by others in the EU executive. Can it be a coincidence that the Commission is headed by José Manuel Barroso of Portugal and that several Portuguese vessels are doing nicely from the arrangements?

Mindful of a looming presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy has lately been promoting himself as an unflagging defender of North Africa’s downtrodden. Yet Francesco Bastagli, a former United Nations envoy to Western Sahara, has hinted there might be more than a whiff of hypocrisy emanating from the French president. “France is so unquestioning in its support of Morocco as to block even a reference to Sahrawi human rights in Security Council resolutions,” Bastagli wrote in a 2010 piece for The New Republic.

A report published in April this year by the New York City Bar Association says that if Morocco is receiving money from the EU for fishing off Western Sahara, without giving any to the Sahrawis, then it is violating international law. The same report highlighted how Irish and British companies are involved in exploration for oil and gas off Western Sahara. If they move from exploration to extraction, then their activities would be “unlawful”, the bar association concluded.

The resources of Western Sahara do not belong to Europe. So why are a few European fishing and energy firms allowed to steal them?




Read more: The theft of Western Sahara - New Europe http://www.neurope.eu/articles/The-theft-of-Western-Sahara-/106679.php#ixzz1NkmvlecK

SOLIDARITY SIT IN IN FRONT THE AMRTYR SAID DAMBAR'S HOUSE 05/19/2011

شهد منزل عائلة الشهيد سعيد سيد أحمد عبد الوهاب دمبر اليوم الخميس الموافق للتاسع عشر من ماي تنظيم وقفة سلمية للمطالبة بالكشف عن ظروف و ملابسات مقتل الشهيد سعيد دمبر برصاص شرطي مغربي أواخر شهر ديسمبر من العام الماضي شارك فيها عدد من المكونات و الإطارات الوطنية بالإضافة لعشرات المواطنين الصحراويين الذين قدموا للمشاركة تعبيرا منهم عن دعمهم المتواصل و اللا مشروط للعائلة و ما إن بدأت الجماهير الصحراوية ترديد الشعارات حتى تفاجئ بجحافل من قوات القمع المغربية تهاجمهم بمختلف أجهزتها من قوات مساعدة و عناصر الشرطة و الاستخبارات بزيها العسكري و المدني و التي كانت قد حاصرت كل الطرق المؤدية إلى منزل العائلة بحي الحشيشة بالقرب من مسجد أنس بن مالك مانعة العديد من المواطنين الصحراويين من الالتحاق بالمنزل و يتعلق الأمر بكل من:

_حمدي لمغيمض

_محمد صالح الزروالي

_الشريف الكوري

_سعيد لبيهات

_عليين التوبالي

هذه القوات التي بادرت بالهجوم على المتظاهرين الصحراويين العزل و بوحشية مفرطة مخلفة عديد الضحايا في صفوف المدنيين الصحراويين العزل و قد كان من بين الضحايا بعض من أفراد عائلة الشهيد سعيد دمبر و قد بلغت حصيلة الضحايا أزيد من عشرين ضحية من المتظاهرين الصحراويين العزل غالبيتهم من النسوة الذين نذكر منهم:

_خيرة أحمد مبارك المصابة على مستوى الرأس و الجبين

_الوالي دمبر مصاب على مستوى الرجل اليمنى

_مريم دمبر المصابة في أنحاء متفرقة من جسدها

_أم لخوت السعيدي اصابة على مستوى الأنف

_ ميمونة مسكة المصابة على مستوى الرجل

_عبد الرحمان لمرابط اصيب على مستوى الرأس

_النيهة لعبيد اصابة على مستوى الظهر

_كجمولة اسماعيلي اصيبت على مستوى الرأس

_اخويتة سيد امو اصيبت على مستوى اليد

_الطفل القاصر سيد أحمد الوالي عياش المصاب في أنحاء متفرقة من الجسم

_الطفل القاصر ليمام زديدات مصاب على مستوى الرجل

_حمدي الفيلالي مصاب على مستوى الرأس

_حميداها النومرية مصابة على مستوى الرجل

_فاطمة عمار مصابة على مستوى الرجل

_عبد الله السباعي مصاب على مستوى الأضلاع

_ازانة لمعمري مصابة على مستوى الثدي

_مريم البورحيمي مصابة على مستوى الأرجل

_الحافظ التوبالي مصاب في أنحاء مختلفة من الجسم

_حمدي لمغيمض على مستوى اليد

سلطات القمع المغربية لم تكتفي بهذا الحد و واصلت حصار المواطنين الصحراويين داخل المنزل باستخدام الرشق بالحجارة لمدة تجاوزت الخمس ساعات تقريبا قررت معها الجماهير و اللجنة المنظمة الاستمرار في شكلها النضالي المتمثل في مهرجان خطابي داخل المنزل على الرغم من الرشق المتواصل للحجارة الذي كانت تقوم به في محاولة منها قمع و فرملة نضال الشعب الصحراوي و بذلك تكون سلطات إدارة الاحتلال قد برهنت للعالم بأنها لم تغير من أسلوبها في التعامل مع ملف حقوق الإنسان خاصة عندما يتعلق الأمر بالمناطق المحتلة من الصحراء الغربية التي تزداد وثيرة الانتهاكات بها خاصة بعد لائحة قرار مجلس الأمن الأخير.

MEP slams Commission's handling of Morocco deal

MEP slams Commission's handling of Morocco deal

14.04.2011 / 05:19 CET

Carl Haglund says Commission's handling lacked transparency.

A leading MEP has criticised the European Commission's management of the controversial fisheries deal between the European Union and Morocco.

The European Parliament is to vote on the recent Commission decision to extend ‘a fish for finance' deal with Morocco by one year. The original agreement, which was reached in 2007, has long been the target of campaigners and lawyers who say that it tramples on the rights of people living in the disputed Western Sahara territory. It has also come under attack from some MEPs for bolstering the “illegal” occupation of Western Sahara.

Lack of transparency
Carl Haglund, a Finnish Liberal MEP and a vice-chair of the Parliament's fisheries committee, who is drafting the Parliament's report on the deal, has now hit out at the procedural aspects. “The Commission has handled this extremely badly,” he said: it was slow and the process was lacking in transparency.

According to Haglund, the Commission has still not submitted the necessary referral to Parliament, and a key report analysing the current agreement is available only in French, and has not been made public.

This was “one of the worst examples” of its kind since the Lisbon treaty came into force, Haglund said. The new treaty empowers the Parliament to block international agreements. But the delays in transmitting documents mean that the Parliament's fisheries committee is unlikely to vote on the extension until late May, with a Parliamentary vote in June or July – four or five months into the life of the one-year extension.

Haglund said that he had “not made up his mind” about the merits of the fisheries agreement itself. His report would, he said, assess the use of EU taxpayers' money, how the deal had benefited EU fishing crews, the people of Morocco and the disputed Western Sahara territory, as well as the impact on fish stocks. But he noted that “a vast majority of fish stocks in this region are overfished or close to the limit of overfishing”.

A Commission spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of Haglund's critique, but said: “It is the Parliament's full right and duty to signal to the Commission and to the member states what it wants to happen to this protocol

البوليزاريو رفضت تسلم المساعدات وتبرعت بها للشعب الليبي.

البوليزاريو رفضت تسلم المساعدات وتبرعت بها للشعب الليبي.
الأمم المتحدة تشتري شحنة زيوت غذائية بمليوني دولار من المغرب وتوجهها للصحراويين كمساعدات إنسانية ؟ البوليزاريو رفضت تسلم المساعدات وتبرعت بها للشعب الليبي. القضية كشفت تورّط الأمم المتحدة في فضائح فساد مالي مع النظام المغربي.
شهد ميناء وهران قبل أيام، فضيحة دولية مدوية، أطرافها برنامج الغذاء العالمي التابع إلى الأمم المتحدة، إلى جانب الحكومة المغربية، بعدما جرى اكتشاف وصول كميات كبيرة من شحنة زيوت غذائية قادمة من المغرب، موجهة إلى الشعب الصحراوي، على أنّها مساعدات إنسانية.

وحسب مصدر مطلع؛ فإنّ شحنة المساعدات التي تمثلت في 24 حاوية معبأة بعلب كبيرة تحتوي على 462 طن من زيت المائدة، كان مقرّرا أن يتسلمها الهلال الأحمر الصّحراوي لتوزيعها فيما بعد على مخيمات اللاجئين الصحراويين.

لكن سرعان ما اكتشف الصحراويون فور شروعهم في تسلم شحنات الزيت بعد شحنها، أن المساعدات المخصّصة للصحراويين مصدرها المغرب، الذي تبيّن أنّه قام ببيع تلك الشحنات للأمم المتحدة، على أن تقوم هذه الأخيرة بمنحها كمساعدات للاجئين الصحراويين، في إطار برنامج الغذاء العالمي.

وتظهر صور وشريط فيديو للمساعدات الإنسانية تحصلت ''النهار'' على نسخ منها؛ أنّ قارورات زيت المائدة كانت تحمل على غلافها شعار برنامج الغذاء العالمي باللونين الأزرق والأبيض، غير أنّها حملت أيضا شعار آخر تمثل في عبارة ''منتوج مغربي''، وهو ما دفع المستفيدين من المساعدات، إلى رفض تسلمها واعتبارها راجعة إلى أصحابها.

وأفادت مصادر مطلعة على الموضوع لـ''النهار''؛ أنه بعد رفض الهلال الأحمر الصحراوي تسلم شحنة ''المساعدات''، جرى الإتفاق بين السلطات الصحراوية ومسؤولين أمميين، على منحها لفائدة الشعب الليبي، حيث تقرّر نقل الشحنة بمساعدة شركة ''ميرسك'' للنقل البحري إلى ميناء بنغازي، على أن توزع هناك على الأشقاء الليبيين. ولفتت نفس المصادر؛ إلى أنّ قضية ''المساعدات الإنسانية''، ورغم التوصل إلى حل بشأنها، من خلال تحويلها إلى ليبيا، إلاّ أنّ كافة خيوطها لم تُحل بعد، حيث أشارت مصادر ''النهار'' إلى أنّه بالنظر إلى القيمة المالية لشحنة الزيوت والمقدرة بحوالي مليوني دولار، دفعتها الأمم المتحدة للمغرب، فإنّ قضية أخرى تطفو على السطح وتتمثل في قضايا الصفقات التجارية التي تجريها الأمم المتحدة، مضيفة أنّ إقدام مسؤولين أمميين على شراء منتجات غذائية من دولة احتلال، لتوجيهها كمساعدات لشعب دولة أخرى محتلة من طرف الأولى، لم يكن ليحدث لولا وجود صفقات تمت ''تحت الطاولة''، مشيرة في نفس الوقت، إلى وجوب التحقيق في إمكانية تقاضي مسؤولين أمميين عمولات ورشاوي من نظام المخزن المغربي، مقابل شراء مواد غذائية من ''الجلاد وتقديمها إلى ضحاياه كمساعدات''.


القنصل الصحراوي بوهران:''نموت جوعا ولا نقبل مساعدات المخزن المغربي''.
قال القنصل الصحراوي بوهران، سعيد فيلالي، بشأن فضيحة ''المساعدات الإنسانية'' القادمة من المغرب، أن السلطات الصحراوية، أبلغت مصالح الأمم المتحدة برفض تسلم شحنة المساعدات الإنسانية، معتبرا القيام بتوجيه مواد غذائية مصدرها المغرب لفائدة الصحراويين، سلوك يتعارض مع مبادئ العمل الإنساني ويخرق كل المقاييس الأخلاقية، قبل أن يشدّد على أنّ الشعب الصحراوي يرفض تسلم مثل تلك المساعدات، كونها قادمة من دولة تحتل أراضيه وتمارس القمع والتقتيل في حقه، مضيفا أن الصحراويين يفضلون الموت جوعا، على أن يقبلوا التقوّت من مساعدات يقدمها جلادوهم، ليردف بالقول أن الصحراويين لا يثقون البتة في النظام المغربي، وبالتالي فإنّهم لا يثقون أيضا في كل ما يأتي من جانبه، حتى ولو كان كمساعدات. وطالب القنصل الصحراوي القائمين على برنامج الغذاء العالمي، التابع إلى الأمم المتحدة، مراعاة مشاعر الشعب الصحراوي في عملياتهم الإنسانية المخصصة لفائدة الصحراويين والحرص على أمنهم، مضيفا أنّ مسؤولي المنظّمة الأممية تفهموا الوضع، ليتقرر توجيه تلك المساعدات إلى بلد آخر، بدون تسميته.
المصدر : النهار أون لاين.

Le Maroc est aussi une dictature | Patrick Lagacé | Patrick Lagacé

Le Maroc est aussi une dictature | Patrick Lagacé | Patrick Lagacé

www.cyberpresse.ca

Ce qui est formidable, avec la révolution tunisienne, c'est de voir tout le monde se distancer du régime dictatorial de Ben Ali, qui, hier encore, ne dérangeait à...

Le Maroc est aussi une dictature
Ce qui est formidable, avec la révolution tunisienne, c'est de voir tout le monde se distancer du régime dictatorial de Ben Ali, qui, hier encore, ne dérangeait à peu près personne. Ce qui est formidable, c'est d'entendre tous ces gens chanter les vertus de la démocratie, vertus qu'ils passaient sous silence quand ils composaient avec la dictature.

Dans la catégorie «Déclarations stupides, année 2011», la ministre des Affaires étrangères de la France, Michèle Alliot-Marie, a une sérieuse option sur le titre. Pendant les révoltes, elle a offert au régime dictatorial le savoir-faire français en matière de contrôle des foules!

C'est une énormité, bien sûr. Mais c'est une énormité qui trahit un état d'esprit, quand même.

Toujours en France, Frédéric Mitterrand, ministre de la Culture. Il s'est fendu d'une lettre aux Tunisiens, une fois le dictateur Ben Ali caché en Arabie Saoudite, pour exprimer ses «regrets» à l'égard de sa «complaisance» envers le régime.

Dans les années 90, M. Mitterrand a organisé l'Année de la Tunisie en France, ce qui lui a valu la nationalité tunisienne en reconnaissance de ses efforts. Dans les années 90, la Tunisie était-elle un État policier qui emprisonnait des journalistes, étouffait l'opposition et torturait ses prisonniers? Oui. Mais Frédéric Mitterrand ne voyait rien de mal, à l'époque, à être honoré de la citoyenneté tunisienne.

Aujourd'hui, il se défend ainsi:»Comme beaucoup d'autres, (j'ai essayé) de privilégier le dialogue avec les autorités et souvent en allant jusqu'aux limites de ce qui était acceptable», a-t-il écrit dans sa lettre aux Tunisiens.

Ah, le dialogue! Le fameux «dialogue» avec les dictatures! Pendant qu'on se demandait si des proches de Ben Ali, qui ont apparemment pillé la Tunisie, avaient trouvé refuge à Montréal, il y avait dans le New York Times une belle photo de Barack Obama avec Hu Jiantao, président de la République populaire de Chine. Le président des États-Unis d'Amérique, Prix Nobel de la paix 2009, était tout sourire à côté de celui qui a emprisonné le Prix Nobel de la paix 2010, Lu Xiaobo. Je me demande si Barack Obama a eu un dialogue sur les droits de l'homme avec son banquier chinois.

C'est drôle de voir à quel point certaines dictatures nous sont intolérables - l'Iran, Cuba, la Birmanie, le Zimbabwe, l'Afghanistan, l'Irak - alors que nous ménageons les susceptibilités d'autres dictatures dont l'amitié va dans le sens de nos intérêts: Pakistan, Arabie Saoudite, Maroc, Tunisie pré-2011, Chine, Égypte...

Cette timidité des démocraties vis-à-vis des dictatures n'est pas anecdotique. C'est le fruit d'une tendance lourde, note Human Rights Watch dans son rapport annuel 2010: «Au lieu de s'engager à exercer des pressions publiques pour défendre les droits humains, ils préfèrent adopter une démarche plus indulgente s'appuyant par exemple sur un 'dialogue' privé ou une 'coopération'«.

Vous savez peut-être que Stephen Harper s'est envolé hier pour coprésider une commission de l'ONU sur la santé des mères et des enfants. Sur le chemin du retour, il va faire un arrêt à Rabat, au Maroc, tout près de la Tunisie nouvellement «libérée». But de l'escale: astiquer les relations bilatérales et favoriser les échanges commerciaux.

Je sais, je sais: chaque année, des hordes de Québécois visitent le Maroc et en reviennent aussi bronzés qu'émerveillés. Mais le Maroc est une dictature. Une monarchie dictatoriale. Ce n'est pas l'Allemagne de l'Est ou l'URSS, mais c'est un pays où les dissidents sont harcelés, où les prisonniers politiques sont torturés, où la police est politique.

Au Maroc, le journalisme indépendant est dominé par le pouvoir, qui peut fermer des journaux pour différents délits, comme la critique frontale du dictateur, le roi Mohammed VI. Tenez, un journaliste, Driss Chahtane, a été emprisonné en 2009 pour avoir publié de l'information sur la santé du dictateur. On l'a emprisonné pour avoir publié ces «fausses» informations «de mauvaise foi».

Heureusement pour M. Chahtane, le dictateur royal l'a gracié après six mois de prison. Le chanceux!

Notre premier ministre va donc faire une escale au Maroc, où on lui parlera sans doute de l'importance des clémentines dans les épiceries du Québec. On peut toujours rêver mais, dans la foulée de la splendide révolution tunisienne, ce serait bien que Stephen Harper sermonne un peu, publiquement, le régime policier du Maroc.

J'ai dit: on peut toujours rêver. Dans les faits, probablement que Stephen Harper, comme tous les autres chefs de gouvernement de l'Occident, parlera de la démocratie marocaine le jour improbable où le dictateur marocain sera dans un avion, vers un exil doré en Arabie Saoudite, autre dictature chouchou de l'Occident.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/chroniqueurs/patrick-lagace/201101/26/01-4363734-le-maroc-est-aussi-une-dictature.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B40_chroniqueurs_373561_accueil_POS2

Harper sur un terrain glissant au Maroc
Harper sur un terrain glissant au Maroc | Politique canadienne

www.cyberpresse.ca

Après un passage éclair en Suisse, où il a coprésidé une réunion de la commission sur la santé maternelle et infantile de l'ONU, Stephen Harper est arrivé au...




Stephen Harper aux côtés de son homologue marocain Abbas el Fassi à son arrivée à Rabat. Photo: Reuters

La Presse Canadienne
Rabat


Après un passage éclair en Suisse, où il a coprésidé une réunion de la commission sur la santé maternelle et infantile de l'ONU, Stephen Harper est arrivé au Maroc mercredi soir, où sa visite officielle de courtoisie pourrait s'avérer plus périlleuse.

Le premier ministre avait ajouté cette escale d'un jour à son voyage - une journée qui pourrait s'avérer plus difficile que prévu étant donné le contexte dans lequel elle survient.

Quatre personnes se sont immolées par le feu la semaine dernière au Maroc dans la foulée de la révolution populaire en Tunisie qui a chassé le président Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali du pouvoir au début janvier. Depuis, la monarchie marocaine a tenté de calmer le jeu en augmentant les subventions alimentaires.

Lorsqu'on a demandé à M. Harper s'il soutenait les manifestations démocratiques, il a répondu prudemment que son gouvernement a «toujours défendu les valeurs fondamentales de liberté, de démocratie, des droits de la personne et de la primauté du droit». Il n'a pas voulu en dire plus au cours de cette conférence de presse tenue à Genève, avant son départ pour le Maroc.

À Rabat, le premier ministre a été accueilli sur le tarmac de l'aéroport par le premier ministre nommé par le roi Mohammed VI.

La raison exacte de cette visite est difficile à établir clairement. Les échanges bilatéraux entre le Canada et l'État du Maghreb représentent environ 500 millions $ par année, ce qui est peu.

Les représentants de M. Harper ont fait valoir qu'une importante diaspora marocaine se trouve au Canada, et tout particulièrement au Québec, la province où la plupart des quelque 100 000 Canadiens d'origine marocaine ont fait leur nid.

THE RFK CENTER FINDS EVIDENCE OF ESCALATING ABUSE, TORTURE, AND ARBITRARY IMPRISONMENT IN WESTERN SAHARA

HE RFK CENTER FINDS EVIDENCE OF ESCALATING ABUSE, TORTURE, AND ARBITRARY IMPRISONMENT IN WESTERN SAHARA
1/19/2011
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WASHINGTON (January 18, 2011) – Torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, failure to follow criminal procedures, and repression of civilians by Moroccan government forces are all too common in Western Sahara, according to the findings of a recent visit to El Aaiun by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Western Sahara human rights leader Aminatou Haidar, recipient of the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, hosted the staff delegation from January 11 to 14 to examine human rights violations allegedly committed by Moroccan security forces against Sahrawis. The delegation included RFK Center Executive Director Lynn Delaney, Director of the Center for Human Rights Monika Kalra Varma, and Advocacy Officer Mary Beth Gallagher. Although the delegation’s ability to work or move freely was not impeded, the staff was under constant surveillance by both uniformed and undercover police.

Indications of repression, limitations on freedom of expression, and economic and social marginalization of Sahrawis, as well as state-sponsored violence, are emblematic of the human rights situation there. This context, in concert with the violence that broke out on November 8, 2010, when Moroccan security forces dismantled a camp set up by residents of Western Sahara to protest social and economic discrimination, reinforces the need for impartial international human rights monitoring. The RFK Center strongly condemns the violence committed on both sides surrounding the dismantling of the protest camps in November.

The RFK Center mission met with more than two dozen victims of abuse, torture, and imprisonment and their families during the trip, in addition to Moroccan government officials and representatives of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). “Human rights abuses have been ongoing, and the spike in violence resulting from the dismantling of the Gdyam Izik camp is alarming,” said Varma. “There are overwhelming indications of abuse, harassment, or torture both before and after the violence, and Aminatou Haidar and her fellow human rights defenders work at great personal risk in these conditions.”

“The fact that there is no international human rights monitoring mechanism as the situation worsens in Western Sahara is unacceptable,” stated Varma. The RFK Center has long called on the United Nations Security Council to add a human rights component to MINURSO to monitor the human rights situation in Western Sahara and the camps in Tindouf, Algeria.

“I hope that after the visit of the RFK Center to Western Sahara, the delegation will be able to shine a spotlight on the alarming human rights situation in the territory of Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan control,” said Haidar. “Strong support from the United States and the international community is needed to end the suffering of the Sahrawi people.”

The RFK Center will be issuing a report detailing its findings in the near future.

Aminatou Haidar, 2008 RFK Human Rights Award Laureate
Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights engages in long-term partnerships with RFK Human Rights Award Laureates to support sustainable social justice movements. As one of Western Sahara’s most prominent human rights defenders, and president of the Collectif des defenseurs saharaouis des droits de l'homme (CODESA), Aminatou Haidar promotes the civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights of the people of Western Sahara, including the rights to freedom of speech and association and to self-determination. Ms. Haidar works through non-violent means to organize peaceful demonstrations to denounce the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Moroccan government. Despite years of illegal imprisonment, torture, and abuse under Moroccan authorities, Ms. Haidar continues to encourage Sahrawis to seek, through non-violent means, the realization of their fundamental human rights.


For journalists to arrange an interview, please contact:

Josh Karlen, Director of Communications
RFK Center
karlen@rfkcenter.org
917-671-6803

Saharawi Maritime Map

UNTV interview with POLISARIO REP. BOUKHARI AHMED

Watch more on diplomaticallyincorrect.org

Sahara occidental : la France contre les droits de l'homme ?

http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2010/12/22/sahara-occidental-la-france-contre-les-droits-de-l-homme_1456151_3232.html

Sahara occidental : la France contre les droits de l'homme ?
Le Monde, 22.12.2010

Les événements qui ont embrasé El-Ayoun, la capitale du Sahara occidental, le 8 novembre, devraient convaincre la diplomatie française de changer de cap sur un dossier peu connu, mais qui embarrasse jusqu'aux plus aguerris de ses diplomates. Depuis plusieurs années, à l'abri des portes closes du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, la France use du pouvoir de dissuasion que lui confère son droit de veto pour tenir les Nations unies à l'écart des questions touchant au respect des droits de l'homme dans le territoire annexé par son allié marocain en 1975.


Faute d'un mandat approprié, la mission de l'ONU au Sahara Occidental (Minurso) est restée aveugle tout au long des événements qui ont opposé le mois dernier les forces de l'ordre marocaines aux militants sahraouis – les troubles les plus graves depuis le cessez-le-feu de 1991. Le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, en charge de la paix internationale, s'est vu dans l'incapacité de faire la part des choses entre le mouvement indépendantiste du Front Polisario, qui a dénoncé sans preuve le massacre de 36 manifestants pacifiques, et le Maroc qui prétendait, sans plus de crédibilité, libérer les milliers de civils sahraouis soi-disant retenus en otage par des " criminels " dans un camp érigé en signe de protestation à proximité de El-Ayoun.




Si ces événements s'étaient déroulés en République démocratique du Congo, en Haïti ou au Soudan, des experts en droits de l'homme de l'ONU auraient immédiatement été dépêchés sur place pour établir une version objective des événements et informer le Conseil de sécurité, contribuant ainsi à apaiser les tensions. La présence d'observateurs de l'ONU aurait aussi pu s'avérer dissuasive pour les forces de sécurité marocaines qui ont à plusieurs reprises, selon notre enquête, passé à tabac des personnes arrêtées à la suite des troubles.

Toutes les missions de maintien de la paix de l'ONU établies depuis 1991 disposent de ces mécanismes, qui reposent sur le constat que toute paix durable s'appuie sur le respect des droits de l'homme. Partout ailleurs, du Darfour au Timor Leste, en passant par le Kosovo, la France soutient pleinement l'intégration croissante des questions touchant aux droits de l'homme dans les missions de l'ONU. Il n'y a que sur le dossier sahraoui que Paris s'arc-boute, persistant à défendre une anomalie historique.




Cette obstination française a un coût. L'ambassadeur de France à l'ONU, Gérard Araud, l'a appris à ses dépens, le 30 avril dernier, lorsqu'il a dû faire face aux pays du Conseil de sécurité tels que le Royaume-Uni, l'Autriche, l'Ouganda, le Nigeria ou le Mexique, qui sont favorables à un élargissement du mandat de la Minurso aux questions de droits de l'homme. A quelques heures de l'expiration du mandat de la mission de l'ONU, selon plusieurs témoins, le ton est monté.




Comment la France, qui se prétend le berceau des droits de l'homme, pouvait-elle s'opposer à toute mention des droits de l'homme dans la résolution, a demandé un ambassadeur occidental ? Son homologue chinois, un rien ironique, s'est réjoui de constater que Paris partageait désormais les réserves de Pékin sur tout débat des droits de l'homme au Conseil de sécurité. Après une vive réponse de l'ambassadeur français, suivie d'excuses toutes diplomatiques, la France a obtenu gain de cause, non tant par la force de ses arguments que par celle de son droit de veto.




Les diplomates français se défendent en affirmant que la question des droits de l'homme est devenue un chiffon rouge pour le Maroc, qui y voit une ruse du Polisario et de son soutien officiel algérien, pour embarrasser le Royaume chérifien. A en croire Paris, cette question est une diversion, qui ne fait que braquer Rabat, sans faire avancer les pourparlers entre les deux camps, par ailleurs enlisés depuis des années.




Mais au lieu de s'aligner sur Rabat, la France devrait convaincre le Maroc qu'il a tout à gagner à améliorer les conditions dans lesquelles vivent les Sahraouis sous son contrôle, souvent muselés et harcelés par les forces de l'ordre marocaines lorsqu'ils osent se prononcer pour l'indépendance. Les observateurs onusiens seraient aussi d'un grand secours pour les réfugiés sahraouis qui vivent près de Tindouf, en Algérie, dans des camps où le Front Polisario règne en maître et intimide ceux qui soutiennent le plan d'autonomie marocain – une situation mainte fois dénoncée par Rabat.




Le renouvellement du mandat de la Minurso, en avril 2011, offre à la diplomatie française une chance de corriger la situation. Il est temps que Paris reconnaisse que, sans un strict respect des droits des Sahraouis, garanti par l'ONU, les deux camps continueront à se livrer à des campagnes de désinformation qui ne font que compliquer les efforts du Conseil de sécurité en faveur d'une solution politique.




Philippe Bolopion, directeur ONU de Human Rights Watch

WikiLeaks documents support Polisario’s goal of self-determination : By Dr. Suzanne Scholte

At a time when tensions between the Polisario and Morocco in their fight over Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony, are at the highest point since the 1991 ceasefire, WikiLeaks documents have enhanced the cause of the Polisario by revealing that the supporters of the Polisario are the good guys in this fight.

One of the difficulties the Polisario has had to overcome is a well-financed Moroccan lobby that spends millions of dollars annually to obscure the facts in this conflict. Ten lobbying firms are currently registered to do King Mohamed VI’s bidding and spread outright lies and distortions about the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, where 165,000 Sahrawis live, having fled when Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975; about the motivation of Algeria in giving them refuge; and about the nature of the Sahrawi Republic itself — a democratic, pro-Western exile government recognized by over eighty nations as the legitimate government of Western Sahara.

The Polisario, formed by the Sahrawis in 1973 as a liberation movement against their Spanish colonizers, is now dedicated to one goal: ensuring the Sahrawis get their vote on self-determination, first called for by the United Nations in 1966, promised by Spain, reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice in 1975, and promised by the United Nations in 1991 as part of the ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario. Among the outlandish claims that the Kingdom of Morocco and those on the King’s payroll are spreading: the Polisario is holding the Sahrawi refugees against their will in these camps; the Polisario is involved in illegal activities from human trafficking to terrorism; the Polisario is restricting access to the camps; and the camps are a breeding ground for al Qaeda.

The truth is that the Polisario long for visitors to the refugee camps, and there are regular visitors from Spain as well as a constant UN presence. I have personally organized delegations of Americans to visit the camps, and this Christmas thousands of Spanish citizens will travel there to celebrate this holy Christian day with their Muslim friends.

Not only do the Polisario welcome visitors, but their embrace of Western ideals including religious freedom and women’s equality, their intolerance of extremism, and their severe punishments for traffickers and anyone associated with terrorism have caused Islamic extremists to label the Sahrawi as “too close to the West and not pious enough.”

U.S. Ambassador–at-Large for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin affirmed there are no links between al Qaeda and the Western Sahara in a press conference last month.

Morocco has also tried to cast suspicion on the motivations of Algeria. Algeria saved thousands of Sahrawi women and children by allowing them to enter Algeria when the Moroccan air force was dropping napalm and phosphorus on them as they were fleeing from the invading Moroccan army. Today, Algeria allows the Sahrawis to govern and oversee their refugee camps, which are located in northwest Algeria, without interference. When former Secretary of State James Baker served as UN Special Envoy on Western Sahara, he attempted to spur a settlement by offering Algeria part of Western Sahara, believing the Algerians would sell out their friends for a land route to the Atlantic. The Algerians were offended that such an offer would even be made. WikiLeaks has revealed the consistency of Algeria’s position. WikiLeaks has also revealed that Algeria’s support of the Polisario is based on principle. Algeria has no interest in stealing the Sahrawis’ land, as Morocco has done, and only wants the people of Western Sahara to have the opportunity to exercise their fundamental right to self-determination, as Algeria President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has strongly argued to U.S. officials.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/20/wikileaks-documents-support-polisarios-goal-of-self-determination/#ixzz18ll7oob0

So much for human rights

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/12/13/jeremy-harding/so-much-for-human-rights/



So much for human rights

Jeremy Harding 13 December 2010

Tags: western sahara | wikileaks

Two things we can learn about Morocco’s illegal occupation of Western Sahara from the US embassy in Rabat, courtesy of WikiLeaks: 1) it’s a source of personal revenue for Moroccan army officers but 2) everything’s fine really.

Western Sahara used to be a Spanish possession, which Madrid was due to hand over to the indigenous population in 1975. King Hassan II of Morocco took advantage of the chaos in Spain at the time of Franco’s death and annexed the territory. The UN deplored the move; the Polisario Front embarked on a liberation war, which resulted in stalemate and a ceasefire in 1989. By this time Morocco controlled most of the territory and was pouring in settlers to outnumber indigenous Sahrawis.

Under UN auspices, both parties – the kingdom of Morocco and Polisario – agreed to a referendum on independence. Twenty years later, the vote is a lost hope: the Moroccans have driven it into the ground with Byzantine objections, year on year. The UN mission has been sidelined; the settler colonial project continues; there are hundreds of thousands of refugees in Algeria and a population inside the territory that’s punished when it calls for independence.

These are trifling matters for Ambassador Thomas T. Riley, filing from Rabat in 2008. What counts is America’s ‘robust military relationship’ with Morocco, confirmed by ‘the purchase of sophisticated weapons from the US to include 24 F-16s this year’. The regime, Riley announces,

has also increased its activities under a partnership arrangement with the Utah National Guard, which regularly deploys to Morocco to conduct joint training and humanitarian relief operations.

Even so, he’s disturbed by corruption in the Moroccan army (total numbers 218,000; between ‘50 and 70 per cent… preoccupied with operations in the Western Sahara region’). Riley cites Lieutenant Geneneral Abdelaziz Bennani, commander of the Southern Section – i.e. the annexed territory. Apparently, Bennani has used his position to

skim money from military contracts and influence business decisions. A widely believed rumour has it that he owns large parts of the fisheries in Western Sahara… There are even reports of students at Morocco’s military academy paying money… to obtain positions in lucrative military postings.

Top of the list: Western Sahara.

Riley walked into a top job at Savvis, the communications company, after the Republicans lost the White House. Move on to summer 2009: another pair of hands is at the laptop in Rabat – the chargé d’affaires, Robert P. Jackson – pounding out a dispatch he’s pleased to call ‘Western Sahara Realities’. He repeats Riley’s estimate – about 150,000 Moroccan soldiers are deployed in Western Sahara – and says, correctly, that there are now 385,000 people living in the annexed area. (Only a marginal ‘liberated’ strip of desert is still controlled by Polisario, and the ceasefire has held.)

Jackson is also right that settlers from Morocco now account for ‘well over half’ that figure. Here is a territory, then, whose indigenous population is only slightly larger than the number of soldiers deployed by Rabat: the ratio is close to one on one. If this isn’t repression, what is it? Mentoring, possibly? Is the army holding door-to-door seminars on Mormon genealogy with assistance from the Utah National Guard? Yet Jackson says that ‘respect for human rights in the territory has greatly improved’. He admits that indigenous people aren’t allowed to advocate independence: perhaps human rights for Sahrawis is like animal rights for foxes – go to ground and hope someone’s speaking out on your behalf. Only it won’t be Jackson, who’s now ambassador to Cameroon.

Eight weeks ago near Layoune, the capital of Western Sahara, a camp set up by Sahrawis to protest against the Moroccan occupation was brought under military siege and in November it was broken up; 60 people were injured and the usual round of detentions followed. So much for human rights.

There are even more worrying passages about the nature of the conflict in Jackson’s cable. He wonders why Polisario (which operates a ‘Cuba-like system’ in his view) has never claimed areas of Morocco proper, Mauritania or Algeria, where large numbers of Sahrawis can be found, as part of the independent state they seek. He takes this to signify the absence of ‘a larger nationalism’, from which it follows that the dispute must be narrowly territorial – an expression of older border tensions between Morocco and Algeria, with Polisario acting as an Algerian stooge.

Well yes, it is about territory, but only inasmuch as the decolonisation of Spanish Sahara should have conferred a right to independence. The ethnicity of its inhabitants, or others outside the borders, has nothing to do with it. Whatever Algeria’s role in this conflict, Polisario could never have compromised its aims by challenging the OAU on the inviolability of colonial boundaries and hoping for a ‘larger’, expanded Western Sahara. Had it done so, the International Court of Justice would not have advised in its favour, the UN would not have called for a referendum on independence, and the notional government of what is now Africa’s only colonised territory (the SADR) would not be a member of the African Union or be recognised by 81 states

But there you have it: a chargé d’affaires in Rabat snorts dismissively at the independence movement because it’s played by the book. Morocco, by contrast, violates sovereign boundaries, tramples Sahrawi aspirations, stuffs its annexed land with soldiers and settlers, and gets two dozen fighter aircraft for its pains

Resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories

Resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories


The General Assembly adopted a resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories by which the Assembly reaffirmed the right of peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories to self-determination in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, as well as their right to enjoy and dispose of their natural resources in their best interest.

Also according to the text, the Assembly called once again on all Governments that had not yet done so to take legislative, administrative or other measures to put an end to enterprises in the Territories — undertaken by those Governments’ nationals or corporate bodies under their jurisdiction — that were detrimental to the interests of the inhabitants. It called upon the administrating Powers to ensure that the exploitation of the marine and other natural resources in the Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration were not in violation of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and did not adversely affect the interests of the peoples of those Territories. The text was aproved by a recorded vote:

The Vote

The resolution on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories was adopted by a recorded vote of 173 in favour to 2 against, with 2 abstentions,

Against: Israel, United States.

Abstain: France, United Kingdom.

http://overseasreview.blogspot.com/2010/12/un-general-assembly-approves-third.html

Western Sahara and Wiki Leaks

First Sahara Wikileak leak: Sarkozy inked deal with OCP

First cable from US embassy mentions 3 billion Euro deals for Sarkozy, as French Western Sahara policy leans towards Moroccan position. Among the agreements signed by Sarkozy, was the nuclear deal with Moroccan phosphate plunderer OCP.



01.12 - 2010 15:34 Printer version



"Sarkozy and entourage completed nearly 3 billion Euros worth of commercial deals and military sales during the visit, including a naval frigate", notes the embassy in the document dated 29 October 2007, in relation to Sarkozy's visit to Morocco.

The letter mentions specifically the agreement signed by French nuclear group Areva and National Phosphate Company (OCP). The deal was to extract uranium from Moroccan phosphoric acid.

OCP carries out the illegal mining in Western Sahara, taking place in violation of the UN legal opinion from 2002.

At the same time, the US embassy noted how Sarkozy annoyed the representatives of the Sahrawi people:

"Sarkozy’s remarks on Sahara appeared to move France closer toward the Moroccan position, and were embraced as such by most of the Moroccan press, which characterized the president’s remarks as a breakthrough for French policy on the Sahara question. (We understand the Polisario leadership has protested Sarkozy’s remarks.)", writes the US embassy in the first confidential letter on Western Sahara published on Wikileaks today.

The Moroccan proposition on the Western Sahara dispute, is to include the territory of Western Sahara into the Moroccan kingdom, without giving a voice to the people of Western Sahara.

Testimonies of Saharwi Students in Semara who were attacked by Moroccans on November 29.2010

شهادات الضحايا المرجو تحميلها من على هذه الروابط

http://www.4shared.com/video/s7qA9oZO/tfara7_ttabt.html?

http://www.4shared.com/video/Wca3KCQc/lahbib_weld_baba.html?

http://www.4shared.com/video/GOIDAaea/chahadat.html?

http://www.4shared.com/video/WdVHXe1f/ali_olfdil.html?

Upsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara

Upsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara
Western SaharaNews Articles (7)Publications (20)Primary Resources (14)Links (3)18 November 2010

Western Sahara


A structure in Western Sahara

Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause.

By Stephen Zunes for openDemocracy


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


On November 8, Moroccan occupation forces attacked a tent city of as many as 12,000 Western Saharans just outside of Al Aioun, in the culminating act of a months-long protest of discrimination against the indigenous Sahrawi population and worsening economic conditions. Not only was the scale of the crackdown unprecedented, so was the popular reaction: In a dramatic departure from the almost exclusively nonviolent protests of recent years, the local population turned on their occupiers, engaging in widespread rioting and arson. As of this writing, the details of these events are unclear, but they underscore the urgent need for global civil society to support those who have been struggling nonviolently for their right of self-determination and to challenge western governments which back the regime responsible for the repression.

Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated nation located on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Africa. Traditionally inhabited by nomadic Arab tribes, collectively known as Sahrawis and famous for their long history of resistance to outside domination, the land was occupied by Spain from the late 1800s through the mid-1970s. The nationalist Polisario Front launched an armed independence struggle against Spain in 1973, and Madrid eventually promised the people of what was then still known as the Spanish Sahara a referendum on the fate of the territory by the end of 1975. Irredentist claims by Morocco and Mauritania were brought before the International Court of Justice, which ruled in favour of the Sahrawis’ right to self-determination. A special Visiting Mission from the United Nations engaged in an investigation that same year and reported that the vast majority of Sahrawis supported independence under the leadership of the Polisario, not integration with Morocco or Mauritania. Under pressure from the United States, which did not want to see the leftist Polisario come to power, Spain reneged on its promise for a referendum and instead agreed to partition the territory between the pro-Western countries of Morocco and Mauritania.

As Moroccan forces moved into Western Sahara, most of the population fled to refugee camps in neighboring Algeria. Morocco and Mauritania rejected a series of unanimous UN Security Council resolutions calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces and recognition of the Sahrawis’ right of self-determination. The United States and France, meanwhile, despite voting in favor of these resolutions, blocked the UN from enforcing them. Meanwhile, the Polisario – which had been driven from the more heavily populated northern and western parts of the country – declared independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Thanks in part to the Algerians providing significant amounts of military equipment and economic support, Polisario guerrillas fought well against both occupying armies. Mauritania was defeated by 1979, agreeing to turn their third of Western Sahara over to the Polisario. However, the Moroccans then annexed that remaining southern part of the country as well.

The Polisario then focused their armed struggle against Morocco and, by 1982, had liberated nearly 85% of their country. Over the next four years, however, the tide of the war was reversed in Morocco’s favor thanks to dramatic increases in American and French support for the Moroccan war effort, with U.S. forces providing important training for the Moroccan army in counter-insurgency tactics and helping with the construction of a wall which kept the Polisario out of most of their country. Meanwhile, the Moroccan government, through generous housing subsidies and other benefits, successfully encouraged thousands of Moroccan settlers to immigrate to Western Sahara. By the early 1990s, these Moroccan settlers outnumbered the remaining Sahrawis indigenous to the territory by a ratio of more than 2:1.

A cease fire in 1991 was part of an agreement that would have allowed for the return of Sahrawi refugees to Western Sahara followed by a UN-supervised referendum on the fate of the territory. Neither the repatriation nor the referendum took place, however, due to Moroccan insistence on stacking the voter rolls with Moroccan settlers and other Moroccan citizens that it claimed had tribal links to Western Sahara. To break the stalemate, the UN Security Council passed a resolution in 2004 which would allow Moroccan settlers to also vote in the referendum following five years of autonomy. Morocco, however, rejected this proposal too, with the apparent reassurance that the French and Americans would yet again threaten to veto any resolution imposing sanctions or other pressures on them to compromise.

Unarmed popular resistance

As happened during the 1980s in both South Africa and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the locus of the Western Sahara freedom struggle shifted from the military and diplomatic initiatives of an exiled armed movement to a largely unarmed popular resistance from within, as young activists in the occupied territory and even in Sahrawi-populated parts of southern Morocco confronted Moroccan troops in street demonstrations and other forms of nonviolent action, despite the risk of shootings, mass arrests, and torture. Sahrawis from different sectors of society have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause. Indeed, perhaps most significantly, civil resistance helped to build support for the Sahrawi movement among international NGO’s, solidarity groups and even sympathetic Moroccans.

Internet communication became a key element in the Saharawi movement, with public chat rooms evolving as vital centres for sending messages, as breaking news regarding the burgeoning resistance campaign reached those in the Saharawi diaspora and among international activists. Despite attempts by the Moroccans to disrupt these contacts, the diaspora has continued to provide financial and other support to the resistance. Though there have been complaints from inside the territory that support for their movement by the older generation of Polisario leaders was inadequate, the Polisario appears to have recognized that by having signed a cease-fire and then having had Morocco reject the diplomatic solution expected in return, it has essentially played all its cards. So there was a growing recognition that the only real hope for independence has to come from within the occupied territory in combination with solidarity efforts from global civil society. There have been some small victories, such as the successful campaign which led to Sahrawi nonviolent resistance leader Aminatou Haidar securing the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, as well as forcing Moroccan authorities to reverse their expulsion order in December 2009, which resulted in her near-fatal 30-day hunger strike.

After Moroccan authorities’ use of force to break up the large and prolonged demonstrations in 2005 -2006, the resistance subsequently opted mainly for smaller protests, some of which were planned and some of which were spontaneous. A typical protest would begin on a street corner or a plaza where a Sahrawi flag would be unfurled, women would start ululating, and people would begin chanting pro-independence slogans. Within a few minutes, soldiers and police would arrive, and the crowd would quickly scatter. Other tactics have included leafleting, graffiti (including tagging the homes of collaborators), and cultural celebrations with political overtones. Such nonviolent actions, while broadly supported by the people, appear to have been less a part of coordinated resistance than a result of action by individuals. Still, the Moroccan government’s regular use of violent repression to subdue the Sahrawi-led nonviolent protests suggests that civil resistance is seen as a threat to Moroccan control.

One of the obstacles to the internal resistance is that Moroccan settlers outnumber the indigenous population by a ratio of more than 2:1 and by more in the major cities, making certain tactics used effectively in similar struggles more problematic. For example, although a general strike could be effective, the large number of Moroccan settlers, combined with the minority of indigenous Sahrawis who oppose independence, could likely fill the void resulting from the absence of much of the Sahrawi workforce. Although that might be alleviated by growing pro-independence sentiments among ethnic Sahrawi settlers from the southern part of Morocco, it still presents challenges that have not been faced by largely nonviolent struggles in other occupied lands - among them East Timor, Kosovo, and the Palestinian territories.

A shift in Morocco's strategy

Despite this, civil resistance also appears to have forced a shift in Morocco’s strategy to maintain control of the mineral-rich territory. Although the Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory put forward in 2006 does not meaningfully address Morocco’s legal responsibility to recognize the Sahrawi’s right of self-determination (see my Open Democracy article More Harm Than Good), it nevertheless constitutes a reversal of Morocco’s historical insistence that Western Sahara is as much a part of Morocco as other provinces by acknowledging that it is indeed a distinct entity. Protests in Western Sahara in recent years have begun to raise some awareness within Morocco, especially among intellectuals, human rights activists, pro-democracy groups, and some moderate Islamists - long suspicious of the government line in a number of areas - that not all Sahrawis see themselves as Moroccans and that there exists a genuine indigenous opposition to Moroccan rule.

In the occupied territory, Moroccan colonists and collaborators are given preference for housing and employment and the indigenous people receive virtually no benefits from their country’s rich fisheries and phosphate deposits. In response, a new tactic emerged late this summer, as Sahrawi activists erected the tent city about 15 kilometers outside of El Aioun, the former colonial capital and largest city in the occupied territory. Since any protests calling for self-determination, independence, or enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions are brutally suppressed, the demonstrators pointedly avoided such provocative calls, instead simply demanding economic justice. Even this was too much for the Moroccan monarchy, however, which was determined to crush this nonviolent act of mass defiance. The Moroccans tightened the siege in early October, attacking vehicles bringing food, water and medical supplies to the camp, resulting in scores of injuries and the death of a 14-year old boy. Finally, on November 8, the Moroccans attacked the camp, driving protesters out with tear gas and hoses, beating those who did not flee fast enough, setting off rioting and triggering the burning and pillaging of Sahrawis homes and shops, with occupation forces shooting or arresting suspected activists, hundreds of whom disappeared after the outbreak of violence.

Morocco has been able to persist in flouting its international legal obligations toward Western Sahara largely because France and the United States have continued to arm Moroccan occupation forces and blocked the enforcement of resolutions in the UN Security Council demanding that Morocco allow for self-determination or even simply the stationing of unarmed human rights monitors in the occupied country. So now, at least as important as nonviolent resistance by Sahrawis is the potential of nonviolent action by the citizens of France, the United States, and other countries that enable Morocco to maintain its occupation. Such campaigns played a major role in forcing Australia, Great Britain, and the United States to end their support for Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor.

Despite 35 years of exile, war, repression and international neglect, Sahrawi nationalism is at least as strong within the younger generation as their elders, as is their will to resist. How soon they will succeed in their struggle for self-determination, however, may well rest on such acts of international solidarity by global civil society.



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Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and serves as advisory committee chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. His most recent book (co-authored with Jacob Mundy) is Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010).

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On W.Sahara, UN Blind As Probe Is Called For in Uganda Paragraphs, Mexico YouTube

On W.Sahara, UN Blind As Probe Is Called For in Uganda Paragraphs, Mexico YouTube


By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 16, updated -- As the Security Council started meeting about Western Sahara on Tuesday afternoon, all sides had and spread only limited information.


At 4:15 p.m., Uganda's Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda told Inner City Press that his country has proposed a full Press Statement calling for an investigative team to be send to Western Sahara. "Very sketchy," he called the information the UN provided.


Inner City Press asked on November 12 and 16 if the UN has any first hand information about the murders in the Gdeim Izik camp in El-Ayoun. No, acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq replied both times.

On what basis then was the UN's number two peacekeeper Atul Khare rushing into the Council eight minutes late? What possible information could he provide?


Inner City Press has heard and reported that the UN Department of Political Affairs prepared its first statement about the violence while watching YouTube videos. And DPKO?

Due to the lack of information, several delegations said they intended to ask for an investigation team. If DPKO has no information, one said, that is not normal, something will have to be done.


Others, including one member state joining the Council in January, said this added force to the request to be made again in April for a human rights component to the MINURSO peacekeeping mission.

But that's four months away, and things may have changed by then. A member said that language for a proposed “elements to the press” was being floated by Uganda, but that France would strongly oppose it. The US, too, was said to not favor any outcome to the meeting.



Khare previously with Yukio Takasu, now in line for DPKO job?


Two representatives of the Polisario Front spoke to the Press during the morning, while the Council met about Sudan. They spoke of a mass grave with 34 corpses, of MINURSO peacekeepers confined to their bases, under Moroccan surveillance, using vehicles with Morocco plates.

Inner City Press at the day's noon briefing asked Haq if MINURSO had visited the seen. We have no first hand knowledge, Haq said once again. He said he didn't know about MINURSO's licence plates, nor presumably the bugging. (Bed bugs were also asked about, and Inner City Press' exclusive report of fleas in the UN was confirmed.)

One country on the Council with a particular interest is Mexico, in part because it has one of its nationals, Antonio Velazquez, hiding in the area, posting evidence to YouTube. Mexico took the lead in asking for the meeting, but doesn't want to be seen out front. If Uganda proposes something, they are prepared to support. And Austria? Watch this site.


Footnote: In other DPKO news, Inner City Press reported by Twitter on November 15 that former Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu is in line for a job as Peacekeeping Advisor at the UN. On November 16 Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Haq, video here.



Update of 4:02 pm -- with the Council in closed consultations, the buzz such as there is at the stakeout involves quotes from the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch Peter Bouckaert, ranging from “We have so far only been able to confirm the death of two civilians” to “The civilian hospital in El-Ayoun was guarded by police who beat up wounded Sahrawis who came, and even Moroccan taxi drivers who brought them to the hospital.”


Polisario says that because people were afraid to go to the hospital, the number is under counted. Proponents of the number, on the other hand, say it is hard to hide dozens of bodies. Is this round and round debate being echoed in the closed door consultations? We will try to find out.


At 4:15 p.m., Uganda's Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda told Inner City Press that his country has proposed a full Press Statement calling for an investigative team to be send to Western Sahara. "Very sketchy," he called the information the UN provided.



Update of 4:43 pm - outside the Council chamber, a non Permanent member's Perm Rep tells InnerCityPress, of Uganda's draft Press Statement on Western Sahara, “I don't think it'll come out that way.”



Update of 4:55 pm - with closed door consultations continuing, at the stakeout a video asked about by the Moroccan side, and found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3z-V7T9Cc (beware: violent)

With the highlighting of “bladed weapons” and abuse, it's reminiscent of the video of the violence on the Gaza flotilla. Technology and war crimes, while the UN closes its eyes.


Update of 5:09 pm - the consultations are over, there WILL be "elements to the press," not the full press statement proposed by Uganda.



Update of 6:08 pm -- Mark Lyall Grant of the UK came to the stakeout and read out the “elements to the press” reproduced below. Then as Inner City Press asked about MINURSO's lack of first hand information, Lyall Grant said “no more questions” and walked away. But as has become a pattern this month, he took not a single question.

Next came Ruhakana Rugunda of Uganda, who said his country and the African Union are in favor of an investigation by the UN or an “independent force.” nner City Press asked who -- he didn't specify -- and about MINURSO's failure to go to the site. He said, “That should be answered by DPKO” - we'll be asking. The Polisario representative called MINURSO a “virtual mission... captured by Morocco.”

Morocco's Ambassador came next, speaking in Arabic. Inner City Press ran to the UN's North Lawn building for a stakeout about the G-20, at which French Ambassador Gerard Araud and his deputy were already standing, tending to their minister. Inner City Press asked about Chinese yuan, US Federal Reserve pouring out $600 billion and about IMF reform -- what that's another story. Watch this site.



These are the “Elements to the Press” read out by Mark Lyall Grant on November 16, after which he said “no more questions” --

The members of the Security Council have been briefed by the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Atul Khare, on the recent incidents in Western Sahara.

Council members deplored the violence in El Aaiun and Gdaim Izyk camp, and expressed their condolences over the deaths and injuries that resulted.

They reaffirmed their support for MINURSO and its mission.

The members of the Security Council also heard a briefing by the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy Ambassador Christopher Ross. They offered their full support for his ongoing efforts and urged the parties to demonstrate further political will towards a solution.

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