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The Occupation We Choose to Ignore’

Do you know who I am? I am a Sahrawi. The land to which I refer is what is known today as the non-self-governing territory ofWestern Sahara. My country was colonized by the Spanish and the French between 1884 and 1975, divided in two and occupied by Moroccan and Mauritanian forces thereafter, and has been ruled exclusively by the Kingdom of Morocco from 1979 until the present.

The Western Sahara: forgotten first source of the Arab Spring

this is one part of the Arab Spring that western governments don't want to talk about. And their silence, and the UN's complicity in it, is why that repression continues, and a terrible injustice is perpetuated.

ISS - News - The Western Sahara and North African People’s Power

Respect the right of individuals to peacefully express their opinions regarding the status and future of the Western Sahara and to document violations of human rights

King of Morocco to be biggest benefactor of EU trade agreement - Telegraph

it has emerged that the single biggest beneficiary of the deal will be the King of Morocco, who is head of one of the three largest agricultural producers in the north African country and lays claim to 12,000 hectares of the nation's most fertile farmland.

North African Dispatches Africa’s Forgotten Colony

Oblivion it seems is the current reality for the arid North African territory of Western Sahara; often referred to as Africa’s ‘Last Colony’. In my opinion, it would be more accurate to describe it as ‘Africa’s Forgotten Colony’.

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Mar 22, 2012

Siemens makes illegal windmill deal in occupied Western Sahara | Newstime Africa

Siemens

The German multinational, Siemens, has landed an order for the construction and maintenance of 22 windmills to be built in a wind farm in 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 without the consent of Western Sahara’s indigenous population, the Saharawis, who also have to benefit from any such dealings.

And this is not the case with the deal between Siemens and Nareva Holding, or any other dealings with resources from occupied Western Sahara, says Abba Malainin from the Western Saharan liberation front, Polisario. “The Saharawis were not consulted in this economical dealing between Morocco’s Nareva Holding and Siemens Denmark. Nareva has no right to strike economical deals in our illegally occupied land because it is dealing in something that it does not own.”

Siemens has solemnly promised that the company’s business dealings will not violate international law by joining the UN’s Global Compact – an initiative that compels participating companies to “support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights” and “make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.”

“Siemens is expressly committed to upholding the Compact’s ten principles,” Siemens insists in a 2010 sustainability report. “We have committed ourselves to observing human rights … and ensure that these basic rights and principles are also observed in our supply chain.”

But by working in occupied Western Sahara, Siemens has broken these promises. Human Rights Watch speaks of Moroccan authorities acting with “impunity” and the ”evidence of torture and serious mistreatment” against the indigenous population of Westerns Sahara, the Saharawis and International Crisis Group speaks of the Moroccan regime’s “disproportionate use of force” and it “frequently resorting to torture and arbitrary arrests.”

And apart from being accomplices to these human rights violations, those who deal with Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara are destabilising not only Western Sahara but also the entire region. “All trade with Western Sahara legitimises Morocco’s illegal occupation of Western Sahara,” says Morten Nielsen from Danish NGO Africa Contact, who sent a letter to Siemens last Friday to try to persuade the company to cancel the deal.

“Such deals undermine the peace process between the Saharawis and Morocco and helps to maintain and amplify the hostility in a region divided on the question of the colonisation of Western Sahara. This issue is a destabilising factor in a region that borders on the European Union.”

By Peter Kenworthy, Africa Contact

Africa's last colony -Western Sahara

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