The American company General Electric has communicated to WSRW that they are no longer participating in the tender to construct two wind farms in occupied Western Sahara.
"After checking with our colleagues, we have determined that GE is not participating in the tender that is the subject of your email", stated the GE’s Corporate Ombudsperson’s’ Office on behalf of GE's Board of Directors.
The statement yesterday evening came as a reply to a letter WSRW sent to the company earlier that day. The letter outlined the organisation's concerns on GE's participation in a tender by the Moroccan government to construct five wind farms - two of which were located not in Morocco, but in the occupied territory of Western Sahara; in El Aaiun and in Boujdour.
With GE pulling out, there now remain 15 companies that are contending to win the bid. WSRW has on 2 and 3 July 2013 contacted all of them, asking them to refrain from building infrastructure on occupied land.
In one of his final statements as UN Secretary-General, António Guterres has made an unequivocal point: the end of MINURSO does not extinguish the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. It is a reminder that Morocco cannot declare the Western Sahara question closed simply because the UN mission is leaving.
Moroccan budget documents released in late October reveal that the kingdom allocated tens of thousands of hectares of land in occupied Western Sahara to investment projects.
Our analysis of yesterday's UN Security Council vote on Western Sahara reveals a striking gap between what some governments said about the Saharawi people's right to self-determination and the resolution they voted to support.
In an extraordinary confrontation, both permanent members blocked each other’s proposals on Western Sahara. With no resolution adopted, the UN mission faces an imminent expiry of its mandate.