Built to keep the Sahrawi from their own land, the berm that bisects Western Sahara is a potent symbol of Morocco's determination to hold on to Africa's last colony in the face of long-standing - but weak - international pressure. Ivan Broadhead reports. South China Morning Post, 11th of May, 2008.
Western Saharan activists are targeting Australia\'s reliance on their homeland\'s richest natural resource. The region and its phosphate reserves were illegally annexed by neighbouring Morocco in 1975 and activists have travelled to Australia to raise awareness about the continuing occupation. See 7:30 report on Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 9 June 2008 here.
PRESS RELEASE: 29 parliamentarians from UK, Norway and New Zealand this morning sent a letter to the shipping company Gearbulk, urging the company to stop their phosphate shipments from occupied Western Sahara.
Sahrawis in Norway are asking Bergen-owned Gearbulk shipping company to stop trading with Western Sahara. They believe such trade maintains the brutal occupation.
3 stowaways -probably Moroccan- are now in police custody in Norway after arrving in port of Horten, Norway on 3rd of June. They had hidden in a vessel with fish meal from El Aaiun in occupied Western Sahara, and were discovered as the vessel discharged its cargo in Latvia.
Read also: Afrol: Western Sahara-bound fishing vessel hijacked
People from Greenpeace Wednesday afternoon prevented the fishing vessel Nordic IV to leave the harbour in Fiskebäck, Gothenburg, Sweden. Two activists have chained themselves to the vessel's anchoring poles. Gothenburg Post, 11 June 2008
Read more about Gearbulk's involvement in Western Sahara, and the vessel Simge Aksoy here. As of June 2008, the vessel can have transported phosphates from Western Sahara for more than 200,000 million US dollars.
A third international shipping company has bowed into pressure to quit its assignments in ports in occupied Western Sahara. The Hong Kong-based shipping company Jinhui Shipping thus follows Norway\'s two shipping companies Arnesen Shipbrokers and R-Bulk, which have stopped shipping out phosphates from the territory. More are expected to follow. Afrol News, 5 june 2008.
The third “Norwegian” shipping company in half a year says it will not longer visit ports in occupied Western Sahara. Jinhui Shipping, registered on Oslo Stock Exchange, says to South China Morning Post that it will not contract any more business in the country.
Last Friday, the Norwegian company R-Bulk said they will do their utmost to prevent further shipments from Western Sahara. Japan-Sahara Association has now sent a letter to the Japanese shipping company that rent their vessels.
The Norwegian shipping company R-Bulk apologizes that one of their vessels has transported phosphates from Western Sahara, and say they will do their utmost to prevent it from happening again. The company is praised for its good corporate social responsibility.
April this year, a vessel belonging to the Norwegian ship owner company R-Bulk, transported 15.000 tonnes of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara to Colombia. One of Norway's biggest trade unions, Industry and Energy, as well as the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara and Western Sahara Resource Watch today protests the shipment. The phosphate industry in the occupied country takes place in violation of international law.
This time, the vessel is Greek. Arriving Northport on May 30th 2008.
"For now, and unlike its stance on East Timor, New Zealand prefers to cut deals with the occupying power that has long been denying the right of Africa’s last colony to full self determination under the UN Charter." Read article by Scoop journalist Gordon Campbell on the New Zealand participation in the Western Sahara resource plundering.