The New Zealand company Ballance Agri-Nutrients has again bought phosphate rock from a Moroccan state phosphate company in occupied Western Sahara. The shipment arrived 3 December 2008, on the Israeli managed vessel 'White Diamond'.
Madeira has constructed a second artificial beach. Just as before, the sand is originating from occupied Western Sahara.
The Swedish Trade Council has withdrawn a map from its homepages, showing Western Sahara as part of Morocco. The step was taken after correction from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Incitec Pivot is receiving one more controversial phosphate shipment from occupied Western Sahara.
Vessel Yasa Gulten to arrive New Zealand in Christmas week.
The Swedish Green Party signs the international appeal from Western Sahara Resource Watch, WSRW, which demands that Western Sahara should be explicitly excluded if the EU and Morocco agrees on deepened cooperation.
Communiqué on the Conference on Multilateralism and International Law with Western Sahara as case study Hosted by the South African Department of Foreign Affairs and the University of Pretoria, 4 and 5 December 2008.
See more details about the conference itself here.
The vessel Sea Lavender is here loading phosphates in occupied Western Sahara, destined for Mexican imports.
The former UN Legal Counsel, Ambassador Hans Corell, calls the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) illegal. Western Sahara Resource Watch demands immediate halt of European plundering of occupied Western Sahara. PRESS RELEASE from WSRW.
No less than 426 organisations signed a petition letter, demanding from the EU Commission that occupied Western Sahara be kept clearly outside of the so- called Advanced Status cooperation that Morocco currently is being granted. The petition was sent to the EU Commission this morning. PRESS RELEASE.
Two vessels are arriving New Zealand with phosphates from occupied Western Sahara first week of December.
Update: ....and here is one for Christmas.
The Swiss flagged and managed vessel Celerina in November carried out a highly unethical phosphates transport from occupied Western Sahara to Louisiana, USA.
Shortly before the Government of New Zealand changed, the former Minister of Trade, Hon Phil Goff, wrote two letters regarding the natural resource exploitation. Read them here.
On December 5th 2008, a petition letter signed by 426 organisations was sent to the EU commission demanding that occupied Western Sahara be kept outside of the Morocco-EU socalled Advanced Status cooperation. Do you wish your organisation had signed, but did not make the deadline?
Two so-called reefers, or refrigerated ships, have recently visited El Aaiun harbour in occupied Western Sahara, for transport of frozen fish to Russia and China.
The bulk vessel Furness Karumba arrived this port in Perth, Australia, in August.
New Zealand firm Ballance Agri-Nutrients is importing phosphates from Western Sahara, contributing in the financing and legitimation of the illegal occupation from the territory. Here is correspondence between the NZ firm and the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara.
In an extraordinary show of arrogance and disdain for representatives of civil society organizations, the Washington based law firm Covington & Burling flatly refuses to engage with the global solidarity network Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) and this year's Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award laureate, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar. The US law firm is, because of a legal analysis it provided, the source the world phosphate industry refers to when they claim the phosphate trade from Western Sahara to be legal.
Several Swedish parliamentarians from one of the parties in the Swedish government, have motioned that the Swedish Government should work to prevent the EU from signing any new agreements or agreements of advanced status with Morocco "as long as the country occupies Western Sahara".
BASF, the German chemical company who imported Western Saharan phosphates early October, wrote that they "are fully confident that the operations of OCP at Boucraa and the purchase of the replacement delivery were consistent with international law". But after request from WSRW, they refuse to publish their “expert opinion” upon which their conclusion is based. To clarify further aspects of the unpublished report, they refer to a US law firm.
The fertilizer company Yara remains under investigation by Norwegian police after having purchased a shipload of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.
Read the report on the international trade union delegation to occupied Western Sahara from 17th to 22nd of February 2008.
Western Sahara Resource Watch has received more photos documenting the vessel that arrived Tasmania, Australia, end of October, carrying phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.
The talks of granting a so-called Advanced Status to Morocco are getting ever more concrete. But to this day, the EU and Morocco have still avoided stating whether or not occupied Western Sahara should be involved in the cooperation. “There is an elephant walking around in the negotiations room, which no one wants to see or mention”, said WSRW in press release today. Read press release and letter to the EU here.
J. Lauritzen, the Danish shipping conglomerate, has been accused of plundering natural resources from the occupied Western Sahara, a report said.
Two bulk vessels filled with phosphates from occupied Western Sahara are within the next weeks arriving New Zealand.
She arrived Tasmania this week. Photo is from 23rd of October 2008.
Florida fertilizer company Mosaic Co. has received another vessel of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara, in violation of international law. Western Sahara Resource Watch section Florida has urged the company to stop its imports. Read letter here.
German former MEP, and former leader of the Western Sahara solidarity network at the European Parliament, Margot Keßler, has this week sent a letter to the Belgian branch of the German chemical company BASF. In the letter, Mrs. Keßler asks for a clarification on a series of questions regarding BASF's imports of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.
These last days, a vessel has been unloading phosphates from the occupied Western Sahara at the harbour of Ghent (Belgium). The importer of these phosphates is believed to be chemical giant BASF.
The Bulgarian fertiliser producer Agropolychim is in two days expecting a vessel with phosphates from occupied Western Sahara. The vessel could contain around 7.000 tonnes of phosphates. "Agropolychim must stop such imports and return the vessel to where it came from", demands Javier García Lachica, international coordinator of Western Sahara Resource Watch.
Read also: Letter from WSRW to Agropolychim, sent 7th of October 2008.
Update: The vessel has arrived Varna
Representatives of the Australian Western Sahara Association protested at the fertiliser company Incitec Pivot's Extraordinary General Assembly. See photos here of former democrat Senator, Lyn Allison, asking questions at the assembly.
"There's no such country called Western Sahara," Incitec Pivot said to Australian Associated Press today. The statement follows intervention by former Australian senator in the company's general assembly, protesting the trade.
Read also press release: Australian Superphosphate not so super
A Western Saharan diplomat has condemned New Zealand’s purchases of the territory’s fertilisers from Morocco.
Written by Spanish Jesús Madre Casorrán, formerly employed in the mine.
What role does human rights play in the European Neighbourhood Policy? A thesis by Linde Lindqvist Gustavsson at Lund University, Sweden (2007), suggests that human rights issues might fall short when in dispute with Europe\'s self interest. The author compares the cases of Morocco and Turkey.
And who will receive 3,7 tonnes of frozen fish?
The Turkish shipping company Yasa Shipping is doing it again.
A Hong Kong company is linked to Morocco\'s brutal exploitation of Western Sahara. South China Morning Post, 10 August 2008.
The large Russian fishing vessel Zakhar Sorokin has spent a week trawling occupied waters.
A report published earlier this year on ONHYM's homepages reveals that Morocco is looking for iron in the southern parts of occupied Western Sahara. The report suggests that iron could be found in the territory.
Moroccan weekly newspaper Aujourd'hui le Maroc speculates that the Danish clarification on Western Sahara policy is due to energy cooperation with Algeria. A Moroccan government appointed institution demands boycott of Danish businesses in entire Morocco.
Statement made by the Fertiliser Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA) regarding Western Sahara phosphate imports, 2008.
According to recent articles in African Energy and the Moroccan newspaper L'Economiste, there's a realistic chance that Morocco might start drilling for oil in the occupied Western Sahara in the nearby future.
When representatives of the New Zealand government visited Morocco in January, Western Sahara Resource Watch sent 5 questions to the New Zealand government regarding how the government views trade with occupied Western Sahara. 5 months later, we are still waiting for an answer.
Copenhagen (DanWatch) - Denmark is joining an increasing number of governments with official policies against trade in non-renewable resources from Western Sahara. The Danish position echoes the non-trade policies of fellow Scandinavian governments Sweden and Norway. Danwatch, 17 July 2008.
The details behind the energy project in occupied Western Sahara are public. Check them out here.
If the Western Sahara waters are considered high seas, why does the EU spend European taxpayers' money on paying Morocco to fish there? A group of MEPs this week asked a series of questions in the European Parliament.
The EU is about to grant a so-called ‘advanced status’ for Morocco . The move will be made now under the French presidency. “No one seems to mind that Morocco is an illegal occupying power violating the most fundamental human rights”, said WSRW international coordinator.
The Spanish Boluda Group is looking to Dakhla and El Aaiun in occupied Western Sahara.
Moroccan national authorities wishes to build electricity infrastructure in Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara.
"It is surprising that mainly Bergen-owned Gearbulk sails for the occupying power Morocco". Read here editorial in one of Norway's biggest newspapers, Bergens Tidende, 29th of June 2008.
This photo, taken in Port of Lyttleton, New Zealand on June 20th, shows the vessel Pacific Victory offloading phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.
Read also: Another Hong Kong vessel involved in plundering.
"EU - and Denmark - can not on the one hand support the UN\'s criticism on Marocco\'s illegal occupation of Western Sahara and simultanously, on the other hand, make a fisheries agreement with Marocco that totally ignores Western Sahara's rights to their own resources" states member of European Parliament\'s Development Committee, Socialist People’s Party's Margrete Auken.
See photographs of the Gearbulk chartered vessel Simge Aksoy discharging phosphates from occupied Western Sahara in Port of Tauranga, New 23rd of June 2008.
Irish Member of European Parliament, Kathy Sinnott, demands that the occupation of Western Sahara must end and that the Morocco-EU fisheries agreement be reviewed before the EU gives any so-called 'Advanced Status' to Morocco.
In May, the Hong Kong based company Jinhui Shipping regretted having carried out phosphate shipments from Western Shara, and said they would never do it again. Here is an other Hong Kong company caught red-handed.