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------Original message------ From: Pambazuka Editor <[email protected]> To: "pambazuka-news" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, October 6, 2011 5:13:48 PM GMT+0100 Subject: Pambazuka News 551: Special Issue: Western Sahara's struggle for freedom PAMBAZUKA NEWS 551: SPECIAL ISSUE: WESTERN SAHARA'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839 CONTENTS: 1. Features /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 1 Features THE SAHRAWI OF WESTERN SAHARA: THE LAST COLONY IN AFRICA Konstantina Isidoros 'The Western Sahara is the last country in Africa that has not been correctly decolonised - instead, the right of the Sahrawi people to post-colonial independence has been frozen in time,' writes Konstantina Isidoros in introducing this special edition of Pambazuka News. 'If we are to take the rule of international law as our guiding foundation, then Morocco has blatantly defied international law twice, by its illegal invasion of someone else’s sovereign territory and by its illegal occupation that still continues today.' http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76907 ****** A HISTORY OF THE WESTERN SAHARA CONFLICT Australia Western Sahara Association The Australia Western Sahara Association ( http://awsa.org.au ) provides a short history of Morocco's military invasion of Western Sahara and its effects on the populace. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76871 ****** 34 YEARS AND WAITING Nikolaj Nielsen In 2007, Nikolaj Nielsen undertook a clandestine journey into the Moroccan Occupied Territory of Western Sahara to meet some leading activists and students of the Sahrawi human rights movement. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76870 ****** MALAININ LAKHAL: SPOTLIGHT ON A SAHRAWI ACTIVIST Malainin Lakhal Malainin Lakhal made the dangerous escape journey through the Moroccan Berm 11 years ago. Malainin’s contribution here provides an insight to that perilous escape journey, which many Sahrawi activists are forced to make when their lives are in extreme danger from the security forces. Watch a video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNFmtEJxp88 ) of Malainin Lakhal’s Australia talk from from 30 January 2011 or listen to the podcast ( http://www.fluctu8.com/podcast-episode/western-sahara-under-the-spotlight-15017-82841.html ) . http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76895 ****** NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE: THE SAHRAWI PEOPLE UNDER MOROCCAN OCCUPATION Mohamed Brahim Mohamed Brahim, Enaama Asfari, El Ouali Amidane and Mustapha Abdedayem, alongside some other writers who have requested anonymity in this special edition, are indigenous Sahrawi living in the area occupied by Morocco. Their contributions provide insights into life under occupation. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76873 ****** MOROCCO VERSUS POLISARIO IN 2011 The continuing competition for influence Anthony G. Pazzanita Anthony Pazzanita’s original article in 1994, Morocco versus Polisario: a Political Interpretation ( http://bit.ly/nzeJea ) provided one of the first analytical insights into Morocco’s budding ‘propaganda war’ regarding its illegal invasion and occupation. Since 1994, Morocco has rapidly increased its natural resource exploitation of the Western Sahara, which also breaks international law. Pazzanita has written a 2011 update to his 1994 article which confirms Morocco’s nascent diplomatic machine has since grown into a highly sophisticated PR war on, for example, its illegal fisheries plunder and oil exploration - which campaign groups are tirelessly lobbying for the country to halt. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76900 ****** THE DYNAMICS OF REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE Sahrawi nationalist activism in the Moroccan occupied Western Sahara Jacob Mundy Morocco’s repression of Sahrawi resistance through beatings, detention, torture and disappearance has helped create and sustain a new generation of nationalist activists demanding independence, writes Jacob Mundy. All the major dissident Sahrawi civil society groups are led by past victims of repression. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76904 ****** 'DO NOT FORGET US' Spotlight on a Sahrawi prisoner of conscience Claude Mangin Enaama Asfari’s persecution by Moroccan authorities, recounted here by his wife Claude Mangin, illustrates the horrible extent to which the occupying power will go to quash Sahrawi resistance. But true freedom fighters will not give up until they liberate their homeland. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76898 ****** WESTERN SAHARA AND THE UNITED NATIONS NORMS ON SELF-DETERMINATION AND AGGRESSION Roger S Clark The right of the people of Western Sahara to decide their own destiny has historically encountered two major obstacles: Spain’s efforts to divide the territory between Morocco and Mauritania and invasion of the territory by the two countries, writes Roger S Clark. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76902 ****** THE TEA STRUGGLE: LESSONS FROM A SAHARAWI RITUAL Senia Bachir Abderahman Young Senia has spoken before delegates of the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee and met with politicians and NGOs in the UK, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Here she explains parallels between the Sahrawi tea ritual and the people’s quest for freedom. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76903 ****** PALESTINE AND WESTERN SAHARA A comparative analysis of both disputes and the applicable law Juan Soroeta Liceras For four decades the UN has clearly and repeatedly affirmed the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, writes Juan Soroeta Liceras. Morocco’s continued occupation of Western Sahara violates international law, just like the Israeli occupation of Palestine. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76901 ****** POLISARIO FRONT INTERVENTION BEFORE THE UN SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF DECOLONIZATION Ahmed Boukhari Morocco is to blame for the current stalemate in the talks to end the long dispute with Western Sahara, writes Ahmed Boukhari. Morocco has refused to discuss the nationalist Polisario Front’s proposal for a process of self-determination that would include independence. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76899 ****** THE TASTE OF DETENTION Spotlight on a Sahrawi prisoner of conscience El-Ouali Amidane 25 years old this year, El-Ouali Amidane is another Sahrawi prisoner of conscience serving a five-year sentence in a Moroccan prison, which everyone hopes will end this October 2011. He was jailed for taking part in a peaceful demonstration for self-determination inside the Moroccan Occupied Territory, as an active member of the Sahrawi human rights organisation CODESA. El-Ouali has become passionate about writing short stories; below we publish two pieces shared with international campaign networks by his family. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76915 ****** NO FUTURE UNDER MOROCCAN RULE A Sahrawi woman Mehdi is employed and has a house and car. But he knows that he could lose it all if he openly shows allegiance to the Sahrawi cause. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76908 ****** A REPATRIATE'S PLIGHT Salama Returning home from Algeria, Salama finds that as a Sahrawi living in occupied territory, he has ‘become a breathing person without a soul.’ http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76909 ****** A YOUNG MAN’S SADNESS Anonymous Tortured for taking part in political protest, a young Sahrawi has lost his childhood ambitions for a better life. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76910 ****** NO LAND WITHOUT SEX Anonymous A young woman is told she can only benefit from a land redistribution scheme if she provides sexual favours to the Moroccan official administrating it. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76911 ****** STORY OF A SHEIKH: IMPUNITY FOR MOROCCANS Anonymous A Moroccan soldier on a motorbike who struck and killed a Sahrawi pedestrian has not been prosecuted for his actions. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76912 ****** WHY I’M NOT MARRIED YET Hamdi 42-year old Hamdi would like to marry but he can’t afford to, thanks to his economic situation – one that is shared by many other Sahrawis in the occupied territory. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76913 ****** A YOUNG GIRL’S LIFE IN A REFUGEE CAMP Senia Bachir Abderahman ‘I spent my whole childhood, or at least until I was six, thinking that living in refugee camps was all that existed for any person,’ writes Senia Bachir Abderahman, in an account that describes how her family came to live in the south-west Algerian desert, following the Morrocan occupation of Western Sahara in 1976. For Abderahman, ‘home is a far-fetched, ideal, dream-come-true state of mind’. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76914 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ Fahamu - Networks For Social Justice http://www.fahamu.org Pambazuka News is published by Fahamu Ltd. © Unless otherwise indicated, all materials published are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. For further details see: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/about.php Pambazuka news can be viewed online: English language edition ( http://www.pambazuka.org/en ) Edição em língua Portuguesa ( http://www.pambazuka.org/pt ) Edition française ( http://www.pambazuka.org/fr ) RSS Feeds available at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/newsfeed.php Pambazuka News is published with the support of a number of funders, details of which can be obtained here ( http://www.pambazuka.org/en/about.php ) . 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