SAHRAWI: AFRICA'S PALESTINE

Protests in Spain in recent days are attempting to draw attention to the rape of natural resources in Sahrawi (Western Sahara) by Morocco and various international corporations. The Polisario, meanwhile, says that international law forbids Morocco from exploiting Western Sahara's natural resources, prompting some foreign companies to avoid doing business in the territory.

This goes on as the Sahrawi people themselves are largely being displaced by Moroccans. While the attention of the world is rightly on Israeli settlements throughout Palestinian territories and the dispersal of the Palestinian people, few note what is happening in Sahrawi.

About 100,000 Saharawis remain in Western Sahara, outnumbered two-to-one by Moroccans enjoying the territory's tax breaks, subsidized goods and job potential.

A week and a half ago the UN Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission tasked with organizing a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara for another year.

Talk is cheap!

The following is from the Sahara Press Service.


WESTERN SAHARA/NATURAL RESOURCES
Organization of demonstration in Madrid condemning Morocco's plundering of Sahrawi natural resources

Madrid, May 11, 2010 (SPS) - A demonstration was organized Sunday in Madrid to denounce the systematic plundering of Sahrawi natural resources by Morocco and some foreign companies, according to the Polisario Front representation in Spain.

The demonstration organizers urged the Spanish public opinion and international bodies to engage in a campaign against the illegal plundering of Sahrawi natural resources by Morocco with complicity of some foreign companies.

Participants highlighted that "the Plundering of Sahrawi natural resources occurs without the approval of the Sahrawi people which solely has the right to decide on its land and sea resources," embodying that through artistic actions and gestures.

The demonstration - organized by the Coordinating Bodies in Solidarity with the Saharawi People in Spain and the Observatory for the Protection of Natural Resources of Western Sahara - also condemned the French position in favor of Moroccan thesis, during the recent UN Security Council deliberations on the question of Western Sahara, recalling that the organization of free and fair referendum in Western Sahara could lead to a final solution to the conflict. (SPS)