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Greens call on firms to cut ties with W Sahara occupiers
Greens call on firms to cut ties with Western Sahara occupiers
Senator Scott Ludlam, Wednesday May 18th, 2011
The Australian Greens have called on Australian
companies to sever all ties
with Moroccan firms involved
in the occupation of Western Sahara.
The Greens justice
spokesperson, Senator for Western Australia Scott
Ludlam,
said the African Union and more then 80
governments around the world refuse
to recognise the
Moroccan conquest of Western Sahara and
Australian
companies should withdraw from deals with the
occupation forces.
"Morocco's army rolled into Western
Sahara in 1975 after the Spanish
withdrew. Since then,
the vast majority of the country has been subject to
a
brutal occupation," he said. "No Australian company
should be doing business
with organisations profiting
from this manifestly unjust state of affairs."
"Moroccan
state company OCP is mining phosphate in Western Sahara
and
selling it to CSBP Fertilisers, a Kwinana-based
subsidiary of Wesfarmers.
OCP is essentially stealing
from Western Sahara and profiting from the
brutality of
the military occupation - do Australian companies really
want
to support this?"
Senator Ludlam has requested a
meeting with Wesfarmers executive general
manager Alan
Carpenter to discuss the need for the company to drop its
ties
with the occupation of Western Sahara as soon as
possible.
"The Moroccan government needs to be reminded
again and again that the
occupation will not be
tolerated. Doing business with one of the state
companies
actively exploiting the occupied land is essentially
endorsing the
illegal, repressive and violent conquest of
Western Sahara."
Sahrawi woman Aicha Dahane, sister of
human rights activist Brahim Dahane,
fled Western Sahara
in 2002 after enduring harassment from Moroccan
police.
She is now International Officer for the Forum
for the Future of Sahrawi
Women and will be speaking in
today, Thursday May 19th, at 6.30pm at the
Reception Room
of Fremantle Town Hall, Western
Australia.
ENDS
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