At the end of May, Algeria and South Africa issued a joint condemnation of Morocco’s illegal occupation of Western Sahara, describing the conflict as a “question of decolonisation”, and calling for the people in the region to be able to exercise their right to self-determination through a referendum.
Morocco has illegally occupied Western Sahara since 1975, and refuses to allow a referendum. Also in May, the seventh FiSahara international film festival took place in a Sahrawi refugee camp with no paved roads, no sources of water and no vegetation.
First prize at the festival was awarded to the Spanish documentary about Western Sahara, El Problema, which also won the Amnesty International Prize at the San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival.
Meanwhile, in Brighton, a photographic exhibition about Western Sahara, “The Thirst of the Dunes”, opened at the Real Patisserie, Western Road, Hove in June – it continues to 17 July and then transfers from 28 July to the Rosslyn Arms, Hampstead, London.
www.freesahara.ning.com
Topics: Western Sahara