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Western Sahara Resource Watch marks 10 years of existence

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Brussels, Feb 6, 2015 (SPS) - Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) on Friday marks the 10 anniversary of its establishment as an international coalition for the protection of natural resources in Western Sahara, occupied illegally by Morocco since 1975.


According to a statement issued on their website, the NGO will has later this day an international board of seven, and a secretary based in Belgium
Formally established at a meeting in Brussels on 5 February 2005, the watch group worked first to stop Kerr-McGee and TotalFinaElf, the two oil companies which carried out seismic exploration activities in Western Sahara at the time.


The network was in short formed as a response to the entry of oil companies into the territory of Western Sahara, and to the 2002 UN Legal Opinion which deemed such oil exploration in violation of international law.


From 2006, WSRW worked on the EU-Morocco trade agreements as a main focus area, while at the same time campaigning to stop the oil and phosphate companies involved in the illegal plunder of the territory. (SPS)


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