Canberra (Australia) March13, 2013(SPS) the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Western Sahara organized an event in support of Western Sahara at the Federal Parliament on 12 March 2012, according to Polisario representation to Australia
The event included a special screening of “Sons of the Clouds – The Last Colony”, a documentary presented by award-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem about the conflict over Western Sahara, the last remaining colony in Africa.
In her opening speech of the event, Member of Parliament and Chair of the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Western Sahara Janelle Saffin said “Tonight, in the name of Western Sahara, we welcome diplomats, parliamentarians and the press to our film viewing.”
“As chair of the all-party Parliamentary friendship group here in Canberra, I am also delighted to welcome members of our group, whose dedication to Western Sahara is a source of personal inspiration.”
“Crucially, Australia now has a seat on the Security Council,” she said adding they are demanding that “this great country –with its tradition of justice and fighting when the odds are against us – again assume a leadership role to promote human rights, the self-determination and nation status of an oppressed people, just as we so proudly did in the case of Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea.”
There were also introductory remarks by Kamal Fadel, Representative of the Frente POLISARIO, the political representative of the Saharawi people of Western Sahara and Dean Bialek, former Australian diplomat at the UN, now a Director at Independent Diplomat, the world’s first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, headquartered in New York.
The Saharawi representative mentioned that Western Sahara remains a question of decolonization under the UN Charter and that it is regarded as the last case of decolonization on the African continent.
He added that the UN has time and again reaffirmed the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination but unfortunately has so far failed to deliver the promised referendum.
“It is no secret that Morocco has violated UN resolution and agreements signed under UN auspices” he said adding that “MINURSO has now been present in Western Sahara for over 20 years but what has been missing all along the years of UN presence is the political will and the courage to put pressure on Morocco to allow the referendum to take place.”(SPS)
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