[West-Sahara] Polisario spant rechtzaak aan in Nieuw Zeeland.

fwillems op antenna.nl fwillems op antenna.nl
Do Mrt 5 08:30:38 CET 2020


Het Front Polisario heeft een zaak aangebracht bij het Hooggerechtshof
in Nieuw Zeeland tegen het Superannuation Fund dat actief is in het
gebied dat door Marokko wordt bezet.

De Sahrawi-vertegenwoordiger in Australië en Nieuw-Zeeland, Kamal Fadel,
stelt dat het Fonds op twee manieren betrokken is: het heeft
investeringen in Nieuw-Zeelandse boerderijen die onrechtmatig verkregen
fosfaat gebruiken, en het belegt via indexfondsen in bedrijven die
actief zijn in West-Sahara.

De bevrijdingsbeweging van West-Sahara heeft gewaarschuwd dat de
investeringen de reputatie van Nieuw-Zeeland als een verantwoordelijk
lid van de wereldgemeenschap schaden, terwijl het Fonds zegt dat het de
beschuldigingen niet accepteert en de zaak zal verdedigen.

Al jaren probeert het Front een einde te maken aan de winning van
fosfaat dat eigendom is van het Sahrawi-volk door de bezettende macht
Marokko.

De Nieuw-Zeelandse bedrijven Ravensdown en Balance Agri-Nutrients
importeren jaarlijks ongeveer $ 30 miljoen van het product voor gebruik
op boerderijen.

Zie:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/119998539/western-sahara-liberation-movement-takes-nz-super-fund-to-court



Het Polisario heeft het volgende persbericht uitgebracht:


Legal action in New Zealand against imports of phosphate from occupied
Western Sahara

For Immediate Release

The Sahrawi national liberation movement (Polisario Front) has commenced
legal action as part of its efforts to stop illegal imports of phosphate
rock from occupied Western Sahara to New Zealand. The Polisario Front
has applied for judicial review of certain investment decisions by the
Guardians of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

The Polisario Front says these decisions support Morocco’s ongoing
illegal occupation of Western Sahara, and the illegal extraction and
exportation of Western Saharan phosphate, and are inconsistent with the
Guardians’ statutory obligation to manage and administer the Fund in a
manner consistent with avoiding prejudice to New Zealand’s reputation as
a responsible member of the world community.

The judicial review application has been filed by Kamal Fadel, the
Sahrawi Representative to Australia and New Zealand. “The Sahrawi people
are determined to protect their natural resources with all available
means. This legal action is a message to all who are involved in the
exploitation of Sahrawi natural resources that they face legal action,
reputational risks and investor withdrawal,” said Mr Fadel.

Background

This application follows successful legal action by the Polisario Front
overseas, including the seizure and sale of a cargo of Western Saharan
phosphate in 2017 that was transiting though South Africa en route to
New Zealand. In that case, the High Court of South Africa found the
Sahrawi Government to have ownership of the cargo and observed Western
Sahara to be illegally occupied by Morocco through the use of armed force.

Western Sahara has been substantially occupied by Morocco since 1975,
when Spain relinquished its colony of Spanish Sahara, and allowed
Morocco to take administrative control of the region. No countries
recognise Morocco as the lawful administering power of Western Sahara,
and in 1975, the International Court of Justice found that Morocco did
not have historical ties with Western Sahara that could support a claim
to sovereignty.

Today, Morocco occupies around 75% of Western Sahara, and the Polisario
Front controls the remainder of the territory. The Polisario Front has
been recognised by the United Nations as the legitimate representative
of the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara. Western Sahara is recognised as
a non-self-governing territory by the United Nations, and under
international law the Sahrawi people have a right to self-determination
and sovereignty over natural resources located in their territory.

Located within the Moroccan-occupied area of Western Sahara is a
phosphate mine at Bou Craa. Throughout the Moroccan occupation,
phosphate has been mined at Bou Craa and exported through the port at
Laâyoune (also within the occupied territory) by Phosphates de Boucraa,
which is owned by the Moroccan Government.

The annual mining and export of phosphate incentivises Morocco to
continue its illegal occupation of Western Sahara and to direct an
economy in extension of its annexation of the territory. This encourages
Morocco to continue delaying  a referendum under the auspices of the
United Nations that would allow Western Sahara to assert its independent
sovereignty.

Over the past decade, a number of companies worldwide have ceased
imports of Western Saharan phosphate on the basis of ethical concerns,
and countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States no longer
import phosphate from the territory. However, New Zealand companies
Ballance Agri-Nutrients Limited (Ballance) and Ravensdown Limited
(Ravensdown) continue to purchase and import Western Saharan phosphate
and, through them, New Zealand is the only remaining importer of Western
Saharan phosphate in the western world.

The judicial review proceedings

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is a New Zealand Government savings
vehicle established to help pre-fund the cost of universal
superannuation, or pension, in New Zealand. Its estimated value is over
$44.5 billion. The Fund is managed and administered by the Guardians of
the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, a Crown Entity. The Guardians of
the Fund have a statutory obligation to manage and administer the Fund
in a manner consistent with avoiding prejudice to New Zealand’s
reputation as a responsible member of the world community.
The Fund is exposed to occupied Western Sahara through its investments
in farms that use Western Saharan phosphate supplied by Ballance, and
interests in companies operating in the occupied territory. Since 2012,
the Guardians’ international peers, including the Norwegian Government
Pension Fund, National Employment Savings Trust (United Kingdom), APG
(Netherlands), AP Funds (Sweden), FDC (Luxembourg), and BMO Global Asset
Management, have excluded companies that extract resources from Western
Sahara for ethical reasons.

The Polisario Front says that the Fund’s continuing investments
prejudice New Zealand’s reputation as a responsible member of the world
community and is seeking orders that the Guardians reconsider the Fund’s
investments that are exposed to Western Sahara.







Meer informatie over de West-Sahara maillijst