Festivities at the launch of the 11th edition of the FiSahara human rights film festival held in a refugee camp deep in the desert were tinged with feelings of disappointment and defiance as news trickled in that the UN Security Council had once again failed to include human rights monitoring when extending the mandate of UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara on Tuesday.
The film festival which began on the same day as the UN vote in New York is hosting over 300 international actors, film-makers and activists including Nelson Mandela’s former prison-mate, 89-year-old Andrew Mlangeni. Festival guests flew in to Tindouf, Algeria yesterday, and travelled over 100 miles to Dakhla refugee camp, home to around 30,000 refugees displaced from their native Western Sahara for nearly four decades by an unlawful Moroccan occupation.

This year’s programme includes over 30 films from around the world including Oscar-nominated documentaries , animations, short films and blockbusters as well as several films made by refugees themselves in the newly established refugee camp film school. There are also film-making workshops, camel races and concerts by world renowned musicians Jonas Mosa Gwangwa and Mariam Hassan.

But amid the celebrations there is a palpable sense of disappointment that the UN yesterday ignored the call made by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the UN peacekeeping mission, known as MINURSO, to monitor and report on human rights abuses in Western Sahara. MINURSO is the only contemporary peacekeeping force without a human rights monitoring mandate.
It is widely believed that the UN’s failure to introduced human rights monitoring is the result of pressure brought to bear within the Security Council by the Morocco’s traditional ally, France.

Actor Sergi Lopez, famed for his roles in Pan’s Labyrinth and Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut Du Bien, said from FiSahara today:
“I am very proud to have worked in French cinema for over 20 years but I am deeply ashamed that the French government have once again refused to shift one centimetre recognising the urgent need for human rights monitoring in occupied Western Sahara. It seems the French principle of “liberty, egality and fraternity” come second place to their economic and political interests.”

Maria Carrion, FiSahara’s executive director said today:
“It is ironic that on the same day that this human rights film festival is happening here the desert, the human rights of Saharawi’s have once again been ignored by the UN Security Council in New York. But this news has not dampened the spirit here. Instead it has increased our feeling of determination to continue our activities. It also demonstrates just how important events like FiSahara are in raising awareness of the forgotten conflict in Western Sahara, Morocco’s ongoing human rights abuses and the international community’s abject failure to hold them to account for them.”

Jhadija Hamdi, Minister Culture for the Saharawi Democratic Republic said today;
“My people have spent decades struggling peacefully for their universal right of self-determination here in the camps and in occupied Western Sahara. FiSahara is a key event that empowers the Saharawi people through film providing a vital cultural platform for their voices – so long ignored – to be heard around the world.”

The FiSahara Film Festival takes place until 4th May. www.festivalsahara.com
For crowd funder visit  http://www.ulule.com/fisahara

Please contact:  prensa@festivalsahara.com or +213 667071267

NOTES:

1. FiSahara Photos  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dq26bk3t06kr5d9/pNRf5BHbj5?n=21853203 (by José Medina)

FiSahara short video -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbXGyNUHRp4
2. Programme:

FILMS INCLUDE: ISMAEL by Marcelo Piñeyro, Spain (2013) 110´ / BLACK DIAMONDS by Miguel Alcantud, Spain, Portugal (2013) 100´ / JUSTIN AND THE KNIGHTS OF VALOUR by Manuel Sicilia, Spain (2013) 90´ / FOOSBALL by Juan José Campanella, Spain, Argentina (2013) 120´ / THE SCARECROW by Khalil Al Mazen, Palestine (2013) 40´ / ZIP & ZAP AND THE MARBLE GANG by Oskar Santos, Spain (2013) 97´ / DIRTY WARS by Richard Rowley USA (2013) 90’ / THE SQUARE by Jehane Noujaim, Egypt, USA (2013) 108´ / WHEN I SAW YOU by, Annemarie Jacir, Palestine, Jordan, Greece, Emirates (2012) 93´ / THE CUP READER by Suha Araj, Palestine (2013) 12´ / THE FLOWERS OF THE WALL by Moulud Yeslem, Xavi Marín, Spain, Western Sahara (2013) 70´ / ROOTS AND CLAMOR by Ebaba Hameida Hafed, Spain (2014) 20´/ SAHRAWIS SHORT FILMS by Abidin Kaid Saleh audiovisual school / JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I´M ALIVE by Emanuela Zuccalà, Italy (2013) 64´ / LEGNA (SAHRAWI POETRY) by Juan Robles, Bahia Awah, Juan Carlos Gimeno, Spain, Western Sahara (2014) 90´ / CHABIBA (YOUNG) by Damián López López, Álvaro García Márquez, Western Sahara, Sahrawi Refugee Camp, Spain (2013) 54´ / REFUGEES THROUGH TIME by Gran Angular Cultural Association, Spain, Western Sahara (2014) 8’ / INVICTUS by Clint Eastwood, USA (2009) 134´/ CHILDREN´S PROGRAMMING in coordination with « Pallasos en Rebeldía »


3. Background to the Western Sahara conflict
Western Sahara, "Africa's last colony", was divided between Morocco and Mauritania by the Spanish when they withdrew in 1976. Tens of thousands of Saharawis fled the invasion to refugee camps in the Algerian desert. In February 1976, the Saharawi independence movement, the Polisario Front, declared the creation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. A 16-year war ensued between the Moroccans and the Polisario Front, the Mauritanians having withdrawn in 1979. In 1991 the fighting ended and under the terms of a UN ceasefire agreement, a referendum for self-determination was promised. However, this has been continually blocked by Morocco, leaving the Saharawi to live either under occupation in Western Sahara or in in four large refugee camps in the inhospitable Algerian desert. Home to 30,000 refugees, Dakhla, is the most remote of these camps.

This year’s film festival will coincide with a vote by the UN Security Council to renew the mandate of the peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO). MINURSO remains the only contemporary UN peacekeeping mission without a human rights monitoring mandate and it is hoped that the UN will vote in April to extend their mandate to include human rights monitoring.