Western Sahara Seminar

Western Sahara Seminar finished successfully in Tokyo on 3rd of July.
The venue was full. No confusion. Participants kept discussing to each other until the end of the night.
I summarized the details below.

Western Sahara Seminar
Report from occupied and liberated area
/Western Sahara issue at TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development )

Date:3rd of July, 2019
Speaker1 : Yuichi Iwasaki / Journalist at Asia Press International
Speaker2 : Masaki Inaba / Program Director for Global Health at Africa Japan Forum
Host : Africa Japan Forum
Co-host : Kanto branch of Japan Association for African Studies

Program and contents

Greeting from Naoko Tsuyama / Director at Africa Japan Forum

Greeting from Yukino Iwai / Professor of Waseda University and Director at Japan Association for African Studies

Greeting from Makoto Katsumata / Emeritus professor of Meijigakuin University and Director at Councilor of Japan Association for African Studies
—Mr. Makoto Katsumata expressed 3 principles.
—The charteres of the United Nations, including the process of decolonization of the United Nations / UN listed Western Sahara as a territory to which the declaration the granting of independence to colonial countries.
—The agreement of the African Union / Promotion for decolonization is one of the mission in their agreement.
—The Constitution of Japan / It can be said as the United Nations centrism.

<Report of Western Sahara issue / The present situation at occupied zone, Liberated area and refugee camps
by Yuichi Iwasaki
—Photo exhibition of each cities in the occupied zone, including El Aioun, Boujdour, Dakhla and Smara.
—Photo exhibition of refugee camps, including Rabouni, Boujdour, El Aioun, Smara and Auserd. The sand wall in the Liberated was also included.
—Report : Territorial issue / Western Sahara is not a part of Morocco.
—Report : Natural resource issue / Exported to Japan as Moroccan products
—Report : Human rights issue / Unfairness, racism, assault, torture, menace and missing person
—Report : The voice of Saharaoui /”Who has the rights of this land?” “Just let us vote !”

<Description of Japan’s Foreign policy toward African countries and Western Sahara / Discussion at TICAD>
by Masaki Inaba
—Western Sahara issue turned up at TICAD / Where is the seats of RASD?
—The stand of AU / RASD is a member of AU / Legal Opinion of AU
—Ministerial conference at TICAD in Mozambique / Morocco attacked against RASD in 2017
—Ministerial conference at TICAD in Tokyo / RASD attended and Morocco left in 2018
—Senior Officials Meeting at TICAD in Addis Ababa / RASD and Morocco attended in 2019
—Revealed “Japan” through TICAD and Western Sahara issue / The points of this issue are sovereignty, human rights and humanity. AU know that. Japan does not understand that yet.