Re: the genuineness of commentaries being posted here and elsewhere (Unleashed, Variety, Links, Online Opinion, New Matilda). The content and style suggests that Fay is a pseudonym for the same person who has posted as: Mark, Martin, Rick, Observer, Lawrence, Lawrence A, Petra, Miriam, Catherine and possibly others.

There's a consistent theme: providing Kamal Fadel's press releases and related publications; and repeating anti-Stolen and pro-Polisario statements rather than participating in open discussion. Some of these posts appear to have benefited from the assistance of people who are proficient in English.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/timors-link-to-a-saharan-struggle-20090721…

Timor’s link to a Saharan struggle

Jose Ramos-Horta

July 22, 2009

As I visit Australia again, to attend this week’s opening of the Melbourne International Film Festival, I have been confronted by the outcry over the film Stolen, which will screen at the festival and which represents, in microcosm, the importance of truth in the struggle for justice. The film, which makes claims of widespread slavery in the Western Saharan refugee camps, represents many of the ugly realities of this central dynamic. It is a scenario I know only too well.

I have followed closely the question of Western Sahara for decades. In our years of struggle for independence, strong friendship and solidarity grew between the Timorese and the Saharawis. I have met many Saharawis and visited the Saharawi refugee camps and liberated areas twice. I did not see any form of slavery in those camps. Rather, what I know of the Saharawis is that they are enlightened and committed to their cause of freedom.

The situation of Western Sahara is perhaps not well known to Australians. For East Timorese, there are ties which make a mutual understanding easier to find. Both East Timor and Western Sahara were colonised by Iberian powers - Portugal and Spain, respectively; both have been identified by the United Nations as being ready for decolonisation; both were invaded, post-European withdrawal, by regional powers in 1975; both peoples have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses; and both have been caught up in global political trends not of their making.
…
Stolen emerges as a stark example of the implications of this reality. It is easy to cast societies seen through the lens of bigotry as backward and to manufacture spurious storylines to suit a certain need when the politics of the moment encourage it.

Jose Ramos-Horta is President of East Timor.

Read the whole article in The Age :

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/timors-link-to-a-saharan-struggle-20090…

It is a strategic move by Kamal to trade on the presumed although unproven commonalities between Western Sahara and East Timor. This has enabled Kamal to enlist a credible voice.

However Hose Ramos Horta is sticking out his neck and risking his own credibility by making public statements about a film that he has not seen. Hose is incorrect: the film makes no claim as to widespread slavery.

The statement has failed to accurately address what the film is about. The film subtly portrays real and complex issues arising from the long time Berber practice of slavery and in no way was intended to reflect adversely on the Polisario cause.

It is obvious though that as members of the Berber ruling class who have traditionally suppressed the hereditary slave class, the film has touched a tender nerve with the Polisario.

The Polisario began attacking the film in public statements before they had seen the film. Now they've put Hose Ramos Horta up to doing this very same thing.

The only inkling that slavery is widespread arose when the film makers were asked on the 7.30 Report: how many people they felt might be affected by slavery. They identified 20,000 as the likely affected population. This is well founded in research on the practice of slavery amongst Berber cultural groups in North Africa.

Evidence of slavery in the Polisario camps is unlikely to come out however for as long as this oppressive Polisario controls the region because the Polisario closely control access to information.

This is evidenced in how the Polisario evicted the film makers and sought to confiscate the film; and is evidenced in how the Polisario are seeking to suppress and discredit the film.

Who ever the Polisario enlist to their campaign against the film, truth speaks more loudly. And the truth also speaks out as to how unscrupulously the Polisario have conducted themselves in an ill conceived propaganda campaign to suppress a film and silence Australian film makers

Jose Ramos-Horta on Stolen film during an event held in Melbourne on 23 July 2009:

“I have to confess I have not seen the film but have read about all about it for many months - transcripts and articles. I have to say I was in the camps and I am not naïve - I am always a very curious person… I am always curious about human beings and at the Sahara camp I went visiting people in tents and talked with so many people.

I do not know the number of international NGOs that over the years have operated in the camps – numerous – far more than ever in East Timor. The number of European parliamentarians visiting the camps and internationally, the Red Cross, always had free access to the Saharawi camps. UNHCR – all areas that you can think of, all these years – no one ever heard of it.

Because this is the first time I heard of it in the camps. It is totally an absurdity and made up, I guarantee you.

... The Polisario is one of the most genuine liberation movements and very humanitarian. I never heard of brainwashing by the Polisario. You don’t see much propaganda material by the Polisario.

It is not an authoritarian, centrally controlled movement - very liberal, very open. I know from my feelings - I am not stupid, not a genius - but I know when someone is deceiving me. I know how to ask questions and I would never, never turn a blind eye if I knew of any abuses in the Saharawi camps because I would be an accomplice by supporting a movement that I knew was committing these barbarities so it is totally unheard of.

My experience being there – the experience of the UNCR, International Red Cross, numerous NGOs, European parliamentarians, US Congressmen – was that no one was ever told about this.”

Hose Ramos Horta needs to look further than the end of his nose. No one who visits the camps and walks around looking at daily life in the camps would necessarily "see" embedded slavery; nor the discrimination of white Berbers against black Saharawi.

It is not possible for anyone to "see" that Fetim was taken from her mother at the age of 3 because she and her mother were slaves owned by white Berbers; just as discrimination and other abusive practices are not necessarily highly visible.

Fetim would need to tell someone that she was taken from her mother at the age of three for anyone to "see" something like that. She told the film makers this and now because Fetim has made a retraction post hoc at the behest of the Polisario, the Polisario and their supporters are saying that the film makers made it up.

I suppose next thing Hose will be coming out with a media statement saying that he doesn't believe in climate change because he can't see that by looking at the end of his nose either.

Wal, You're wrong.

When did Fetim ever say that she was taken away from her mother at the age of 3. It is not in the film! She has never ever said that.

The reason Fetim was separated from her mother is due to the invasion of Western Sahara by Morocco and Mauritania in 1975.

Deido, Fetim's adoptive mother was separated from her own baby at the same time too.

It is not approriate to write in such a language when addressing a hero and a Nobel Laureate who devoted all of his life to fight for his people's freedom.

When you're addressing the issues of the film or anything related to it please provide details and facts to back your arguments.