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Bergen (Norway),
15/02/2006 (SPS) The ex-Saharawi political prisoners and 2002 Rafto
Human Rights Price winner, Sidi Mohamed Daddach arrived on Tuesday
to Bergen within the framework of a turn to raise awareness on the
initiative of the Rafto Foundation in collaboration with the Swedish
Amnesty international in Bergen and other Norwegian organisations,
under the theme "Focus in Western Sahara".
Upon his arrival, Mr. Daddach was received by the President of Rafto
Foundation, Mr. Arne Lynngard, before the Saharawi activist animated
a conference on the last developments of the human rights situation
in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, indicated a
source from the Saharawi Representation in the Nordic Countries.
Mr. Arne Lynngard underlined that because of the Saharawi conflict
"flagrant human rights violations committed by the Moroccan
authorities are the result, including the imprisonment of Sidi
Mohamed Daddach for a long period".
"After we granted him the 2002 Rafto Price, we were forced to
exercise pressures so as the Moroccan authorities allow him to
travel to Norway to receive the price", Mr. Lynngard said,
regretting that Daddach was also "denied the right to travel in 2003
to testify before the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva".
In his part, the Saharawi human rights activist launched an appeal
to the international community so as to "support the Saharawi
political prisoners in hunger strike and to exercise pressures on
the Moroccan government to immediately and unconditionally release
them and so as Morocco lifts the siege imposed on the occupied
territories of the Western Sahara since its military invasion in
1975".
He further warned against the "dangerous policy of the Moroccan
authorities aiming to empty the occupied territories f the Western
Sahara from Saharawis, pushing the youngsters to illegal immigration
towards Spain", affirming that "the only solution of the conflict is
in a self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people so as to
enable them freely express their will and decide over their future".
On his part, the President of the Norwegian Committee of solidarity
with the Saharawi people, Ronny Hansen, presented a testimony backed
with photos, maps and documents on the different stages of the
Saharawi people’s struggle for freedom and independence, putting
forwards the UN resolutions that call to the respect of the
inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.
Mr. Daddach was received before in Oslo by the President of the
Norwegian Council for the refugees, upon whom he called on for "an
urgent intervention so as to protect the Saharawis in the occupied
territories of the Western Sahara", the same source said. (SPS)
020/090/000/TRD 151410 FEV 07 SPS |
