SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

SPS

SADR/FRANCE/HOLIDAY COLONIES

Saharawi children pursue their holidays in France in very good conditions

Paris, 01/08/2006 (SPS) More than a hundred Saharawi children pursue their holidays in France "in very good conditions", within the framework of the solidarity with the Saharawi people platform started since 1980, the French Association of the Friends of the Saharawi Republic (AARASD) indicated on Saturday, reported the Algerian Press Service, APS.

Some thirteen French cities support this platform of solidarity initiated by the AARASD not only as a "humanitarian operation of help to refugee children" but also as "a political gesture" because, the Association stressed, this action expresses "a recognition of the existence of the Saharawi people and their right to self-determination and to live free and independent in their country, the Western Sahara".

The platform of solidarity with the Saharawi people started in 1980, when "for the first time in Europe 120 Saharawi children visited France, and were received for a month in Marseille, Le Mans, Bourges, Rezé, and other cities", AARASD recalled. (SPS)

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SPS

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/TAMEK

MR. Tamek driven back by the Moroccan forces of occupation out of the Western Sahara borders

Tan Tan (south of Morocco), 01/08/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi human rights activist, Ali Salem Tamek, was not allowed by the Moroccan forces of occupation to get into the Western Sahara and driven back at the borders "following orders from their superiors", Mr. Tamek indicated in an interview with the Saharawi Service of Communication in the Canaries Islands (SCSC).

"I wanted to get back after a trip to Goulimine, in the south of Morocco, and I was addressed by agents of security who declared t me that I am not allowed to get back to my country following orders from Rabat", Mr. Tamek stressed, the same source indicated.

The Saharawi human rights activist, who was released from prison last April 2006 because of international and popular pressures, asked for "protection from humanitarian bodies" against what he considered as "a new form of repression, punishment and provocation" from the Moroccan authorities of occupation.

To Mr. Tamek, what happens to him is "a new form of siege" by which they deprive us of "our rights to the free movement". (SPS)

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SPS

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION

Four young Saharawi detained by Moroccans and hundreds expulsed from holidays colonies in the El Aaiun Beach

El Aaiun (occupied territories), 01/08/2006 (SPS) Four Saharawi youngsters were arrested on Saturday and hundreds expulsed from holidays colonies n the El Aaiun Beach, after a demonstration that took place in the beach to express the Saharawi rejection of the Moroccan occupation of the Western Sahara, according to eyewitnesses.

The demonstrators were "brutally" repressed by a group of the Moroccan Royal Gendarmerie and groups of the forces of intervention, who arrested the Saharawi youngsters: Labeidi Salek, Lemlih Salek (seriously injured), Moulaye Lahcen Mohamed Fadel Fares and Mohamed Nocha, who was release few hours after.

Dozens Saharawis raised the Saharawi Republic’s flags in front of the "Miramar" Restaurant in the El Aaiun Beach and chanted slogans asking for the self-determination for their people and for the "immediate withdrawal" of the Moroccan occupation from the Western Sahara.

Moroccan authorities increased the number of their forces in the occupied Saharawi cities through the construction of a new base for the Royal Gendarmerie in the El Aaiun Beach, so as "to oppress and intimidate" the Saharawi citizens in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, it should be recalled. (SPS)

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SPS

SADR/NEW ZEELAND

New Zeeland "firnly supports" the UN peace plan for the Western Sahara (Minister)

Wellington, 01/08/2006 (SPS) New Zeeland Minister of Trade, Phil Goff, affirmed his country’s "firm support" to the UN peace plan for the settlement of the conflict of the Western Sahara that opposes "Morocco and the Saharawi people", the Algerian Press Service, APS, indicated.

" New Zeeland is very concerned about the political situation in the Western Sahara and strongly supports the efforts deployed by the UN and its peace plan to resolve the conflict between the Government of Morocco and the Saharawi people", Mr. Goff declared in his answer to a Parliamentarian oral question.

The Government of New Zeeland "firmly supports the efforts and the resolutions adopted within the framework of the United Nations for the implementation of the peace process in the Western Sahara", he added.

Mr Goff stressed that the culmination of the process engaged by the UN must "enable the Saharawi people to decide over their future".

On another hand, he underlined that "any company that imports products to New Zeeland must do it within the respect of the national and international laws". (SPS)

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