SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Madrid, 04/05/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, will receive the 5th Price of Juan Maria Bandres for Human Rights and solidarity with the refugees, on Monday in Madrid, which was awarded to her in the end of last year by the Spanish Committee for the assistance to the refugees (CEAR), the Committee declared last Wednesday.

This price constitutes a recognition of the ''exemplary engagement of Aminatou Haidar in favour of the struggle of the Saharawi people for their legitimate right to freely decide on their future'', CEAR underlined.

The same source indicated that the delivery of the Price will be attended by many Spanish personalities of culture who are engaged with the cause of the Saharawi people, whose ''plight languishes for more than 30 years so far''.

Mrs. Haidar, one of the emblematic figures of the Saharawi resistance in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, started, last Wednesday in Las Palmas (Canaries Islands) a turn in Spain, which will lead her to the autonomous regions of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, Extremadura, Valencia and Madrid.

During this turn the Saharawi activist will animate conferences on the human rights violations in the occupied territories and will meet representatives of the Spanish local authorities of the different regions, representatives of political parties and of the civil society.

This May the 24th, she will meet many political officials of the region of Madrid, including the Secretary of the International Policies of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE, in power) and Municipal Councillor, Trinidad Jiminez, as well as the Izquierda unida Party’s Spokesperson in the Municipality of Madrid, Ines Sabanes.

During a meeting held last December the 12th, the jury of the Juan Maria Bandres Price unanimously decided to dedicate this award to Mrs. Aminatou Haidar in recognition of her ''peaceful struggle for the rights of the Saharawi people and for the implementation of the international legality in the Western Sahara, a territory that is militarily occupied by Morocco since November 1975''.

39 years old and mother to two children, Mrs. Haidar was arrested for the first time in 1987 for having participated in a peaceful demonstration against the Moroccan illegal occupation of the Western Sahara at a moment when a UN’s ad-hoc Committee was visiting the territory.

''Reported missing and victim to torture for 4 years, and despite the fact that she was victim of detention and ill-treatment by the Moroccan authorities for many times, she has never stopped to work peacefully for the realisation of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, as recognised by the United Nations'', the CEAR’s jury underlined.

Aminatou Haidar was released last January the 17th from the Carcel Negra (Black Jail) in the occupied capital of the Western Sahara, El Aaiun, where she served a 7 months imprisonment sentence for having participated to a peaceful demonstration in favour of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. (SPS)

SPS
SADR/SPAIN/HUMAN RIGHTS

Aminatou Haidar: Any solution out of the self-determination is "totally unacceptable"

Madrid, 04/05/ 2006 (SPS) "Any solution that does not grant the Saharawi people’s their inalienable and legitimate right to self-determination is totally unacceptable", declared on Tuesday the Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, in a press conference she held in Las Palmas (Canaries Islands), reported on Thursday the Algerian Press Agency, APS.

Mrs. Haidar denounced the "intransigence" of Morocco, which refuses to implement the United Nations resolutions and she deplored the "tergiversations" in the implementation of the UN’s resolutions and decisions.

She also deplored "the positions of the French and Spanish Governments", which are the "stumbling-block" that hinders the holding of a self-determination referendum in the Western Sahara, conforming to the UN’s Security Council’s decisions.

She qualified the Spanish official position as "very ambiguous", estimating that it is "not at the level" of the obligations and historical responsibilities of the Spanish State in the conflict".

"It is a position that opposes the noble attitude of the Spanish peoples, which have always showed solidarity to the Saharawi cause", she said.

The Saharawi activist denounced, on another hand, the "undercover manoeuvres" undertaken by some parties aimed to hinder the mentioning of the situation of the human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara in the last UN’s Security Council’s resolution. "Fortunately, these manoeuvres failed", she declared.

She underlined that the peaceful demonstrations, which are taking place in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, within the framework of what was named the Saharawi Intifada that started last may 2005, are a reaction to the Moroccan occupation and against the situation of stalemate the settlement process is in.

This May the 8 May will receive the 5th Price of Juan Maria Bandres for Human Rights and solidarity with the refugees, on Monday in Madrid, which was awarded to her in the end of last year by the Spanish Committee for the assistance to the refugees (CEAR), recognition of the ''exemplary engagement of Aminatou Haidar in favour of the struggle of the Saharawi people for their legitimate right to freely decide on their future''. (SPS)

020/090/700 041440 Mai 06 SPS

SPS
SADR/HCR

The HCR denies the deportation of Saharawi children to Cuba

Geneva, 04/05/2006 (SPS) The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) denied the allegation according to which the Saharawi children, who are studying in Cuba, are deported to the Caribbean country.

The HCR affirmed, in a press release it publicised recently, the voluntary nature of the participation of the Saharawi children to the program of scholarship and the direct role of the parents in deciding if their children participate or not to this opportunity as well as the option of giving up the studies for the children who desire that.

This UN’s organisation, which regularly controls the state of the protection and conditions of life of the students, affirmed after its recent mission of control undertaken last June 2005, that this program of scholarships answers the norms and rules of the international Convention for the Rights of the children, signed in 1989.

This press release, publicised on the website of the UNHCR, clearly denies the allegations spread during the last years by Morocco concerning the subject, for which Rabat created would-be organisations. This allegations and lies were fully spread and publicised by the Moroccan Press Agency, MAP, and some other Moroccan means of communications. (SPS)

070/090/ 000/TRD 040950 May 06 SPS

SPS
SADR/OIL

The Saharawi Government calls on Kerr McGee to deliver a copy of the results of its exploration in the Western Sahara

London, 4/05/ 2006 (SPS) The Saharawi Government asked the US oil company, Kerr McGee, on Thursday, to deliver to the Saharawi authorities a copy of the results of its oil exploration in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara the company started since October 2001 to the end of last April, date of the end of its activities in the territory, reported the Algerian Press Agency, APS.

The Saharawi official in charge of the follow up of the oil dossier, Mr. Kamel Fadel, stressed that the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic favourably received the decision of the US company to stop its activities in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara the company was undertaken based on an illegal accord it signed in October 2001 with the Moroccan colonial authorities.

Mr. Kamel Fadel, also Polisario Front’s Representative to Australia and person in charge for the contact with international oil companies, affirmed that Kerr Mc Gee is further called to deliver a copy of its activities of exploration to the United Nations.

Kerr McGee announced last Tuesday that it will end its activities in the Western Sahara. Thus, it did not renew the contract of oil exploration in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, it signed last October 2001 with the Moroccan authorities of occupation, the Saharawi Government having condemned this contract.

The decision adopted by Kerr McGee coincides with the declaration by Pioneer Natural Resources oil company (Kerr McGee’d partner in the contract with the Moroccan authorities) of the stopping of its activities in the occupied Western Sahara.

Mr. Fadel stressed that the decision adopted by Kerr Mc Gee intervenes after the campaign led by the Saharawis, the committees of support world wide and non-governmental organisations, including an American NGO based in Oklahoma, the US State where Kerr McGee is based.

Mr. Fadel indicated that the company’s decision is motivated by many factors, including the disinvestment of many of its shareholders, especially Funds of investment, but also the warnings of the Saharawi Republic against the signature of such a contract with the Moroccan authorities and the plundering of the natural resources of the Saharawi people against their will.

Another reason behind the company’s review of its strategy in Western Sahara was the signature by the Saharawi Republic, last Mars, of 9 contracts with 8 international oil companies, following a formula that considers the non-self-governing status of the Saharawi State.

On another hand, the Saharawi diplomat urged the European Union to take the example of the US Company, and exclude the Saharawi territorial waters from the fishing accords with Morocco.

In this respect, he warned that his Government will make use of all legitimate means, including political and legal ways, to protect the Saharawi natural resources against all attempts of exploitation by parties in complicity with the Moroccan colonial authorities. (SPS)

020/090/700/TRD 041420 May 06 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/SOUTH OF MOROCCO/REPRESSION

Moroccan security services arrest a Saharawi trade unionist in Goulimine

Goulimine (South of Morocco), 04/05/2006 (SPS) The regional Secretary of the Moroccan Labour Union (UMT), Mrs. Moutik Khadija, was arrested in her house by the police commissioner of the city of Goulimine, Alwahdani, concordant sources indicated.

Having no legal reason to arrest her or even to maintain her in custody, the Moroccan police led the detainee to the hospital of the city pretending that she is "mentally unstable", the same source indicated.

The Moroccan authorities tried to convince the doctors of the hospital to provide them with a medical certificate that confirms Mrs. Moutik alleged mental disturbance, that the doctors refused, the same sources added.

On her side, Mrs. Moutik Khadija refuses to leave the hospital before she can meet the prosecutor of the king de quitter

Mrs. Moutik khadija was arrested and brutalised by the Moroccan authorities in Goulmine, last October 2005 in company of Mrs. Bouda Aziza and Mrs. Esghir Attifa, another two Saharawi trade unionists, for having "protested against the visit of the king of Morocco to the city and had demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the Saharawi political prisoners", it should be recalled.

On another hand, one Saharawi student, at least, has been wounded in a school in the occupied city of Boujdour (Western Sahara) during an aggression committed by the Moroccan forces.

The mothers of the Saharawi students in the same city organised a sit-in in front of the school demanding "the protection" of their sons and denouncing this intervention they qualified as "a criminal act".

Before that, the Saharawi citizens in the occupied city of Smara, had organised a sit-in on the occasion of the 1^st of May, advocating the immediate withdrawal of the Moroccan occupation from the Western Sahara and asking for the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination.

Demonstrators had raised the flags of the Saharawi Republic and chanted slogans rejecting the Moroccan preposition of autonomy, before they were forcibly dispersed by the Moroccan forces of repression. (SPS)

020/090/110/TRD 041045 May 06 SPS

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