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SPS SOUTH AFRICA/AMINATOU HAIDAR/VISIT Mrs. Haidar received by the Secretary General of the South African Council of Churches 04.07.05
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(Special Envoy)
Johannesburg, 04/07/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Aminatou Haidar, as received on Monday in Johannesburg by the Secretary General of the South African Council of Churches, Mr. Eddy Makue, who condemned the Moroccan repressive practices against the Saharawi citizens in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, affirming to his guest the support of his organisation to her "noble and heroic" struggle as well as to her people’s struggle for freedom and independence.
“It is certainly strange that an African country be colonised by another African country, but what is really striking and unacceptable is that this colonising country exercises such atrocities, crimes and violence against innocent African citizens", Mr. Makue indicated.
the Secretary General of the South African Council of Churches stressed "our total engagement beside you in your noble struggle as a human rights activist, but also our total support to the struggle of the Saharawi people for their self-determination and legitimate rights, because we passed through the similar difficult, sad and painful path you are living now in the Western Sahara", he added.
Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, who is undertaking since June the 18th, an official visit of mobilisation in South Africa, informed her interlocutor, who was touched by the sufferings this young woman underwent under the Moroccan occupation, about the different aspects of Moroccan violations "of the political, economical, social and cultural rights".
During her visit to South Africa, Mrs. Haidar met with many South African political personalities, such as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Dlamini Zuma, as well as the leaders of the main political prisoners, associations, communities and religious organisations as well as centres of researches in the country.
The Saharawi human rights activist signed, on Wednesday afternoon in the "Hector Petersen" museum in Soweto (Johannesburg), a symbolical twinning between the legendary South African neighbourhood and the Saharawi neighbourhood of "Maatalah", the symbols of the peaceful struggle against the oppression and colonialism in the two African countries.
In a letter she addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Mr. Josep Borell, Mrs. Haidar asked for the immediate release of the human rights activists arrested last June the 17 and asked for the legal procedures engaged against them, exhorting the European parliament to clearly denounce the Moroccan practices. (SPS)
060/JHB/000 040824 Jul 06 SPS
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SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/ALGERIA/SOLIDARITY Creation in Algiers of the Youth and Students forum for the support of the Intifadha of the Saharawi people
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Algiers, 04/07/2006 (SPS) The Youth and Students forum for the support of the Intifadha of the Saharawi people for independence was created by the Algerian National Youth Union (UNJA) and the Union of the Polisario Youth, it was announced on Monday in Algiers.
In a press release publicised by the founding members of the forum underlined that this organisation "comes within the context of the last developments of the Saharawi question, especially the inhumane conditions suffered by the Saharawi children in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation ".
The forum denounced "the lies and the Medias campaign led by Morocco against Algeria", underlining that "the Medias attacks against Algeria do not serve to the aspirations of the people of the region and the establishment of strong relations … for the construction of the Maghreb Arab".
The forum calls the international human rights organisations and the international community to "intervene for the release of the Saharawi detainees, to draw the attention to the dossier of the disappeareds and to put an end to the aggressions against the armless Saharawi people", exhorting the international community to "assist the Saharawi refugees in the Saharawi refugees camps in Tindouf, especially kids and old people".
The Secretary General of the Saharawi Youth, Moussa Selma, stressed that the creation of this Forum, already discussed a year ago, is "a message to the international organisations about the steady and constant position of Algeria in favour of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination".
On his side, the Secretary General of the Algerian youth, Mr. Mohamed Madani recalled that "Algeria is not part of the conflict", before he signed the constitutive act.
The Forum is opened to all youth and students’ organisations supporting the Saharawi cause through the world, it was underlined. (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 04122 JUL 06 SPS
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