SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Librairie El Hamma (Algiers), 04/08/2004 (SPS) The President of the community of Algiers Centre opened Wednesday the week of brotherhood and solidarity of the Algerian people with the Saharawi cause, under the theme "the peaceful and final solution to the Saharawi question should obligatorily pass through the application of the right to self-determination".

The opening ceremony took place with the presence of representatives from: The Council of the Nation, Chihab Sediki, and of the Algerian National Council (Parliament), Meiloud Chorfi as well as the President of the Algerian National Committee of Solidarity with the Saharawi people (CNASPS).

SADR is represented in this event by an important delegation chaired by Saharawi Prime Minister, Abdelkhader Taleb Oumar, the minister of occupied territories and communities, Khalil Sidi Mohamed, the Wali of El Aaiun, Mansour Oumar, the Minster of culture and sports, Mariem hmada, and SADR's Ambassador to Algiers, Mohamed Yeslem Beissat and his staff.
 
Representatives of the accredited diplomatic corps to Algiers also took part to the event, as well as representatives of the different Algerian political parties, local elected officials, former ministers and other figures besides representatives of all Algerian press.
 
During this week, which will end next 10 August, the two peoples, Algerian and Saharawi, will animate shows where they will perform songs and dances presented by groups from both Algiers and El Aaiun Wilayas (districts), which are linked by twinning.

It should be recalled that a great folkloric march was organised in the afternoon, and was composed of two groups, Saharawi and Algerian, who crossed the Didouch Mourad's Street before reaching a traditional Saharawi tent where pictures of the different Saharawi stages were exposed. (SPS)

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France and Spain aim to "take the international community away from the peace plan", affirmed the President of the SADR

Algiers, 04/08/04 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, affirmed that France and Spain "arise a complete ambiguity around" Western Sahara question with their positions, which oppose the international legality. He estimated that these two countries aim to "take the international community away from the peace plan". 

In an interview he gave to Algerian newspaper "Liberté", publicised Tuesday, the President of the Republic wondered about the motives of this position which contradict UN's doctrine relative to decolonisation.

"When we see in the year 2004 somebody who ignores the peace plan, a fruit of 30 years of works by the United Nations and the international community" (…) "we can not understand the content of their position when they (France and Spain) ignore the frank, clear and concrete support of the international community to the Saharawi people's right to self-determination through a free and democratic referendum conforming to Security Council's peace plan", deplored the President.

To the Head of the State, those who really are concerned with the resolution of the conflict should never "ignore the peace plan which was adopted in 1991 and reinforced with the Huston accords of 1997", which remain the legal basis to any solution that respect "Saharawi people's right to se lf-determination and independence", he emphasised.

On another hand, Mr. Abdelaziz brought out the position of Algeria, which remained "faithful to its position of principle" since 1966, backing Saharawi people's right to self-determination through a free and democratic referendum.

"Algeria, our strategic and natural ally in the region, this brother country, has taken back its due position. A position that suit it in so far as that Algeria is a great country with a strategic position in the south of Europe. It has got borders with seven countries. It has got great economic potentialities, and most important a country which has transcended the situations of the countries of the third world", he added. 

Asked about the reasons behind the resignation of Mr. Baker, Mr. Abdelaziz underlined first that Saharawi people will always remember in him "an image of a man with integrity who refused submission and pressures". He estimated that Baker's resignation is "a form of protest against the United Nations, especially against the Security Council, of which the wisest of its members did not, to his (Baker) eyes, sufficiently put pressures on Morocco to accept the plan".

On another hand, The Head of the State considered that "the best way for Morocco to mind its own internal problems, is to get rid of the Saharawi problem" (…) "Morocco has got a lot to gain out of releasing its own energy and using it in resolving its internal problems and this by complying with the international legality".

Asked if Polisario Front plans to get back to war, the President underlined that "as long the Saharawi territories are occupied and the enemy continues to deny the Saharawi question, the possibility of proceeding to armed struggle is not excluded". He added, however, that "since the Security Council and the United Nations are determined to work on the question to convince the other parties to organise the referendum, we will persevere in our efforts", though, he regretted "many persons and some circles say that we ignored the cause, that we betrayed it and even sell it". (SPS)

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Khadad: The Baker Plan is an entity to take or to leave

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 04/08/2004 (SPS) The coordinator with the Minurso, M'Hamed Khadad, affirmed, Wednesday in Bir Lehlu, that the Baker Plan II entitled "Peace Plan for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara", is "an entity to take or to leave", emphasising that the representatives and other special envoys to Western Sahara must respect the mandate Security Council defined to them for the enforcement of this plan.

"The Baker Plan is an entity that should be implemented as it is, for this it can not be a subject to re-negotiation or additions of any kind. It is a whole plan to take or to leave and it was presented to the parties by the Security Council as such", stressed Mr. Khadad in a statement publicised Wednesday.

"The UN's Secretary General and his special or personal representatives mandates were defined by the international community in the pertinent resolutions of the UN for a specific and clear objective: to achieve , via peaceful and democratic ways, the process of decolonisation of Western Sahara, Moroccan colonial occupation has always impudently opposed", he emphasised.

Khaddad statement intervenes after the "frank" encounter that took place Monday in the refugees' camps, between the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, and Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign affairs, Bernardino Léon Gross. The meeting, Khaddad said, was "of a great value for the parties in the perspective of accelerating the process of decolonisation of Western Sahara, which was broken up by the results of the tripartite accords of Madrid", illegally signed in 1975 by Spain, Morocco and Mauritania to divide Western Sahara.

Mr. Leon, it should be noted, had declared to Spanish Press Agency, EFE, that Spain recommends some "adjustments" to the Baker Plan.

"It was explained to the Spanish official (Bernardino Leon) that Polisario Front considers that the solution to the conflict and the path to reach it, was clearly defined by the United Nations and was unanimously adopted by the members of the Security Council, Spain included. This solution is no more than the Peace Plan for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, also called Baker Plan", indicated Mr. Khadad.

He also underlined that the Security Council considers this plan as "a balanced and reasonable way to lead the process of decolonisation to denouement through a referendum on self-determination that will allow Saharawi people to choose between the different options, among which naturally national independence". (SPS)

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