SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

(Special Envoy)

Vitoria (Basque Country-Spain), 05/11/2006 (SPS) The 32^nd edition of the European Conference of Coordination and Support to the Saharawi people (EUCOCO), intervenes in a "very important" moment of the Saharawi people’s struggle for self-determination and must in this respect send ''strong political signals'' to the international community, the President of the European Parliament’s Intergroup ''Peace for the Saharawi people'', Karin Scheele affirmed on Saturday.

"It is a conference that intervenes in a very important moment of the Saharawi people’s struggle for their self-determination, because the situation in the occupied territories (of the Western Sahara) is very difficult. We must send very strong signals, in particular regarding the support to the Saharawi political prisoners and human rights activists", Mrs. Scheele stressed in a statement to the Algerian Press Service, APS.

Recalling that a European Parliament’s delegation was lately not allowed by the Moroccan colonial authorities to visit the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, she stressed that the conference is expected to express its support to the aforementioned delegation, which should not give up insisting in finishing its mission and try to get into these territories again, she said.

''It is absolutely necessary that a EP delegation visits the occupied territories of the Western Sahara to investigate on the situation of the human rights on the ground'', she affirmed.

Talking about the last report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the Western Sahara, Mrs. Scheele underlined that this "very interesting" report must be officially published so as the different European an international institutions take note of the human rights situation in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.

''There is an escalation in the repression. The situation is increasingly getting more difficult for the people who live in the occupied territories. We must do our best to raise the awareness of the international community about this situation'', she added. (SPS)

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President Abdelaziz received at the seat of the Basque Parliament

(Special Envoy)

Vitoria (Basque Country-Spain), 05/11/2006 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, was received on Saturday at the seat of the Basque Parliament in Vitoria, the capital of the Basque Country, where he as received at the doors of this institution by the President of the Basque Parliament, Mrs. Izaskun Bilbao.

The President of the Basque Parliament recalled in her welcome speech that the question of the Western Sahara is ''an unfinished decolonisation process'' and that all hat is required is "the implementation of the UN’s resolutions to reach a lasting solution''.

"What is happening in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara is one of the most ignored tragedies, hidden and curtained by other tragedies, whose actors are stronger or have better relations", Mrs. Izaskun Bilbao further said during the reception, which was also attended by the spokespersons of all the political groups in the Basque Parliament.

"We must work together to obtain an international, definitive and just answer that passes by the Saharawis’ right to decide. This is the only valid formula to reach a Saharawi in peace", she declared, estimating that "the rights of a people are more important than (...) some strategic interests of some reasons d’Etats ".

On his part the President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, launched an "urgent plea to the Spanish Government to assume its responsibility towards the Saharawi people'' and "frankly and clearly defend the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination"

"The Spanish State is accountable for the real tragedy the Saharawi people are living for more than 30 years. If in the past, there was a dictatorship in Spain that harmed the Saharawi people, now, there is a democratically elected Government in Spain that must correct the committed error'', he underlined.

On another hand, Mr. Abdelaziz called on the United Nations and its Security Council to assume their responsibilities in the Western Sahara conflict, which remains an unfinished decolonisation question.

"The United Nations must put an end to the decolonisation of the Western Sahara, impose the respect of the international legality and human rights to the Moroccan Government, and organise a free and democratic self-determination referendum''.

The Head of the Saharawi State had, before, met with the representatives of the different European Parliamentarian intergroups, which participate to the 32^nd edition of the European Conference of Coordination and Support to the Saharawi people (EUCOCO).

He called on these intergroup, especially the French and Spanish ones, to redouble efforts to put pressures on their Governments so as to support the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. (SPS)

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The President of the CNASPS reaffirms the Algerian steady support to the Saharawi cause’s just cause

(Special Envoy)

Vitoria (Basque Envoy), 05/11/2006 (SPS) The President of the Algerian National Committee of solidarity with the Saharawi people (CNASPS), Mahrez Lamari, reaffirmed, on Friday, the ''steady support'' of Algeria and its ''active solidarity'' with the Saharawi cause.

In his intervention before the 32^nd edition of the European Conference of Coordination and Support to the Saharawi people (EUCOCO), which opened on Friday in Vitoria, the capital of the Basque Country, Mr. Lamari underlined that the Algerian position is based on the inalienable right of the peoples to govern themselves and its attachment to the noble values of the Algerian revolution.

''We are here to express our active solidarity and our engagement with the people of the Western Sahara. Our presence in the 32^nd edition of the EUCOCO is also an expression of our steady and just cause of the Saharawi people and their legitimate representative the Polisario Front'', he added.

''We call on the international community, the UN and the human rights organisations to intervene so as to put an end to the immoral situation lived in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara where the human rights are systematically violated'', he denounced.(SPS)

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Pierre Galland: The decolonisation process in the Western Sahara must be finished

(Special Envoy)

Vitoria (Basque Country), 05/11/2006 (SPS) The President of the European Coordination of solidarity with the Saharawi people, Pierre Galland, underlined that it is the responsibility of the international community to ''finish the decolonisation process in the Western Sahara, conforming to the choice of the Saharawi people: the self-determination''.

In a statement to the Algerian Press, quoted by the Algerian Press Service, APS, Mr. Galland, stressed that the 32^nd edition of the European Conference of Coordination and Support to the Saharawi people (EUCOCO), is held ''few days after the declaration of the UN Security Council and the extent of the mandate of the MINURSO''.

''It is very symbolic, very important, because we arrive to the end of the mandate of Mr. Kofi Annan, and here is a new General Secretary who is leaving after he had at least the courage to say: yes the Saharawi people has got the right to self-determination, and this is the message he is leaving to his successor'', Mr. Galland stressed.

''We want, now European politicians and Governments to be conscious that it is time to put an end to the conflict, but to that within the framework of the respect of the Saharawi people’s inalienable rights'', he added. (SPS)

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"The Saharawi people’s cause is the cause of all Africans", affirms the Head of the African Union’s delegation

Chahid El Hafed, 05/11/2006 (SPS) "The Saharawi people’s cause is the cause of all Africans", asserted on Saturday, the Ambassador of Ghana to Euthiopia and the African Union (AU), Mr. John E. Aggrey, who is chairing a high level delegation of the African Union, composed of Mr. Macrine Mayanja, person in charge of Humanitarian Affairs and Refugees within the AU Committee.

"This is an official visit of the AU to the Saharawi Republic that aims to investigate about the concerns of the Saharawi people, which are certainly the same concerns of all Africans", declared Mr. E. Aggrey, during the reception ceremony organised by the Saharawi Prime Minister, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, at the Saharawi presidency on the honour of the African delegation.

On his side, Mr. Abdelkader Taleb Omar stressed "the disposition of the Saharawi party to collaborate with the African Union, to which we are proudly belonging", adding that the "Saharawi people relies a lot on the support and solidarity of our brothers in the African Union".

The reception was also attended by the Saharawi Ambassador to the African Union, Habib Breika, and the President of the Saharawi Red Crescent, Buhubeini Yahia. (SPS)

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WESTERN SAHARA/REFUGEES/FAMINE

Urgent appeal for humanitarian assistance to the Saharawi refugees

Chahid El Hafed, 05/11/2006 (SPS) Saharawi Red Crescent (CRS) launched on Sunday an "urgent" appeal to the international community after the shortage registered in the emergency stock of the Saharawi refugees, warning against a "real famine", the Saharawi organisation indicated in a press release of which SPS received a copy.

"The food stock of security provided by the World Food Programme (WFP), which is funded by the General Direction of the European Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) to ensure the minimum needs of the Saharawi refugees, has completely finished", and the CRS received no humanitarian assistance to this date despite the fact that the USA and Spain has already delivered their contribution to the WFP in favour of the Saharawi refugees", the communiqué stressed.

The Saharawi Red Crescent declared that "it can not grant the minimum need of food for the Saharawi refugees in November unless there is no urgent and immediate aid while it is still time", the press release. (SPS)

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Closing of the works of the 32nd Conference of the EUCOCO

(Special Envoy)

Vitoria (Basque Country), 05/11/2006 (SPS) The 32nd edition of the European Coordinating Conference of support to the Saharawi people (EUCOCO) closed its works on Sunday in the capital of the Basque Country, Vitoria, adopting a final statement and many documents concluding the works of five workshops on the political action, social mobilisation, civil residence in the occupied territories, cooperation, women and the juridical state and the international law.

The conference, which gathered more than 600 participants from the five continents, denounced "the policy of two weights two measures adopted by the international community, which makes that this community deploys peace corps forces to protect the populations in some regions of the world where its interests are endangered and abandoned other peoples to occupation and repression as it is the case in the Western Sahara".

In this respect the conference called on the UN to assume "its undeniable responsibilities", asking the new UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to "mobilise the needed means to succeed a quick and total implementation of the UN resolutions" and to impose the "respect of the human rights, by Morocco and the States supporting in its colonial adventure".

It called on the UN to publish the report on the human rights situation lately realised by a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights mission to the Non-Self-Governing territory.

The participants hailed, in this respect, the popular resistance led by the Saharawi people in the occupied territories of the Western Sara, and paid tribute to the victims of the Moroccan oppression, denouncing all kinds of Moroccan human rights abuses, in particular sexual harassments and rape against women committed by the Moroccan authorities’ agents and officials.

Addressing Spain, the Conference considers that Madrid is still responsible, as far as the international law is considered, as the administrative power of the Western Sahara, and estimated that Spain "can not renounce its responsibility in the tragedy lived by the Saharawi people".

On another hand, the Conference’s final declaration estimated that the signature by the European Union of a fishing accord with Morocco that include the Saharawi territorial waters is an act "of plundering which contradicts the international law and legality" that should be reviewed.

Finally the conference declared the year 2007 as the international year of solidarity with the Saharawi Republic as a signal to the support to the Saharawi people and their popular resistance for independence in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. (SPS)

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