SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Marrakech (Morocco), 06/06/2005 (SPS) Moroccan forces of occupation engaged in a set of harassment and intimidations, against Saharawi victims of the last repression in the Saharawi cities and in Morocco, especially Saharawi human rights activists, these same activists indicated.

Saharawi human rights activist and Trade Unionist, Mr. Mohamed Jaghim, was taken to hospital in Marrakech on Saturday as a result to a hunger strike he started on Friday to protest against intimidations he continues to receive since his participation last week to sit-in organised by Saharawi human rights activists in El Aaiun.

"Ex victim of deportation, he was deported from Fosbucraa (in occupied territories east of El Aaiun) to Ben Grir (Morocco) against his will in 2002. He received a lot of threats, of which the last was a threat to set his house in fire with his family in it", it was indicated.

According to concordant sources, the Wali of the Moroccan security in El Aaiun and officer of the Urban Group of Security (GUS), Hamid Bahri, continues to threaten Saharawi families of imprisonment because they participated or some of their members in the "Intifada of independence".

On another hand, Mr. El Houcine Ndour, who was arrested during the Intifada of El Aaiun, was evacuated in emergency to the local hospital of El Aaiun in a very serious state, because of torture he underwent during interrogatories in the Moroccan police secret detention and tortures camps in the occupied capital of Western Sahara.

Brahim Dahane, President of the Saharawi Association of the Victims of Human Rights Violations, Brahim Sabbar, the Secretary General of the same, and two members of its Executive Burea, Mr. Daha Errahmouni, and Mr. Daillal Mohamed Saleh, all of them ex-political prisoners, were surrounded Friday by three cars of the Moroccan police in front of a clinic, during their visit to one of the victims of the Intifada.

The police confiscated their identity papers and rifles through their car, insulting and threatening them. The police would latter have to let them in peace after the gathering of some Saharawi citizens around the activists.

Elmami Amar Salem, accompanied with the members of the Committee against torture in Dajla, was followed for hours by police cars, while Talbi Alayat Sidi Mohamed Lehbib was subjected to interrogatory under torture all the night of June the 02 and 03 in the headquarters of the police before been released unconscious in a street.

Saharawi citizen, Zreiguinat Lehsen, owner of a kiosk situated in front of the residence of the Governor of the colonial authorities, was kidnapped for days before appearing before court accused of "provocations against the Governor". The young man, who provides for a family composed of eight members thanks to this small kiosk, was submitted before to all kinds of pressures to sell his shop, and now he is in prison because he did not accepted the deal, it was indicated.

IN all occupied cities the Moroccan repressive machine harasses Saharawi human rights activists and demonstrators they could identify in Spanish Televisions' programmes on the Intifada and in video films shot by the police in the Saharawi cities and in Moroccan universities, it was said. (SPS)

Las Palmas (Canary Island- Spain), 06/06/2005 (SPS) The Spanish delegation, recently turned away from the airport of El Aaiun, on Sunday, condemned "the behaviour of Moroccan authorities for having definitively denied, after negotiations through Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the entry to Western Sahara of observers", reported a press release publicised by the delegation Monday in Las Palmas.

A delegation composed of Spanish local officials, social organisations and journalists was turned away by Moroccan authorities of occupation, Sunday, from the Saharawi Capital, El Aaiun, towards Canary Islands. They were stopped that way from investigating on the ground on human rights' situation in the Saharawi territory, where demonstrations were violently repressed last week.

"We denounce Moroccan Government for having denied us the entry to El Aaiun or even to get out of the plane", the press release underlined.

The delegation considered that Moroccan authorities, through this act, "recognises that their interests is in keeping the human rights situation in Western Sahara unknown, as well as the situation of the Saharawi population in the territory, which is the main preoccupation of the delegation". (SPS)

010/090/666/TRD 061611 June 05 SPS

Chahid El Hafed, 06/06/2005 (SPS) Polisario Front noted with satisfaction the decision of the Spanish Government to send a Spanish Parliamentary delegation to Western Sahara so as to "freely" verify on the ground Moroccan authorities human rights violations since the Moroccan military invasion of the Saharawi territory in 1975, of which the most recently committed took place last week.

Expressing "its deception" about the Spanish Government’s attitude "in the face of the violation of human rights and of the international legality in Western Sahara", Polisario Front "notes" Madrid’s engagement to "guarantee that a delegation composed of all the Spanish Parliamentary groups will freely visit Western Sahara, in the near future, and will contact all the persons they wish to meet with", the Saharawi political organisation underlined in an official press release, of which SPS received a copy.

Speaking about the act of turning back a Spanish delegation composed of Spanish local officials, social organisations and journalists, Sunday, from the airport of El Aaiun, Polisario Front condemned this act committed "by Moroccan authorities" against observers who peacefully came "to investigate about the situation on the ground after the fierce repression that strikes the Saharawi helpless population and about the state of siege imposed on the territory."

Nonetheless, Polisario Front warned that "this should in no way serve as a pretext to close the Saharawi territory in the face of human rights defenders, press and political personalities who answer the call of a population in distress, whose most fundamental rights are stepped over by the Moroccan colonialism", the press release added.

Conscious about the threat of a possible genocide in Western Sahara, similar to that of East Timor in the 90ies, Polisario Front called on all the Governments of the European Union to "exert the needed pressures to guarantee the freedom of visits to Western Sahara", so as to save it from a similar tragedy.

A delegation composed of Spanish local officials, social organisations and journalists was turned away by Moroccan authorities of occupation, Sunday, from the Saharawi Capital, El Aaiun, towards Canary Islands. They were stopped that way from investigating on the ground on human rights' situation in the Saharawi territory, where demonstrations were violently repressed last week, it should be recalled. (SPS)

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 06/06/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, solicited the intervention of the African Committee (AC) in front of what he described as a preoccupying tension in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and within the Saharawi communities in Morocco and in Moroccan universities. Moroccan forces “may soon be engaging in genocidal practices against our defenceless citizens", The Head of the State estimated in a letter he addressed to the President of the AC, Alfa Oumar Konaré.

"The reluctance of the Moroccan authorities to allow the Saharawi citizens to exercise their legitimate rights to demonstrate peacefully for demands that are recognised by all international conventions has led to creating an atmosphere fraught with tension and about which we remain deeply concerned as the Moroccan authorities may soon be engaging in genocidal practices against our defenceless citizens", Mr. Abdelaziz wrote in the letter handed over to Mr. Konaré by Saharawi Ambassador to Ethiopia and African Union Mr. Breika Lehbib.

"In the face of this serious situation ", the Saharawi President called on his African counterparts "to denounce and to end the Moroccan brutal practices against the defenceless Saharawi citizens; to ensure their protection and to create for them the basic conditions for exercising their legitimate rights."

He also launched an appeal for the "immediate release of all detainees", inviting his counterparts and UN’s Security Council to assume their full responsibilities "in bringing about the decolonisation of the last colony in Africa " (…) "by enabling the Saharawi people, without delay, to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence through a free, fair and just referendum."

He recalled "the practices of brutal repression, imprisonment and disappearance that the Moroccan occupying authorities have been carrying out against Saharawi civilians in the occupied territories and Morocco", underlining that these practices generated devastating results "in terms of their physical and moral wellbeing and security as well as their properties."

"The entire world witnessed the painful images of the cold-blooded ill-treatment and repressive practices that the Moroccan occupying forces were seen inflicting on Saharawi young people, women and even children who were demonstrating peacefully, arresting and kidnapping a considerable number of them", he said.

The Head of the State called on Mr. Konaré to transmit this letter to all the members of the African Union. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 061806 June 05 SPS

SPS
NORWAY/SADR/MOROCCO/NATURAL RESSOURCES
Norway excludes Kerr-McGee Corporation from its Government’s Petroleum Fund

Oslo, 06/06/2005, (SPS) The Government of Norway excluded American company, Kerr McGee Corporation, from its Petroleum Fund "based on a recommendation from (the Norwegian-Ed) Advisory Council on Ethics for the Government Petroleum Fund", indicated a press release Norwegian Ministry of Finance publicised on Monday.

"The Council found that Kerr-McGee through its exploration activities most likely will enable Morocco to exploit petroleum resources in the area. The Council regarded this as “a particularly serious violation of fundamental ethical norms” e.g. because it may strengthen Morocco’s sovereignty claims and thus contribute to undermining the UN peace process", said Norwegian Minister of Finance, Par-Kristian Foss.

"In December last year the exile government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the Western Sahara Support Committee requested that the Ministry of Finance exclude Kerr-McGee Corporation from the Government Petroleum Fund", because of the company’s exploration of the continental shelf off shore Western Sahara, recalled the press release.

In response to a request by the Minister of Finance, Norwegian Advisory Council studied the nature of Norwegian investment in the American company and concluded in its letter of the 12 April 2005, that this action "may violate fundamental humanitarian principles", because the American company explores in a non-self-governing territory and may thus legitimate Moroccan illegal occupation of Western Sahara

"The Council found that Kerr-McGee through its exploration activities most likely will enable Morocco to exploit petroleum resources in the area. The Council regarded this as “a particularly serious violation of fundamental ethical norms” e.g. because it may strengthen Morocco’s sovereignty claims and thus contribute to undermining the UN peace process", the press release wrote.

The Norwegian Government’s Ethical Guidelines of 19 November 2004, it should be underlined, said that "the Fund should not vest in companies that produce weapons that may violate fundamental humanitarian principle" (…) " human rights violations, such as murder, torture, deprivation of liberty, forced labour, the worst forms of child labour and other forms of child exploitation" among other crimes against peoples or humanity.

In its letter on 29 April, the Ministry of Finance has excluded Kerr-McGee from the investment universe of the Government Petroleum Fund, it informed the Central Bank (Norges Bank) as the manager of the Fund to disinvest from the American company funds that reach approximately 337 millions NOK (approx. 52 million US$), it should be recalled. (SPS)

060/090/000 062249 June 05 SPS

SPS
POLISARIO FRONT/NORWAY/NATURAL RESSOURCES
Polisario Front satisfied about Norway’s decision to exclude Kerr McGee from its Petroleum Fund investments

Chahid El Hafed, 06/06/2005, (SPS) Polisario Front’s National Secretariat Member and Coordinator with the Minurso, Mr. M’Hamed Khaddad, expressed the satisfaction of his political organisation, Monday in Chahid El Hafed, about the decision of Norway to exclude American company Kerr McGee of its Petroleum Fund investments, the Saharawi diplomat declared in an exclusive statement to SPS.

The decision declared on Monday in a press release publicised by Norwegian Ministry of Finance, he said, "reflects the attachment of Norway to the principles of ethics and morals as well as its respect of human rights and to peoples' rights", to govern themselves and to dispose of their natural resources.

"This decision, he added, increase the prestige of Norway and honour it at the international level", giving an opportunity to other countries "to follow the example in order to impose the respect of international legality in Western Sahara and to protect the goods of the Saharawi people".

On another hand, Mr. Khaddad called on "Kerr McGee to draw the conclusions from this event and cancel these accords of plundering of the Western Sahara resources with the complicity of the Moroccan colonial occupier". He also exhorted "Europe to consider this decision, which is based of ethics, morals and international legality, and thus avoid to fall again in the trap of signing accords on fishing with Morocco or encouraging other kinds of investments in the Saharawi territory, which is, should it be recalled, a non-self-governing territory".

The Government of Norway excluded American company, Kerr McGee Corporation, from its Petroleum Fund "based on a recommendation from (the Norwegian-Ed) Advisory Council on Ethics for the Government Petroleum Fund", indicated a press release Norwegian Ministry of Finance publicised on Monday.

In its letter on 29 April, the Ministry of Finance has excluded Kerr-McGee from the investment universe of the Government Petroleum Fund, it informed the Central Bank (Norges Bank) as the manager of the Fund to disinvest from the American company funds that reach approximately 337 millions NOK (approx. 52 million US$), it should be recalled. (SPS)

060/090/000 062355 June 05 SPS