SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Ouagadougou, 06/09/04 (SPS) The Head of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, arrived Monday evening to Ouagadougou to attend the works of African Union's (AU) extraordinary summit of Heads of States and Governments, which will take place in the Capital of Burkina Faso from the 8 to the 9 September, indicated an official source.

Received by the President of the AU's Commission, Mr. Alpha Omar Conaré, and members of the Government of Burkina Faso in the airport, President Abdelaziz was then saluted by a military detachment from the hosting country and listened to the hymn of the AU.

Mr. Abdelaziz is accompanied by a delegation composed of Mr. Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mohamed Khaddad, Coordinator with the MINURSO, Mr. Malainin Sadiq, and Minister Counsellor to the Presidency, Mr. Zannan Mohamed Brahim, Ambassador and Mr. Aabdati Breika Press Counsellor to the Presidency.

Under the theme "employment and struggle against poverty", this summit was preceded by preparatory meetings of experts of AU and Ministers for foreign affairs, who discussed this week the basic documents that will be handed over to the Heads of States, especially drafts statements, plan of action and mechanisms of control and evaluation, underlined the same source.

Before joining the capital of Burkina Faso to attend the AU summit, the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, paid a brief visit Thursday to the Venezuelan Capital, Caracas, after his participation beside many other Heads of States and Governments, last Wednesday, to the ceremony of inauguration of the new President of Panama, Martin Torrijos.

Been a vice-president to the African Union, Mr. Abdelaziz "seized the occasion to inform the Venezuelan President on the situation in the African continent". The two parties "agreed on the need of the two continents to closely collaborate and to undertake joined actions", he underlined. (SPS)

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SADR/MADAGASCAR
Mr. Ould Salek delivers to his Malagasy counterpart a message addressed by the President of the Republic to Mr. Ravalomanana

Antananarivo, 06/09/2004 (SPS) The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, was recently received in Antananarivo by Malagasy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marcel Ranjeva, to whom he delivered a message addressed by President Mohamed Abdelaziz to his Malagasy counterpart, Marc Ravalomanana, indicated an official source.

"This message tackles the bilateral relationships and the last developments of the Western Sahara question", it was indicated.

The meeting between the two parties, which took place in the seat of the Malagasy Foreign Affairs Ministry, allowed Mr. Ould Salek to inform his interlocutor about "the resignation of Mr. James Baker as a result to the rejection by Morocco of the peace plan for the self-determination of Saharawi people", emphasised the same source.

Mr. Ould Salek underlined that SADR must "take its place within the United Nations' council since Morocco has blocked the efforts of the international community aimed at a fair and peaceful decolonisation of Western Sahara, for more than 30 years", it was stressed.

Madagascar is the first country to recognise the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) few hours after the latter's proclamation in 1976 February the 27. It should be mentioned further that the two countries are linked by wide diplomatic ties. (SPS)

010/090/110/TRD 061030 SEP 04 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/POLITICAL PRISONERS
Saharawi political prisoners calls to the respect of human rights in occupied territories

El Aaiun, 06/092004 (SPS) Saharawi political prisoners in the Carcel negra (Black Jail) of El Aaiun, launched an appeal to the international community to pressure Rabat so as to conform with the principles of the "conventions, treaties and human rights accords Morocco has ratified".

The Saharawi political prisoners indicated, in a communiqué they publicised Friday, that "it is time to put an end to human rights violations in Western Sahara and to judge the persons responsible of crimes perpetrated against Saharawi population in occupied territories of Western Sahara".

They also "energetically condemned the exactions committed by Morocco against the Saharawi population in occupied territories, especially arbitrary judgements, systematic practice of torture and other inhuman and deteriorating treatment exercised during over than three decades".

The Saharawi detainees had beside expressed their sympathy to the two prisoners; Mahmoud Moustafa Haddad and Mohamed Ould Chiaa, who had recently been savagely tortured with their families by Moroccan authorities of occupation.

On another hand, , the Union of Saharawi Jurists (UJS) and the Association of the Families of Saharawi Prisoners and Disappeared (AFAPREDESA) called Monday to the release of all Saharawi political detainees in Moroccan prisons, on the occasion of the international day of solidarity with the reported missing.

These associations report on more that 500 Saharawi disappeareds and some 226 prisoners of war, whose fate is still unaccounted for from Morocco. (SPS)

020/090/000/TRD 061715 Sept 04 SPS