SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

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SPS
SADR/EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Like Portugal, Spain must assume the responsibility of the decolonisation of Western Sahara, affirms the EP member, Ana Gomes

Chahid El Hafed, 07/03/2005 (SPS) Portuguese EP member, Ana Maria Gomes, (Socialist Group) estimated that the situation in Western Sahara is "similar in all its dimensions to that of East Timor" and that Spain like Portugal "must assume the responsibility of the decolonisation of the Saharawi territory".

"Impressed by the hard conditions of life of the Saharawi people and by its way of resisting", the EP member, who ended a four days visit to the camps on Sunday, was particularly "annoyed in front of the unfairness of the international community towards Saharawis".

Noting that the UN's resolutions, and the right to self-determination, were not respected, Mrs. Gomes estimated that both the European Union and "Spain” have got a fundamental responsibility in "the decolonisation of the territory".

"In Portugal we had decided to go assuming all results, though understanding other European countries and we were able to honour our responsibility and duty towards the people of East Timor", he recalled estimating that "Spain can not do less that that". (SPS)

010/090/000 071250 MARS 05 SPS

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SPS
SADR/EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
"It is utopia to bet on our surrender", President Abdelaziz warned

Chahid El Hafed, 07/03/2005 (SPS) "It is an illusion, and an utopia to bet on our surrender or to think for a single moment that we can abandon our legitimate rights to self-determination and independence", warned the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, during the closure of the 2nd edition of the International Festival of the Cinema of the Sahara, organised from the 3 to the 6 March.

Giving a summary on 30 years conflict with Morocco, the Head of the State underlined that the latter, and because "it was unable to exterminate our people or to beat us militarily, turned to the idea of a referendum so as to get a cease-fire. A manoeuvre that served Morocco for 14 years" (1991-2005), he said.

"Currently, and because there is nothing left to get out of the referendum, Morocco clearly declared its refusal to respect the international legality, challenging that way all the international community backing on the support of a big power and a member of the Security Council, which continues protecting Morocco in its disregard to the international law", he said addressing a groups of European Parliament and Spanish Parliaments members and some 300 foreign participants to the International Festival of the Cinema of the Sahara.

Mr. Abdelaziz affirmed that Saharawi people will not remain inactive and will take profit of all legal means in its hands, "including, of course, armed struggle, which is a universal legitimate right". He added that Morocco must understand that "the forced annexation did not have results in the past, neither in the present or in the future".

He called Europe to convince Morocco that it is "time to put an end to the sufferings of the Saharawi people, to Moroccan colonial practices and to its rebellion against the legality".

Talking about the humanitarian aid to Saharawi refugees, Mr. Abdelaziz noted that "some parties" wrongly accuse us of "bad management and some times even of corruption".

To these parties, he underlined that this aid in itself is not that interesting regarding to its quantity and that it is controlled by the refugees themselves.

"There is no single share addressed to a refugees that was not given to him entirely and at the appropriate time", he stressed, adding that Polisario Front and the Government of SADR "completely forbid the trade with the humanitarian aid".

He underlined, however, that "signs of blackmailing" can be considered as a reason behind the blockage of the humanitarian aid, warning that "any political pressures aiming at pushing the Saharawi people to give up its legitimate rights will be vouched to failure". "We reject them, even if we have to do without this humanitarian aid", he said.

He called Spain, European Union and UN's Secretary General to make of the next April the 30th (date of the end of Minurso's mandate) a rendezvous for the establishment of peace in Western Sahara, by "putting pressures on the parties to subscribe to the international legality".

On another hand, he deplored "the ambiguity" of the position of the EU, which "pour on Morocco huge aids that the latter exploit in consolidating its colonial occupation of Western Sahara".

He blamed EU for adopting "a confused position" towards the support to self-determination and to UN's Security Council's resolution 1495 in which it adopted the Baker Plan. "A position that is favourable to Morocco and that encourage it to continue rejecting international legality".

Finally, the President of the Republic launched an appeal to the king of Morocco, Mohamed VI, to "turn the page of a past of war and injustice and to open a new page of peace and cooperation, which will be favourable to our two peoples and to all the peoples of the region", and this can only be possible by the enforcement of the Security Council's resolution 1495. (SPS)

010/090/000 071721 MARS 05 SPS

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