SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Bir Lehlu, 08/02/2004 (SPS) the Ministers Council declared the 18th June of each year, as a National Day of the Disappeared and called for the exert of pressures on Morocco to draw light on the fate of Saharawi disappeared and to guarantee individual rights of citizens in occupied territories, reports a press release the Government published on Sunday.

Meeting on Saturday under the chairmanship of the head of state, Mohamed Abdelaziz, the ministers' Council also hailed ''the tireless struggle of Saharawis who are still under Moroccan colonisation'', paying ''a deserved tribute to Ali Salem Tamek and other Saharawi political prisoners, released, or still in Moroccan prisons''.

The Association of Saharawi Families, Detainees and Disappeared (AFAPREDESA) estimated the number of persons reported disappeared, since the beginning of the military invasion of the Saharawi territory, to more than 500.

The meeting also adopted a short term programme issued of the government's annual programme recently approved by Parliament, based on the ways to follow to face ''the food crisis, caused by the decrease of the international humanitarian aid'', it was indicated.

Evaluating the last development of the decolonisation process in Western Sahara, UN started since 1988, the Ministers' Council ''energetically'' condemned the delaying machinations of the Moroccan government, ''aiming to drive Security Council's resolutions to failure, especially the resolution 1495 of the 30th July 2003, through which Security Council adopted the Baker's plan for self-determination of Saharawi people''.

Addressing the international community, the minister's council launched a ''urgent'' appeal calling for ''real pressures on the Moroccan coloniser in order to implement the Security Council's resolution 1495, to stop human rights violations in Western Sahara and to put an end to the systematic pillaging of its natural resources''. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 082232 Feb 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/MASS MEDIA/REACTION
Saharawi Government ''surprised'' of the alignment of an article of the Press Agency AP with Moroccan propaganda

Bir Lehlu, 08/02/2004 (SPS) The minister of information, Sid'Ahmed Batal, expressed on Sunday, with reference to the publication last Wednesday of a dispatch by Associated Press agency (AP), ''filled with imprecise information and vague use of words aiming to intermingle the legitimate struggle of Saharawi People for their self-determination, with international terrorism and contraband''.

The dispatch signed by AP's bureau in Rabat by Nicholas Marmié, published in the last 4th January, entitled: ''Security of the Sahara is the main preoccupation of the Maghreb's countries and their occidental allies'', ''lead to the amalgam and causes confusion'', noted the minister.

 ''We are especially surprised by this amalgam maintained by the dispatch of a famous, impartial and objective press agency'', underlined the minister in an exclusive declaration to SPS.

He recalled that Western Sahara conflict is ''a decolonisation problem, which must be resolved through a referendum of self-determination organised and controlled by UN'' and that ''Polisario Front, that exists during 30 years, is leading a legal and clean liberation struggle, and having never resorted to terrorism''.

The minister wondered about ''the real motives behind this dispatch''. Unless ''it aims to affect Saharawis and their legitimate rights, and to help Moroccan colonialism, that is presently in confrontation with international community after its rejection of the Baker's Plan and Security Council's resolution 1495 of July 2003'', he added.

oroccan colonialism in Western Sahara and its violations of international legality is one of the sources of the main problems in our region'', concluded the minister. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 081513 Feb 04 SPS