SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

SPS
SADR/SPAIN/FISHING

The EU-Morocco Fishing agreement "violates the international legality", a Spanish political party denounces

08.04.06

Madrid, 08/04/2006 (SPS) The Fishing agreement between the European Union and Morocco "violates the international legality" and constitutes "a serious political mistake", affirmed the Spanish party, Initiative for the Green Catalonia (ICV, the party of the tripartite coalition in power in Catalonia).

In a press release publicised on Saturday, ICV indicated that it addressed a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Fishing in which it called the Spanish Government to ask the EU to modify this agreement by excluding the territorial waters of the Western Sahara.

The Catalonian party recalled that Morocco "is not considered as the Administrating power of the Western Sahara by the United Nations" and that many advisory opinion of the UN’s Department for Juridical Affairs stressed that no kind of exploitation of the natural resources of the non-self-Governing territory "can be realised against the will and the interests of the Saharawi population".

ICV underlined that the Polisario Front, being "the representative of the Saharawi people", informed the European Union’s authorities about its "opposition to the inclusion of the Saharawi territorial waters" in this agreement.

The Spanish party added that the EU can not "escape its responsibilities", recalling that the EU’s Member States had ratified the UN’s Convention on the Rights over the sees. This convention, the party stressed, clearly indicates that, "in the case a territory whose population has not yet gained its full independence", measures concerning the rights and interests of this population, "must be implemented to the benefit of the population, their prosperity and development".

The European Parliament rejected, on Tuesday, the emergency procedures to ratify the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement presented by the European Council.

Many countries such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom, consider the inclusion of the Saharawi territorial waters in this agreement as illegal. (SPS)

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SPS
SADR/SPAIN/FESTIVAL

Opening of the III edition of the Festival of the Cinema in the El Aaiun camp

El Aaiun (refugee camps), 08/04/2006 (SPS) The III edition of the International Festival of the Cinema (FISAHARA) was opened on Friday to Sunday in the Wilaya of El Aaiun with the presence of the Saharawi Prime Minister, Abdelkader Taleb Oumar, and members of his Government, a well as the Director of the Festival, the Spanish film-maker, Javier Corcuera, Director, Jaime Chavarri, the writer, Eduardo Galeano and the actress, Emma Suarez.

FISAHARA, who was also attended by the Spanish Ministry for Culture in the person of Mrs. Pilar Torre, Assistant-Director General of the Promotion of the Cinema and Audiovisual Arts, and more than 300 foreign participants.

The Prime Minister expressed the gratitude of his people and Government to the organisers for the organisation of this event that "is an act of active solidarity with our people and their legitimate struggle for their right to self-determination and independence".

Projections of films in open spaces were organised in this festival, which "largely participates in breaking the monotony in the Saharawi refugee camps", indicated a spectator to the SPS.

Apart from the entertainment it provided to the Saharawi refugees and the organisation of workshops of training on documentary film making and photography, the Festival also enabled a rich cultural exchange between the different participants and enabled them to have a deeper knowledge about the Saharawi culture and to have an idea about the difficult conditions in which Saharawis are waging their struggle for freedom and independence.

The Donation of a video-theca to the Wilaya of El Aaiun, like the other Wilayas that proceeded in the organisation of the previous edition of the Festival, will serve as a basis to a net for the projection of films aimed to generate regular cultural programmes, it was indicated. (SPS)

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SPS
SADR/MOROCCO/FISHING/EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Mrs. Scheele: A "great victory" for the Saharawi people in the European Parliament

Brussels, 08/04/2006 (SPS) The rejection of the emergency procedures to ratify the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement concluded last July between Morocco and the European Union, and including the territorial waters of the Western Sahara, is a "great victory for the Saharawi people and for the international legality", estimated The European Parliament’s Member, Karin Scheele, President of the European Parliaments’ intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi people".

The European Parliamentarians, by 53 voce for the ratification, 127 against it and 2 abstentions, has rejected last Tuesday the emergency procedures (vote without debate) asked for by th European Council to ratify the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement aimed to enable the implementation of the protocol by May the 1^st 2006, after adoption in April the 25^th in the European Ministers’ Council.

The President of the intergroup is "optimistic", regarding the struggle to wage for the amendment of the agreement, because in the next plenary session and "for the first time" a debate on the fishing agreement was imposed on the European Parliament, thing that was absent during the ratification of the first accords.

Debates within the EU’s Fishing Committee was very hard between the majority of the political groups (liberals, Unified Left and the Greens), who oppose this accords and the other groups who are in favour of it (Spanish Socialists, French and Portuguese Parliamentarians).

On another hand the Euro-Parliamentarian paid tribute to international NGOs, which led a campaign in Europe against this agreement. She also hailed the positions of countries such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Great Britain, for their attachment to the implementation of the international law.

According to the recommendations, the EU’s Fishing Committee, the plenary Assembly, suggested an alternative calendar that plans for the study of the report within the Committee in April the 18-19 and the vote, during an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliamentary Committee, in May the 3rd.

Another extraordinary meeting, in May the 15th, will authorise the vote of the report during the plenary session in May the 15-18 in Strasbourg. This procedure will enable the implementation of the protocol after amendment by the end of June. (SPS)

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SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION

Campaign of arrests in the occupied city of El Aaiun

El Aaiun (occupied territories), 08/04/2006 (SPS) The Moroccan forces of occupation proceeded to the arrest of a group of Saharawi young men during demonstrations that took place on Thursday evening and Friday early morning calling for the immediate withdrawal of the Moroccan forces from the Western Sahara and for the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, reported SPS’s correspondent on the ground.

Demonstrators who were raising the flags of the Saharawi Republic were also chanting slogans in favour of the independence of the Western Sahara. They were violently dispersed by the Moroccan forces of repression, who arrested 7 Saharawis including these young men, who were peacefully advocating the respect of the human rights in the Western Sahara, the same source indicated.

The arrested young men are: Lechab Bousshab, Mohamed Lareibi, Al Bourki Fadali, Bouchama Nafa (ex-political prisoner), Issaoui Mohamed El Haiba and Chouiir El Haiba, while the ex-Saharawi political prisoner, Taoubali El Hafed, was interpellated by the Moroccan authorities in the occupied city of El Aaiun in company of 14 other young Saharawis, the same source indicated.

The Moroccan forces of occupation have, before, ransacked the house of the political prisoner, Ait Abeilou Brahim Hassan, and arrested his brother, Mohamed Ait Abeilou, before trying to arrest one of his sisters, who were defended by some young Saharawis, it was indicated.

Two other similar demonstrations were organised in the occupied city of Smara, in which the Saharawi students and citizens raised the flags of the Saharawi Republic and chanted slogans denouncing the Moroccan illegal occupation of the Western Sahara.

The forces of occupation immediately intervened to disperse the demonstrators, who were asking "to enable the Saharawi people to freely exercise their right to self-determination", the same source added.

In the occupied city of Boujdour, three Saharawi citizens, Sidya zaza, Sultana Khaya and Ouara Khaya, were abusively deprived of their salary by the Moroccan colonial authorities, the same source indicated. (SPS)

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