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SPS Aminetou Haidar receives "Juan Maria Bandres Price" in Madrid 09.05.05
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Madrid, 09/05/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi human rights activist, and symbol of the Saharawi people’s resistance in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, Aminetou Haidar, received on Monday evening in Madrid "Juan Maria Bandres Price for the Defence of the Right to Exile and Solidarity with the Refugees", which was offered to her by the Spanish Committee for the Aid to the Refugees (CEAR).
This Price was offered to the Saharawi activist by the CEAR at the end of last year, while she was still detained in the Moroccan prison "Carcel Negra" (Black Jail) in El Aaiun (the occupied capital of the Western Sahara), in recognition of her ''exemplary engagement in favour of the Saharawi people struggle for their legitimate rights to freely decide over their future''.
During a very emotional ceremony, Mrs. Aminetou Haidar, who was lengthily applauded by the audience, dedicated this price to the ''heroes of the intifada of independence, to the heroes of the peaceful resistance in the occupied territories and all the Saharawi people''.
''Through this Price, the CEAR and the Spanish civil society addressed a deep message of condemnation of the human rights violations perpetrated by the Moroccan occupation in the Western Sahara. It is also an homage to the struggle and sacrifices of the Saharawi people, especially the Saharawi women'', she declared.
After having expressed the ''gratitude" of the Saharawi people to the Spanish peoples for ''their solidarity, their honourable position and support'' for the last three decades, she asked the Spanish Government not to commit a new ''injustice'' towards the Saharawis, prolonging their sufferings, in reference to the Madrid tripartite Accords of 1975 through which the Western Sahara was delivered to the occupation.
''What we are expecting now from the Spanish Government is not to promote false solutions Morocco is proposing, we are expecting from the Spanish Government is to compel Morocco allow the Saharawi people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination'', she said.
On another hand, Aminetou Haidar called on the United Nations to ''assume its responsibilities'' by ensure the respect of the human rights in the occupied territories, ''through the protection of the Saharawi population and via putting pressures on Morocco to compel it conform to the international legality''.
The President of the CEAR, Ignacio Diaz Aguilar, declared he was so sorry for the situation of the Saharawis, ''a people, for those who know them, who are deeply peaceful, hospitable and generous'', he underlined.
''It was because of a really unjust situation that they were pushed to fight'', he added, affirming that ''the homage paid to Aminetou Haidar, is also an homage to the Saharawi people''.
Mr. Aguilar urged the Spanish Government for a ''clear'' position regarding the conflict of the Western Sahara, and to put pressure on Morocco so as it accept the holding of a self-determination referendum.
On his part, the President of the Coordination of the Spanish Associations of solidarity with the Saharawi people (CEAS-Sahara), José Taboada, called on the Spanish Government to avoid the ''ambiguous and contradictory'' positions and to ''courageously assume its historical responsibilities'' by taking ''just and firm decisions to prevail legality over power, and to unconditionally support the holding of a self-determination referendum''.
''After 30 years of the occupation of the Western Sahara by force, it is time now to demand from the UN to honour its engagements and to implement its resolutions'', he concluded. (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 090942 May 06 SPS
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SPS Aminetou Haidar calls on the Spanish Government to assume its "historical and legal responsibilities''
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Madrid, 09/05/2006 (SPS) Mrs. Aminetou Haidar, symbol of the Saharawi resistance in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, denounced on Monday in Madrid the ''serious violations'' of human rights committed by the Moroccan State against the Saharawi people in the non-self-governing territory, and called on the Spanish Government to assume its "historical and legal responsibilities'' in the conflict.
During a press conference animated at the seat of the Spanish Committee for the Aid to the Refugees (CEAR), Aminetou Haidar indicated that here visit in Spain has got a double objective. On the one hand, to thank the Spanish society on behalf of the Saharawi people for their "noble solidarity and indefectible support to the Saharawi cause", on the other, ''to mobilise and inform on the dramatic situation'' the Saharawi people are living in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.
''We hope that the Spanish society put pressures on its Government, which we are asking to assume its historical and legal responsibilities, of the tragedy the Saharawi people are living for the last 30 years, by openly supporting their right to self-determination", she declared.
''This appeal is also addressed to France, whose policy is an obstacle to peace in the Western Sahara. France, the country of freedoms and human rights, is unfortunately supporting the Moroccan occupation. Its diplomacy had lately mobilised all its powers so as to prevent the mentioning of the human rights situation in the Western Sahara in the UN’s Security Council’s resolution'', she regretted.
The Saharawi militant further stressed that ''none has got the right to speak on behalf of the Saharawi people but the Polisario Front, their unique and legitimate representative".
She also underlined that the ''plan of autonomy'' announced by Rabat for the Western Sahara is a "dead-born project'', because it ''is completely rejected by the Saharawi people, who will never accept other solution but to exercise their legitimate and inalienable right to self-determination''.
Asked about the recent release of a group of Saharawi human rights militants, she refuted the term "grace", used by Moroccans, stressing that the release "is not a favour conceded by the Moroccan authorities of occupation but the result of pressures exercised by international NGOs".
She remarked that the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, reported on serious human rights violations in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, in his last report.
In her intervention, Mrs. Aminetou Haidar recalled that these violations started with the occupation of the Western Sahara in 1975, including ''crimes against humanities: bombardments of civil populations with Napalm and phosphor, common graves, thousands detentions, tortures and disappearance''.
She explained that the movement for the human rights in the occupied territories was the reaction to this ''bloody repression that is continuing, to the blockage of the settlement plan and to the immobility of the UN''. (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 090958 May 06 SPS
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SPS Abdelaziz urges Annan to intervene to save the life of Abdallahi Hassan in his 42nd day in hunger strike
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Bir Lehlu, 09/05/2006 (SPS) The President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz urged the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, Monday in a letter he sent to the UN’s official, to intervene so as to "save the life of the Saharawi political prisoner in hunger strike for more than 6 months" in the Moroccan prison of Ait Melloul.
"We demand an urgent intervention of the United Natiosn Organisation, so as to save the life of the Saharawi citizen, Abdallahi Ali Salem Mohamed Salem Hasan, the 26 years old youth who was arrested last February the 15th 206 in El Aaiun and transferred to the prison of Ait Melloul in the Moroccan city of Agadir", Mohamed Abdelaziz wrote in his letter to Kofi Annan.
"Abdallahi Ali Salem Mohamed Salem Hasan, who enters his 42nd days of hunger strike because of he circumstances of his "abusive arrest", is now in a critical state of health", the President of the Republic added in his letter, of which SPS received a copy.
On anther hand, Mrs. Abdelaziz underlined that the Moroccan Government persists in its policy of "brutal repression, terror and intimidation against the helpless Saharawi population because they participate i peaceful demonstrations advocating their legitimate right to self-determination", especially "against the Saharawi human rights activists and political prisoners recently released from prisons".
"These latter were the target of torture by the Moroccan forces of repression ad some of them were abandoned in the surroundings of cities in critical states, in addition to been threatened of forced deportation from the Saharawi cities", Mr. Abdelaziz stressed.
"All this campaign of terror and intimidation from the Moroccan authorities intervenes few days before the coming of the UN’s Committee for Human Rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, what makes doubts "whether Morocco will accept this visit or reject it anew as it did with many others", the Head of the Saharawi State said.
The Saharawi President asked anew for an "urgent intervention" of the UN so as to "protect the Saharawi population in the occupied territories" of the Western Sahara and compel Morocco "to release the 14 Saharawi political prisoners still in the occupant custody". (SPS)
070/090/110/TRD 091225 May 06 SPS
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SPS The Saharawi people must decide on their destiny, the new German left affirms
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Berlin, 09/05/2006 (SPS) The spokespersons of the German new left (die neue Linke) in the Bundestag Committee for Foreign Affairs, Norman Paech and Wolfgang Gehrke, asked for the respect of the sovereign decision of Saharawi people to chose their future through "the implementation of the Baker Plan ".
"The UN’s Security Council’s resolutions and the Baker Peace Plan if 2003 must be the only basis to determine the future of the Western Sahara", the spokesperson declared in a press release.
"There will be no perspective of peace for the concerned peoples without the perspective of the holding of a referendum on the basis of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination", they warned.
"On another hand, a violent escalade in the conflict will have dramatic consequences on the stability of this region and will certainly lead to an additional aggravation of the human rights situation in the Western Sahara, which is already very bad", they alerted.
"The Moroccan rejection should not exclude the peace plan from been the basis to the search for a peaceful solution to the Western Sahara conflict", the unified left parties stressed, knowing that they had recently received the Saharawi Minister of Occupied Territories and Communities, Khalil Sidi Mhamed and Polisario Front’s Representative to Germany, Jamal Zakari.
They also launched an appeal to the German Federal Government to pay all necessary efforts so as any negotiations on the future of the Western Sahara be "based on the baker plan, as recommended by the UN Security Council in its resolution 1495 of July 31 of 2003, recalling the German Bundestag’s resolution voted on January 2004, which calls to the holding of the referendum ".
010/090/100/TRD 091732 mai 06 SPS
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