SPS
SADR/SPAIN/MOROCCO/INTIFADA
The last incidents in Western Sahara reflects the "political
frustration", Bernardino León says
09.06.05
<> Madrid, 09/06/2005 (SPS) The
last incidents in Western Sahara reflects the "political frustration",
Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Bernardino León,
says. He estimated that this frustration caused by "the failure to
advance" in the Western Sahara question, also pushed Mr. James Baker to
resign his post of the UN Secretary General Personal Envoy to Western
Sahara.
In n interview to Spanish radio, "Onda Cera", quoted by Spanish press
agency, "Europa Press", Mr. Léon Gros indicated that his
Government insists on the nomination of a new Secretary General’s
Personal Envoy, taking into consideration that the UN must be "the
centre and the main actor of the political impulsion to this situation"
and that "only by reactivating negotiations and dialogue we can advance
and surmount this situation".
"All of us agreed that violence leads nowhere and that we have to
return back to political perspectives that will really enable us to
surmount this", Mr. Léon Gros said after a two days visit in the
region he described as "a management of crisis".
A visit that allowed him to agree with the countries of the region to
"ask for an objective and reliable report from Minurso" on the
confrontations that opposed the Moroccan repressive machine to Saharawi
demonstrators in the occupied zones of Western Sahara during the last
week of May 2005.
He revealed that his Government has transmitted to Morocco, "with
firmness and friendship", the need "to act with transparency" and that
"Medias and Parliament members can freely visit the zone". Morocco, he
said, answered positively to this petition and "gave an open
invitation, with all guarantees of transparency", he added.
He expressed a particular deception about Moroccan simultaneous
expulsion of two delegation compose of Spanish Parliament members from
the airport of El Aaiun, who came to the region to investigate about
human rights in occupied territories of Western Sahara after the last
incidents.
"This does not sound good to us" (...) "And we express it that way to
Moroccan Government", he indicated, recognising that the relations with
Rabat “demand a lot of creativity and enormous diplomatic efforts".
He added that his country asked that this visit should be undertaken
with "credibility” that it must "include all parliaments’ members who
want to join it and that they are allowed to meet the contacts they see
necessary".
Finally, Mr. Léon Gros announced that the group of the friends
of the Sahara will meet soon. He did not give a specific date for this
meeting however, the same source indicated. (SPS)
SPS
SADR/EUROPE/INTIFADA
Addressing Annan, European Coordination of support to Saharawi people
claims for a referendum in Western Sahara
Brussels, 09/06/2005 (SPS)
European Coordination of support to Saharawi
people (EUCOCO) called on the United Nation to organise, without more
delays, a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara, calling
to the protection of the Saharawi civilians in the territories Morocco
colonise since 1975.
"The UN is responsible for the success of the process of decolonisation
of Western Sahara. As a result to the Peace Plan (1991), the UN is also
responsible for the protection of the civilians in Western Sahara", the
President of the EUCOCO, the Belgian Senator, Pierre Galand, wrote to
UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan.
Further, Mr. Galland condemned "Moroccan security forces’ brutal
repression" of Saharawi demonstrators who only asked for their right to
self-determination". He estimated that this attitude is "a violation of
the Geneva Conventions by the occupying force".
To the Senator, "the quick enforcement and the execution of the Baker
Plan is actually the only reasonable exit to the conflict of Western
Sahara".
"We call on the international community to immediately put measures of
protection in favour of the Saharawi population in the occupied
territories", he said in his letter, of which SPS received a copy. (SPS)
SPS
SPAIN/OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES/INTIFADA
Complaint to the Spanish Foreign Affairs by Catalonian Parliament’s
members expulsed from El Aaiun because of the lack of protection
Barcelona, 09/06/2005 (SPS) Catalonian Parliament’s members Moroccan
colonial authorities expulsed Wednesday from the El Aaiun’s airport
officially lodged a complaint to Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry for
"lack of protection". They claim for an official complaint by Spanish
diplomacy against Moroccan Government for this attitude, reported
Spanish pres agency, Europa Press.
In a press release issued by the four Spanish political Parties that
participated in the trip to El Aaiun, the same source added, the
Parliament members indicated that their initiative answers the request
of the movement of solidarity with Western Sahara and human rights’
associations to investigate on the human rights’ situation on the
ground.
To the Spanish representatives, Rabat’s attitude proves that "there
really are human rights violations" in the region, underlining that it
is "unacceptable" that Morocco accuses them of being "enemies of
Morocco and pro-Polisario", without any reaction from Spanish Ministry
for Foreign. (SPS)
SPS
SADR/UN/FOURTH COMMISSION FOR
DECOLONISATION
Mr. Mouloud Saaid intervention before of UN’s 4th Commission for
Decolonisation
New York, 09/06/2005 (SPS)
Polisario Front’s Representative to New York, Mouloud Said, intervened
in the debate in the UN’s 4th Commission for decolonisation, recalling
that the Western Sahara question, which is still waiting for
denouement, is on the UN’s agenda since the 60ies. He estimated that
the deadlock in the conflict is caused by Morocco’s unjustified
rejection of the peace plan the two parties accepted and adopted by the
UN’s Security Council.
He said that Morocco wants "recognition of its pretended sovereignty on
Western Sahara, denying Saharawi people thus their right to
self-determination". He added, with satisfaction that "neither this
people nor the international community recognise to Morocco what so
ever right on Western Sahara".
Mr. Said denounced Morocco’s systematic violations of human rights and
plundering of Western Sahara’s natural resources, underlining that "it
is a matter of a constant and typical policy that all colonial
occupying forces adopt".
"The current repression last May the 23rd, following a peaceful
demonstration, showed the real colonial face of the colonial
occupation. The violent repression is an additional fact that stresses
the continuity of a policy of provocation and arrogance in the face of
peace and of the hopes of the international community to quickly reach
a solution", he said.
He counted more 600 civilian and 150 Saharawi prisoners of war "still
detained in secret places" in Morocco. A barbarous attitude that take
place under the sight of the UN’s Mission that "prefers to look away in
the face of uncountable human rights violations", he regretted.
In addition, the Saharawi diplomat denounced the fact that Moroccan
authorities deploy considerable efforts "to attract foreign investors
in order to accelerate the exploitation of the natural resources and
implicate foreign interests to legitimize the occupation".
"At a moment when the population underwent a barbarous repression and
that the peace process is seriously stuck, the Special Committee must
show its determination to see a success in the process of
self-determination of the Saharawi people, the diplomat concluded
addressing the Special Committee in charge of the study of the
situation regarding the enforcement of the Declaration on the Granting
of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. (SPS)
SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE