SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

SPS
SADR/SPAIN

A Spanish Euro-parliamentarian called the EU to condemn Morocco’s "repressive" policy

09.12.05

Madrid, 09/12/2005 (SPS) The Spanish member of the European Parliament, Willy Meyer, of the Spanish Unified Left Party (Izquierda unida -IU), called, Thursday, on the European Union (EU) to "forthrightly condemn the policy of resolute repression exercised by the Moroccan Government against the Saharawi population".

The Parliamentarian, also, called the EU to "actively intervene" so as to demand the end of this policy and of the "permanent violations of human rights in Western Sahara", indicated a press release by the Izquierda Unida.

"Morocco can not continue acing with impunity against this population and the EU can not maintain an attitude of indifference in front of such a serious situation", Willy Meyer underlined, recalling in this respect that Rabat "engaged itself, within the framework of the Accords of association signed with the EU, to promote human rights".

After having denounced the "political crime", perpetrated by the Moroccan forces against the young Saharawi Martyr, Hamdi Lembarki, last October in El Aaiun, and the "undetermined number of aggressions, tortures, show trials, as well as the permanent harassments against Saharawi human rights defenders", Mr. Meyer wondered if the European Council is aware of these facts and about the actions it is planning to adopt as an answer to them. (SPS)

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SPS
SADR/EUROPE/SOLIDARITY

The President of the Republic receives European delegations in their visit to SADR

Chahid El Hafed, 09/12/2005 (SPS) The President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, received delegations from Spain and Austria on Thursday at the seat of the presidency.

"Your presence among us gives us a proof o your solidarity and indefectible support to Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and independence", underlined the President of the Republic during a launch he offered to these delegations, marked by the presence of Socialist European Parliament’s member, Mrs. Karin Scheele, who was chairing an important Austrian delegation.

The Head of the State noted that this visit intervenes at a moment when the occupied territories of Western Sahara are submitted to a "repression never seen" that is characterised by "arbitrary arrests, tortures, abductions, show trials and the total closure of the territory to independent Medias and observers", for the unique reason that the Saharawi population is peaceful claiming for rights that are granted by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In this respect, the President o the Republic invited observers and the Medias to "visit the occupied cities of Western Sahara so as to evaluate, on the ground, the disastrous situation of the human rights in these zones". He estimated that if Morocco continues to benefit from the international community’s compassion despite the crimes it recently committed against Saharawis, "this may be the prelude to a real genocide against Saharawi people".

"The cries of the detainees are an SOS they are addressing you asking for help", he hammered during this reception, attended by European local officials, Parliamentarians, Mayors and Municipal Councillors from Aragon, Castilla et Léon, Catalogna, Galicia, Murcia, La Rioja, Andalousia, Extremadura, Valencia, Navarra and Basque Country.

A special motion was given by the President of the Republic to Mrs. Karin Scheele, President of the European Parliament’s intergroup "Peace or the Saharawi people". A woman, he said, who was not affected by "all kinds of pressures aimed at pushing her give up her position of principle, to support to a colonised people who is struggling for its freedom and independence".

The President of the Republic also paid tribute to the businessman from Aragon, Alejandro Martinez Callen, for the project of providing Saharawi national hospital with drinking water, a project for which his company gathered the needed funds for its financing and execution.

On her part, Mrs. Scheele regretted, in a statement to the Saharawi national press, that there "are no sufficient international pressures concerning the situation in Western Sahara".

She also expressed her "admiration" for the "peaceful and heroic" struggle of Saharawi citizens in the occupied zones of Western Sahara and south of Morocco, who are showing they are "confident in their ability to surmount the obstacles".

Mrs. Scheele recalled that the European Parliament had decided to constitute an ad-hoc Committee to visit the Western Sahara in order to investigate on the situation of human rights there. She added that this Committee will probably visit the zone "in the second week this January, so as to meet Saharawi political prisoners and human rights activists. (SPS)

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SPS
SADR/SOUTH AFRICA

The Envoy of the President of the Republic received in Pretoria

Pretoria, 09/12/2005 (SPS) Carrying a letter from the President of the Saharawi Republic, Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz, to his South African counterpart, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, the member of Polisario Front’s National Secretariat Coordinator with the Minurso, Mr. Mhamed Khadad, was received, in Pretoria on December the 6^th, by the vice-minister for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Sue van der Merwe, a Saharawi official source indicated.

The message is concerned with the "bilateral relations between SADR and the republic of South Africa as well as the last developments of the Saharawi question", it was indicated.

Khadad was also received by Mr. Ronnie Kasrils, South African, Minister for Security, and had a meeting in Johannesburg, with Kgalema Motlanthe, Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC), the same source added.

Mr. Khadad informed Mr. Motlanthe about the latest developments of the Saharawi question especially the steady heroic and peaceful resistance, for the sixth month so far, of the Saharawi population under the Moroccan colonial occupation.

He asked or the ANC to participate to an international campaign to condemn the crimes committed by Morocco against the Saharawi defenceless civil population, hose only crime is having peacefully expressed its opinion.

Khadda also called on the ANC for an urgent action in favour of the immediate and unconditional release of Saharawi detainees, who are maintained in terrible conditions of imprisonment in the Carcel Negra in El Aaiun.

An official invitation for a visit to the liberated territories of SADR was presented to the Secretary General of the ANC by Khaddad, on behalf of the Saharawi leadership.

Further, Mr. Khadad, who was accompanied by Mr. Tayeb Sadik, the person in charge of the affairs of SADR’s Embassy in South Africa, also had interviews with South African press, it was indicated. (SPS)

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