SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Chahid El Hafed, 12/05/2004 (SPS) Visits exchange between families from refugee's camps and their relatives in Smara, the occupied spiritual capital of the SADR, will be undertaken this Friday, we learned from a close source to UNHCR.

This visit, the first of its kind to this city since the Moroccan military invasion of the Saharawi territory in 1975, constitutes the third stage of UN' initiative and the 10th within the framework of the families visits exchange supervised by the UNHCR, having already benefited to El Aaiun and Dakhla.

This "humanitarian initiative" was interrupted for a week because of some "technical" reasons, declared the same source to SPS, referring to the difficulties encountered by the UNHCR in the registration of candidates in the mentioned occupied city. Morocco, having not allowed UNHCR to start registering Saharawi families at time, caused the waste of a week of the twenty four weeks designated to this confidence-building measure recommended by the UN.

Parted for three decades from their relatives by a defensive wall of more than 2000 Km, these women and men will meet for five days with their families, thanks to the efforts of UN, the latter having succeeded in convincing Morocco to accept these exchanges of visits for purely humanitarian goal.

Nine Saharawi groups from each side of the Moroccan military wall, henceforth known as "wall of shame", composed of 91 families, 232 refugees and a similar number of Saharawis from occupied territories, had taken profit of these visits, had estimated the same source.

After this 3rd stage, which duration vary from three to four weeks, a fourth stage will be devoted to Boujdour, a coastal city, before been re-organised in El Aaiun, in a fifth stage, it was said.

 Polisario Front had hoped that the confidence-building measures be the starting point to the opening of the Saharawi territory to allow international independent observers to see on the ground ''the atmosphere of terror and repression prevailing on Western Sahara's occupied territories, as well as the difficult conditions of the life imposed on our citizens under occupation''.


Moreover, it hoped that this initiative ''be a step towards the fair, final and lasting settlement to the conflict, which can only be through the organisation of a free, fair and transparent referendum of self-determination under the auspices of UN, able to put and end to the tragedy of Saharawi people and to establish an atmosphere of peace and stability to the benefit of all the people of the region''

Morocco, having invaded and annexed Western Sahara, had erected a defensive wall, of more than 2000 Km, filled with mines, armoured tanks and heavy artillery, and protected by more than 120.000 soldiers. (SPS)

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