SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

El Aaiun (occupied territories), 14/07/2005 (SPS) An important Basque delegation was expelled from El Aaiun after the failure of an hour negotiations with Moroccan colonial authorities inside the plane they came in from Las Palmas to the capital of Western Sahara occupied capital.

Composed of about thirty representatives of Basque autonomous Government, Parliament, local elected, representatives of Mayoralties and human rights activists as well as journalists, the delegation was planning to investigate on the human rights’ situation, which is largely violated since the starting of the intifada of independence last May the 21s in Western Sahara.

"This is an insult from Moroccan authorities, the non recognised occupying force, against a democratic delegation. The did not let us investigate the serious human rights violations that takes place in El Aaiun", declared the spokesperson of the Basque National Party (PNV), Íñigo Iturrate, member of the expelled delegation, according to Spanish press agency, Europa Press.

M. Iturrate affirmed that Moroccan colonial authorities, who did not allow the delegation to get off the plane, want "to deprive the international community from witnessing the serious human rights violations that are perpetrated in this XXI century in the face of the passivity of the different European Union’s States".

On his part, the Basque Secretary General of the main Spanish party of opposition, Popular Party, (PP), Carmelo Barrio, demanded from the Head of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, "a formal complaint" against the expulsion of the Basque delegation. He considered that the Moroccan Government "violates Saharawis rights and also the rights of the citizens who would like to peacefully visit them".

Recalling the historical debt of Madrid, Mr. Barrio called on Mr. Zapatero to recognise this debt and "avoid the mistakes committed by Franco and Felipe Gonzalez".

"Zapatero can no more remain silent, turning his head the other way, he must react and bear in mind that Saharawi people’s rights are violated", he said, Europa Press added.

"This is a new episode that allows us to verify that Morocco and its occupation of Western Sahara constitute a violation to human rights from a dictatorship and a totalitarian regime", he concluded, the same source indicated.

This is the sixth Spanish delegation to be expelled from El Aaiun since last May the 5th, after delegations from Madrid, Andalusia, Astoria, Aragon and Galicia, it should be recalled. (SPS)

010/090/666/ALG/TRD 141145 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERITORIES/INTIFADA/ARREST
A human rights’ activist abducted in El Aaiun

El Aaiun (occupied territories), 14/07/2005 (SPS) Saharawi human rights’ activist, Sabar Brahim, ex political prisoner, Secretary General of the Association of the victims of the Serious Human rights violations in Western Sahara, was abducted by Moroccan police Thursday at 13.00 (GMT), asserted eye-witnesses.

The same sources indicated that he was abducted in the street, in front of the passing people, by Moroccan police officer, Hamid Bahri, famous in the occupied capital of Western Sahara as one of the main torturers of Saharawi demonstrators during the events of May.

A rescue from the sinister secret detention camp, Galaat Megouna, Mr. Sabar was conducted by his kidnappers to an unknown place, "where he must certainly be submitted to torture as it is the custom with the Moroccan colonial forces", it was indicated. (SPS)

010/090/110 141750 Jul 05

SPS
SADR/SPAIN/FOUNDATION
A Foundation for Studies on Western Sahara created in the University of Juan Carlos de Madrid

Madrid, 14/07/2005 (SPS) A Foundation for Studies on Western Sahara was created in the University of Juan Carlos de Madrid following the initiative of Professors, searchers and students of this university, indicated a source close to a presidential delegation in Spain since last Sunday.

The duty will be given to a section of the Faculty of Public Laws, under the supervision of the Professor of Institutional Laws in the University of Santiago de Compostelle, Carlos Ruiz Miguel, the official ceremony of the inauguration announced with the presence of the President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, who was the guest of honour to the ceremony.

The Foundation defined as objective to study Western Sahara question on the light of the international law in the distinct aspects such as the legitimacy of the struggle, human rights’ violations, the wall of shame and the plundering of the natural resources among other subjects.

The second aspect of the studies will focus on the Saharawi constitutional law, the Saharawi constitutional geometry, the function of the Saharawi institutions, Parliament, Constitutional Council as well as the Judicial institution, has indicated Mr. Ruiz Miguel during his intervention during the ceremony.

On his part, the Director of the University Institution of Public Law, Professor, Alvarez Conde, stressed on the nature of the solution of the conflict in Western Sahara, which according to him, "must respect the international law, human rights, especially Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, as recognised by the UN’ Carter", to be legal.

The President of the Republic highlighted the importance of this institution and thanked the University "Juan Carlos" for this initiative. A special motion was offered to Professor Carlos Ruiz Miguel, "who, and since years, realise a daily hard and important work to impose justice, legality and law in Western Sahara", the Head of the State added.

Recalling that the conflict of Western Sahara must be resolved through a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people, like the ones organised in Namibia or East Timor, Mr. Abdelaziz expressed the hope that the Spanish Parliament, "in whom Saharawi people have complete confidence as a democratic institution", would not be abused by the Moroccan Government which attempts "to implicate it in Rabat’s attempts to hide the atrocities committed in the occupied zones and to legitimise its illegal occupation of Western Sahara". (SPS)

010/090/100/ALG/TRD 141850 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/NORWAY/MOROCCO
Polisario satisfied with a Norwegian company abstention from buying phosphate from Morocco

Chahid El Hafed, 14/07/2005 (SPS) 14/07/2005 (SPS) Polisario Front expresses its satisfaction with the decision adopted by the Norwegian company "Yara" to stop importing phosphate from Western Sahara, considering it contradictory to ethics and opposing to the principles of the UN’s Charter regarding non-self-governing territories.

In a written statement to SPS, Mr. Mhamed Khadad, Saharawi Coordinator with the Minurso, considered this decision that intervenes after Norwegian State fond disinvestment from Kerr Mc Gee, "as a proof on the attachment of Norway to the international legality and to the noble principles of ethics".

Mr. Khadad also called on the European Union to "respect these same principles in its ongoing negotiations for the signature of an accord on fishing with Morocco", which includes Western Sahara’s territorial waters.

To the diplomat the EU "must respect the international legality and refuse to sign any accord that includes Western Sahara’s territorial waters, directly or indirectly".

Polisario Front on another hand expresses the "vivid thanks of the Saharawi people to the Government of Norway and to The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara".

The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry is Yara's biggest shareholder with 36.2 percent of the company’s stock; other Norwegian government institutions hold substantial investments in Yara International as well. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier urged constraints in trade with or investments in the Western Sahara's natural resource sectors because of an earlier United Nations legal opinion, which denounced Western Saharan resource exploitation.

In its letter on 29 April, the Ministry of Finance has excluded Kerr-McGee from the investment universe of the Government Petroleum Fund, it informed the Central Bank (Norges Bank) as the manager of the Fund to disinvest from the American company funds that reach approximately 337 millions NOK (approx. 52 million US$), for the same reasons.

Norway forbids any investment of the State’s funds in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. The Government’s Ethical Guidelines of 19 November 2004, it should be underlined, said that "the Fund should not vest in companies that produce weapons that may violate fundamental humanitarian principle" (…) " human rights violations, such as murder, torture, deprivation of liberty, forced labour, the worst forms of child labour and other forms of child exploitation" among other crimes against peoples or humanity. (SPS)

010/090/110 141909 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
DENMARK/OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/HUMAN RIGHTS
Danish Foreign Affairs Minister interpellated about Morocco’s violation of human rights in Western Sahara.

Copenhagen, 14/07/2005 (SPS) The member of Danish Parliament, Mr. Rune Lund (Red-Green Alliance), interpellated the Danish Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Per Stig Møller, today, about whether his Ministry "intends to take any initiatives that can exert pressure on Morocco to respect human rights in the part of the occupied Western Sahara under its control”, reported SPS’s correspondent in Denmark.

In his response, Mr. Møller stated that “In view of the information about the intervention of Moroccan security forces in Western Sahara, the question will be dealt with at the EU level with a view to assessing whether there are grounds for exerting renewed pressure on Morocco to respect human rights in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara".

It is to be recalled that Mr. Rune Lund has already issued a statement, on behalf of his party, in which he condemned the Moroccan violation of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and its repression of the peaceful Intifada that has been going on there since 21 May 2005.

The spokesperson for foreign policy of the Danish Red-Green Alliance (RGA- Enhedlisten), Mrs. Rune Lund, condemned, the end of June, the brutal repression by Moroccan authorities of "the peaceful Intifada" of Saharawi population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and in the south of Morocco, expressing its solidarity with Saharawi people’s struggle for independence.

On his part The Secretary of the Danish Socialist Youth (Socialistisk Ungdoms), Mr. Mads Lou Bendtsen, expressed Friday his organisation’s support to Saharawi people’s right to self-determination demanding the immediate release of all Saharawi political prisoners Morocco detains since the popular uprising of the Saharawi people against Moroccan colonial authorities last May and June, it should be recalled. (SPS)

060/090/ALG/TRD 142318 Jul 05 SPS