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SPS SADR/ALGERIA/AFRICAN UNION/MEDIAS Mr. Messahel: Banjul summit reinforced the SADR as an African Union’s founder 14.07.05
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Algiers,
14/07/2006 (SPS) The Algerian Minister of State in charge of African and
Maghreb’s Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, underlined, on Thursday in an interview
to the Algerian newspaper, AlKhabar, that the African Unions’ Summit, recently
held in Banjul, has "reinforced" the Saharawi Republic as a Founding member of
the Pan African organisation.
"Three African countries had tried during the summit (of the African Union) to
review the position of Africa vis-à-vis the question of the Western Sahara. This
initiative failed because of vigorous reactions from the majority of the members
of the Union, who supported the will of the Saharawis to get their right to
self-determination, what reinforced the position of the Saharawi Republic as a
founding member of the African Union", Mr. Messahel stressed, adding that the
Africans are in fact "the most qualified to appreciate the value of the
principle of self-determination, because they surfed the misdeeds of the
occupation".
Asked about the results of the Euro-African Ministerial conference on
immigration and development, which was held between July the 11th to the 12th in
Rabat, Mr. Messahel indicated that we have here "an unilateral initiative of
three countries, France, Spain and Morocco, which answers some security
objectives that are only preoccupying these countries".
"Contrarily to what certain circles propagate, Algeria did not boycott Rabat
(...) but we do not agree with the initiators of this event on the approach of
the problem and time will give us reason", he stressed.
On another hand, he added, the conference of Algiers on immigration, which was
held last May with the presence of 52 African countries, intervened to "find a
solution to the problem within the African framework through bilateral and
regional accords".
Mr. Messahel noted that the African Summit in Banjul adopted the results of the
conference of Algiers on illegal migration and all the participants "saluted
Algeria for its role in the success of the Conference and on road map that
sanctioned its works". (SPS)
010/090/000/TRD
141226 JUL 06 SPS
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SPS SADR/GREAT BRITAIN/MOROCCO Great Britain urges Morocco to respect human rights in the Western Sahara
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London,
14/07/2006 (SPS) The British Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, Kim Howells, declared that his country "urged Morocco to respect human
rights in the Territory", stressing that the British Government supports a
solution to the conflict of the Western Sahara that respects Saharawi people’s
right to “self-determination".
In a written answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Ms. Joan Walley,
Member of Parliament (Labour) about the UK Government's position with regard to
the question of Western Sahara, Mr. Howells stressed that his Government "urged
Morocco to respect human rights in the Territory".
The British diplomat also underline that the UK fully supports the efforts of
the United Nations to achieve a just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution,
"which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara",
he wrote in his answer. (SPS)
010/090/110/TRD 141727 JUL 06 SPS
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SPS SADR/ALGERIA/MEDIAS Mr. Bouteflika: Algeria supports the Saharawi people unjustly despoiled of their national territory
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London, 14/07/2006 (SPS) The Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika,
affirmed that his country "supports the Saharawi people, who are unjustly
spoiled of their national territory", in an interview he gave to the London
based newspaper, "El Arabe El-Ousboui", reported the Algerian Press Agency, APS.
The settlement of the conflict of the Western Sahara "resides in the
implementation of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination", President
Bouteflika stressed, adding that "Algeria –which has always supported the
exercise of this right for all the oppressed peoples- supports the Saharawi
people, who are unjustly spoiled of their national territory".
Asked about the impact of the Saharawi question on the course of the Maghreb
Union, Mr. Bouteflika, who achieved on Wednesday a two days official visit to
the United Kingdom, underlined that the problem of the Western Sahara "concerns
the kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front", insisting that it is not "an
Algerian-Morocco problem", but "it is rather a decolonisation problem of which
the United Nations is responsible". (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 141748 JUL 06 SPS
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SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION Postponement of the judgement of three Saharawi Hun Rights activists
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El Aaiun (occupied territories), 14/07/2006 (SPS) The trial of three Saharawi human rights activists, Sabbar Brahim, Haddi Ahmed Mahmoud and Haddi Saleh, who were brought on Thursday before the Moroccan colonial court in the occupied capital of the Western Sahara, El Aaiun, was postponed to July the 20, according to a press release of the Saharawi Association of the Victims of the Flagrant Human Rights Violations committed by the Moroccan State (ASVDH).
The two first Saharawi human rights activists were sentence two and three years imprisonment in a first trial, while the third was released with a year imprisonment with suspension. Such sentences only target "the activists human rights activities", the ASVDH estimates, recalling that "the first trial did not answer the internationally recognised fair judgment".
The Saharawi NGOs stressed that "no investigation was opened on the ill-treatment and torture the detainees were subjected to during their arrest and in police stations" (...) the absence of proofs and witnesses" for a trial which "took place with haste so as to avoid the presence of international observers", knowing that the trials are based "on reports written by the criminal police that the detainee did not sign or see before".
The three Saharawi human rights activists were arrested in the afternoon to be ill-treated for about tend days in El Aaiun by the Moroccan colonial forces. Another Saharawi human rights activist, Sbai Ahmed, was also arrested with the three activists while they were driving back to El Aaiun coming from Bojador where they supervised the creation of a new section of the ASVDH, it should be recalled. (SPS)
010/090/110/TRD 141821 JUL 06 SPS
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