SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Chahid El Hafed, 14/10/2005 (SPS) Saharawi Minister of Information, Sid’Ahmed Batal, called the American Oil company, Kerr McGee, Friday in Chahid El Hafed, to stop its drilling operations to Western Sahara, who participate to the plundering of the resources of the country and to the blocking of the efforts for the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Here is the complete text of this written statement, SPS received:

"As a result to information concerning the plans of the American company, Kerr MacGee, to proceed to drilling operation in Western Sahara, I would like to stress the following clarifications on behalf of the Saharawi Government :

The accords signed by Kerr MacGee with Morocco on drilling operations in Western Sahara are contradictory to the international legality and constitutes a blatant violation of the verdict of the International Court of Justice issued in October the 16th 1975as well as a violation to the UN’s legal opinion of January the 29th 2002, which reaffirm that Morocco has got no sovereignty on Western Sahara and thus can not control its natural resources.

The mentioned accords ignore the official position of the USA Government, which does not recognise Moroccan sovereignty on Western Sahara, like all other States of the world. The USA excluded natural resources of the Western Sahara from its Trade accords with Morocco.

Any collaboration with the Moroccan occupier in its policy of plundering Western Sahara’s natural resources can but constitute an encouragement of the colonial fait accompli and a serious obstacle to the efforts the UN paid for a peaceful decolonisation of our country, efforts that are pushed to failure because of the obstruction of Morocco, which denied its international engagements in the Settlement Plan of 1991, the Houston Accords signed by the two parties to the conflict under the auspices of Mr. James Baker III.

Morocco, which rejected the Peace Plan for the self-determination of the Saharawi people (the Baker Plan of July 2003), despite the appeal of the UN’s Security Council, created a situation of a dangerous impasse for peace and stability of the region and adopts a dangerous policy of human rights’ violations in Western Sahara.

The Government of the Saharawi Republic and the Polisario Front launch an urgent appeal to the UN’s Secretary General and the UN’s Security Council to order the stopping of the plundering of Western Sahara’s resources by Morocco and to put pressures so as the international legality be respected.

Polisario Front, a movement of liberation famous by its responsibility and by respecting its engagements and the international legality has never, and will never use terrorism to impose the legitimate rights of our people, which are recognised by the international community, and this in complete opposition with the attitude of the Moroccan occupation.

The Government of the Saharawi Republic and the Polisario Front launch an urgent appeal to Kerr MacGee so as to put an end to its activities in Western Sahara and to its illegal collaboration with the Moroccan occupier and address to the company an invitation to continue its activities after the effective decolonisation of our country and after the recovery of our people of their rights to self-determination and independence". (SPS)

010/090/100 141632 oct 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/REPRESSION

39 injured and 12 arrested in a Saharawi demonstration in Boujdour

Boujdour (occupied territories), 14/10/2005 (SPS) 39 persons were injured and 12 arrested among Saharawi demonstrators, Thursday in Boujdour (Atntic coasts) after confrontations with teh Moroccan colonial forces which intervened to disperse a sit-in claiming for the organisation of a self-determination referendum of the Saharawi people and the respect of the human rights in Western Sahara, according to eye witnesses.

Many of these injured persons are now in the hospital of the city, while their families were forbidden from visiting them and were brutally dispersed in front of the entry of the hospital, where they were gathering, it was indicated.

One of the victims, Hamadi Toueir, was transferred in emergency to Hospital BelMehdi in El Aaiun, because he was seriously injured in the head, the same sources said.

On another hand, the forces of occupation ransacked more than 7 houses and robed the goods of their owners, while a truck of the Group of Urban Security (GUS), which was sent from El Aaiun to participate to the repression, hit the car of Saharawi citizen, Ahmedou Najem, who was kicked and brutalised by truncheons after he got alive from the accident. (SPS)

010/090/000/TRD 141010 Oct 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/UN/PERSONAL ENVOY

Arrival to SADR of the UN’s Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara

Chahid El Hafed, 14/10/2005 (SPS) The UN’s Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Peter Van Walsum, arrived Friday at noon to SADR within the framework of a visit to the region aimed at contacting the parties to the conflict and to evaluate the ways to unblock the decolonisation process of Western Sahara, which is faced with the intransigence of Morocco.

Mr. Walsum, who is accompanied with an important delegation of the staff of the Minurso and his assistants, had had a popular reception in the Wilaya of Smara, where he was received by the Saharawi Prime Minister, Abdelkader Taleb Oumar, and members of his Government.

The UN’s envoy also met with the Chioukhs (axperts adopted by the UN for the identification of voters), elected officials and notables, before been received by the Saharawi Coordinator with the Minurso, Mhamed Khadad, at the Residence of Chahid Tamek, for a luncheon offered on the honour of the host of the Saharawi people.

Mr. Walsum visited the museum of the Saharawi Army of liberation, the 27 of February School before visiting an exposition of the Association of the Families of Political Prisoners and ‘Disappeareds” (AFAPREDESA), reflecting the atrocities committed by the Moroccan colonial authorities against the Saharawi people in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

The Personal Envoy will be received this night by the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, i was indicated. (SPS)

010/090/000/TRD 141902 oct 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/UN

The President of the Republic receives the UN’s Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for the Western Sahara

Chahid El Hafed, 14/10/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, received the UN’s Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for the Western Sahara, Peter van Walsum, Friday at the Presidency, at the end of a 24 hours visit in SADR within the framework of his first turn to the region after his designation at the post last August the 1st.

Moroccan rejection of the principle of self-determination is a "dangerous position that is now creating this tension in the region", the President of the Republic underlined, during a dinner he offered on the honour of the UN’s emissary. He said his country is "concerned about the Moroccan intransigence" and asked for a "firm international sanctioning measures".

Mr. Abdelaziz also regretted that Polisario front’s humanitarian initiative in releasing the last Moroccan prisoners of war did not have a favourable echo from the Moroccan authorities, who kept "suppressing peaceful demonstrations, organises campaigns of abductions and arrests, and refuses to account for 151 Saharawi prisoners of war and 500 Saharawi civil ‘disappeareds’ still in Moroccan custody".

The President of the Republic noted that the question of the Saharawi refugees "is also critical. After 30 years of patience and repeated frustrations, in very hard conditions of refuge, parted from their families by a Moroccan military wall filled with all the means of death, Morocco is now hindering the UN’s supervised visits exchange programme".

On another hand, he stressed that Morocco violated again the cease-fire that was enforced since 1991 by "a cruel and inhumane" action and "is getting rid of illegal immigrants by pushing them out of the military wall towards the Saharawi liberated territories, in a desert landscape where they are an easy target to death and loss at any time".

Finally, he hoped full success to the new envoy hoping he can contribute to "the organisation of a free, just and impartial self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people, to establish justice, to serve law and international legality for the sake of peace in the region and in the entire world".

Mr. Walsum was received before by the Saharawi Prime Minister, Abdelkader Taleb Oumar, at the Wilaya of Smara. The latter underlined that the Saharawi people "continues to hope in the efforts of the UN aiming at surmounting the obstacles addressed in the face of the enforcement of the peace plan", expressing the availability of Polisario Front to cooperate fully for this end. (SPS)

010/090/000/TRD 14 2358 oct 05 SPS