SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Chahid El Hafed, 1504/2004 (SPS) The first Forum on the socio-cultural animation for Saharawi children and youth started its works on Thursday in Chahid El Hafed, under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of the Saharawi Youth Union (UJSARIO), Mohamed Mouloud, and with the presence of specialised partners from Algeria, USA, Switzerland, Spain, France and Belgium.

The Forum, which will continue its works until the 16th April, is expected to allow these different partners to coordinate their actions in order to establish a socio-cultural methodology in harmony with Saharawi children and youth's background, indicated the organisers.

Under the title «imagine the future together», the UJSARIO presented to the participants a document on its vision of the goals of this initiative, which targets to organise the youth so as to protect them against the destructive experiences of exile and against an environment in continuous change.

The Forum is expected to draw a common strategy and specified projects where each of the partners can give its contribution to achieve the goals, it was indicated by the organisers. (SPS)

SPS
SADR/WOMEN/CONFERENCE
« The experience of the Saharawi Woman», a theme of an international conference in Geneva

Geneva, 15/04/2004 (SPS) The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) organised, on Wednesday, a conference at the Palace of the United Nations in Geneva, entitled « The experience of the Saharawi Woman », chaired by Mrs. Khrichna Ahooja, member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), as the moderator of the conference and with the presence of an important public.

This conference, which has lasted for more than two hours, was also attended by Mrs. Christiane Perregaux, Professor at the Uni Mail University in Geneva, and writer of many books on the Saharawi Women, Fatma Mehdi, Secretary General of the Saharawi Women National Union (UNFS) and Fatma Sidi, member of Afapredesa

Intervening during the conference, Mrs. Perregaux, recounted Saharawi Woman resistance in the camps of refugees all along the thirty years of struggle, putting forwards the important role she had witnessed in the other side of the military wall and «the poignant testimonies they gave about the daily oppression they undergo».

Moreover, Mrs. Perregaux stressed on «the wall of shame that separates Saharawi families and deepen their sufferings, a wall which should be absolutely dismantled», she said.

On her part, the Secretary General of the UNFS, Fatma Mehdi, had accentuated on the dominating role performed by the Saharawi women, especially on the social level: Teaching, health and education.

She drew an outline, backed by statistics, of the participation of the women in the different socio - economic sections of the State at all levels of responsibility.

She focused on «the importance, for the Saharawi Woman who paid all her energy to the service of the cause, to preserve her emancipation hardly obtained».

On the other hand, she drew a gloomy picture on the situation of the Saharawi women under Moroccan occupation, before been relieved by Mrs. Fatma Sidi who gave an exclusive testimony on her personal situation, that of a girl who did not have the chance of living, as for many others Saharawis, with her parents.

Her father is among hundreds of Saharawis whom fate remain unknown since the beginning of the occupation and the invasion of the territory, Western Sahara, by Morocco in 1975.

In front of a moved audience, Mrs. Fatma says to have «a vague memory of her father », whom she badly wants to see again. It is this hope that helps her, she said, to «deliver a double struggle: that of freedom and independence of her country and the struggle to draw the light on hundreds of Saharawi disappeared who are held in the Moroccan gloomy prisons ». (SPS)

SPS
MOROCCO/NORWAY/SADR
The Saharawi Government denounces the expulsion of a Norwegian journalist out of Western Sahara by Morocco

Bir Lehlu, 15/04/2004 (SPS) The Saharawi Government denounce, on Thursday, the expulsion, by the Moroccan authorities of occupation, of a Norwegian independent journalist out of Western Sahara, while he was investigating on human rights conditions in this territory, which is under Moroccan security siege and forbidden to foreigners since 1975.

«The obstacles erected in front of this journalist by Moroccan security services and his firm and unexplained expulsion obviously show Rabat's will to continue the systematic repression in Western Sahara far from prying ears», underlined a communiqué of the Ministry of information, publicised on Thursday.

The text denounces this « arbitrary » act, which prove that «the state of emergency and the media embargo are still imposed by the Moroccan colonialism on Western Sahara, despite of UN's presence on the ground».

The Norwegian independent journalist, Erik Hagen, was expulsed on April the 5th by the Moroccan colonial authorities, who drove him out by force to the neighbouring Mauritania, after having interrogated him for many hours in the police station, had reported Norwegian press agency (NTB).

«Mr. Hagen was in the Moroccan occupied territory to interview human rights activists and former political prisoners, among them Sidi Mohammed Daddach, who two years ago was awarded the Rafto Prize for his lifelong struggle for an independent Western Sahara», had stressed the same source. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 151655 Apr 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/MOROCCO/MAURITANIA
The Minister of Information denounces MAP's persistence in misinforming

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories) 15/04/2004 (SPS) The Minister of Information, Sid'Ahmed Batal, denounced, on Thursday, «the persistence of the Moroccan official press agency (MAP) in misinforming and in diffusing lies», considering that this act «contradictory to the deontology and the principles of the
profession, will not mislead the public opinion, now accustomed to the lies of this agency».

«The man called Mohamed Bakhili, involved, according to MAP, in an act of robbery of explosives from the company of exploitation of iron (SNIM) in Zouerate (Mauritania), is not a member of Polisario Front, on the contrary of what the Moroccan Government's agency is trying to assert».

The Saharawi denial comes as a consequence to the spreading, on Wednesday, of information diffused by the MAP which talked about the involvement of the mentioned man in a robbery of explosives in Mauritania

"These Moroccan allegations are typical of the straight line of wasted attempts of the government of Rabat aimed to distort the privileged image of Polisario Front, so far planetary, and an unveiled way of turning the attention of the public opinion away from the colonial and inhuman practices in Western Sahara and against our people under occupation", added the minister. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 151208 Apr 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/SPAIN
Hundreds of Spaniards spend the Easter with Saharawis in solidarity with their cause

Chahid El Hafed, 15/04/2004 (SPS) Hundreds of Spaniards, Italians and French, chose to spend their holidays of the Easter with Saharawi people in exile, to give evidence of their support and solidarity with this people, who are driven away of their country since 1975 by the power of Moroccan armoured forces.

In 13 charter flights coming of almost all Spanish regions, more than two thousands persons, including all sexes and tendencies, made the trip to spend a week in the refugees' camps to sign twinnings, visit the national institutions, take an idea about Saharawis' hard conditions of exile, visit the families of the Saharawi kids whom they received during the summer, bring material and symbolical aid and testify their brotherhood and compassion to Saharawis.

Locally elected personalities, NGOs, mass organisation, intellectuals, journalists and hundreds of citizens of the different regions of the Iberian Peninsula, had had the opportunity to take part to meetings and to artistic and cultural shows in the different wilayas, and had brought humanitarian aid of food, sanitary and schools' equipments.

Specialised medical teams, having made this trip of the holidays of the Easter, had also given consults and chirurgical operations to the benefit of tens of Saharawi patients in the refugees' camps, which needed such interventions.

A week full of emotion, solidarity, human encounters, cohabitation between the different cultures and religions, and also full of rejection and condemnation of the Moroccan colonisation of Western Sahara that have caused an unlimited tragedy for thousands of kids, women, old people in this land of exile, famous of its desert and inhospitable nature, according to the visitors themselves.

It should be mentioned that representations of Polisario Front can be found in the 17 autonomous Spanish regions, and that these regions receive more than 10.000 Saharawi children in vacations colonies each years. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 151015 Apr 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/BRAZIL/PARLIAMENT
Creation of a parliamentary group of solidarity with Saharawi people's right to independence in Brazil

Brasilia, 15/04/04 (SPS) Brazilian parliamentarians created, on Tuesday, a parliamentary group of solidarity with Saharawi cause, claiming for the right of Saharawi people to self-determination and independence, reported the French press agency, AFP, on Wednesday.

«About twenty Brazilian parliament's members have created a group favourable to Polisario Front ... at the same time that Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister, Mohamed Benaissa, was visiting the Parliament», to express their condemnation of the Moroccan illegal colonisation of Western Sahara, which continues
since 1975, it was indicated.

«We would like to promote debates and activities so as to allow Brazilians to understand that it is important for this people to get their independence back», underlined Mrs. Maria José Maninha, Parliamentarian, member of the Workers Party (government) and President of the Parliamentary Confederation of the Americas (COPA). (SPS)

060/090/720/TRD 152009 Apr 04 SPS