SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Madrid, 15/11/2006 (SPS) Aminetou Haidar, the icon of the Saharawi people’s peaceful resistance in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, and human rights activist, is planning to return to the occupied city of El Aaiun, the capital of the territory, Today, indicated the Saharawi Representation in Spain and the Coordination of the Spanish Associations of Solidarity with the Saharawi people (CEAS-Sahara), reported by the Algerian Press Service, APS.

In this occasion, the CEAS-Sahara launched a plea to the international organisations; human rights activists and public opinion, to be vigilant so as the "fundamental rights to freedom of movement and expression" of Mrs. Haidar are not violated by the Moroccan authorities of occupation.

During her visit to Spain last May, when she received the Spanish Committee for the Assistance to Refugees’ (CEAR) award, "Juan Maria Bandres for the Defence of the Right to Exile and solidarity with Refugees", Mrs. Haidar declared she is expecting to get arrested and imprisoned anew by the Moroccan forces of occupation upon her return to the occupied El Aaiun.

"I am ready to all sacrifices for the sake of the freedom of my people", she affirmed.

39 years old and mother to two kids, Aminetou Haidar has spent about 4 years in Moroccan secret detention camps from 1987 to 1991, and was arrested a second time in June 2005. She also was victim to torture and harassment during her detention period and in her daily life because of her activities in favour of the defence of the human right in the Western Sahara.

She was released from her second arrest last June 2006 after having spent 7 months imprisonment in the notorious Black Jail (Carcel Negra) in the occupied territories for having participated to a peaceful demonstration in favour of the self-determination of the Saharawi people.

After her visit to Spain, Mrs. Haidar visited many other countries such as Sweden, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, USA, France and the Netherlands, to inform and raise awareness on the situation and on the gross human rights violations perpetrated by the Moroccan forces of occupation in the Western Sahara. (SPS)

020/090/700/TRD 151610 Nov 06 SPS

SPS
MOROCCO/POLITRICAL PRISONERS/HUNGER STRIKE

Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan custody announce a new unlimited hunger strike

Inzegan (South of Morocco), 15/09/2006 (SPS) Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons of Inzegan, Tiznit, Kenitra and Ait Melloul started a new unlimited hunger strike starting from Monday to protest against the Moroccan penitentiary authorities’ refusal to respect their "legitimate" claims and rights as political prisoners conforming to international conventions and accords.

This decision comes after the Moroccan penitentiary authorities in the 4 aforementioned prisons have refused to respect their accords with the Saharawi political prisoners, according to which the Moroccan authorities would respect the prisoners rights to medical care, decent food and the right to be visited by their families, indicated a press release signed by 13 Saharawi political prisoners, of which SPS received a copy.

The Saharawi political prisoners also demand to be imprisoned in prisons or cells apart from criminal prisoners in the Moroccan prisons of Inzegan, Tiznit and Kenitra or to be transferred to the local prison of Ait Melloul (south of Morocco), the same text adds.

They also asked for the opening of an "urgent investigation" on the ill-treatment and tortures inflicted by the Moroccan authorities against their comrades, Mr. Lasseiri Salek, Saleh Amidan, Benga Cheikh, El Ouali amidan, and a similar investigation on the assassination attempt against the Saharawi political prisoners, Lehmam Salama.

The Saharawi political prisoners finally called on all international human rights organisations, bodies and associations to put additional pressures on Morocco to compel it respect their legitimate rights and stop the repression the Moroccan forces are exercising against the Saharawi peaceful and defenceless civilians in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. (SPS)

020/090/110/TRD 151540 Nov 06 SPS

SPS
SADR/MEDIAS

Abdelaziz regrets the use of the Saharawi refugees’ alimentation situation as "a card to put pressures"

Algiers, 15/11/2006 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz, regretted on Tuesday that France and Morocco use of the critical alimentation situation in the Saharawi refugee camps "as a card to put pressures on the Saharawi people", the Algerian Press Service, APS, reported on Tuesday.

"Saharawis leave a serious alimentation situation", Mr. Abdelaziz affirmed in a statement to the Algerian radio, Channel 3, while France and Morocco want to "use this situation as a card to put pressures on the Saharawi people to impose the colonial de facto situation on them".

Quoting the last statements of the Moroccan King, Mohamed VI, in which he linked the instauration of a Saharawi State with the spreading of terrorism and illegal trade, the Saharawi Head of the State warned against the Moroccan refusal to grant independence to the Saharawi people on the pretext that an independent Saharawi State will be a "quagmire where all these phenomenon will develop".

In this respect, the President of the Republic affirmed that the "instauration" of the Saharawi Republic on the entire territory of the Western Sahara will in the contrary help in the prevention against terrorism.

He invited the Moroccan Government to "cooperate" with the Saharawi State to fight against this phenomenon.

"The implementation of the international legality regarding the decolonisation and the respect of the human Rights has never been the source of the expansion terrorism", he underlined. He further stressed that in the opposite, it is "the colonial fait accompli Morocco is exercising in the Western Sahara that may generate terrorism ad extremism ".

Answering a question about the last UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ report (UNHCHR) on the Western Sahara, Mr. Abdelaziz qualified this document as "a very important element", which is, he adds, "a gain to the Saharawi people".

He underlined, however, that "unfortunately, the UN did not do the necessary to try to work on the basis of the recommendations of this report".

"We invite the UN to work on the basis of this report (...) and to create the necessary mechanisms to organise the self-determination referendum, which is the first fundamental right to all human beings", not only to the Saharawis, he said.

Concerning the UN Security Council’s last resolution, the Head of the State indicated that the Saharawi people have "favourably received it because it helped in leaving the initial Settlement Plan (of 1991) and the Baker Plan on the table".

Nevertheless, Mr. Abdelaziz regretted that "this resolution did not clearly consider the UNHCHR report and did not condemn Morocco, under the pretext that it is only a technical resolution".

On another hand, the Head of the State reiterated Polisario Front’s will to maintain the dialogue so as "to implement the UN 1991 Settlement Plan, which was enriched by the Houston Accords of 1997, or the Baker Plan, adopted in the UN Security Council’s resolution 1495 of 31 July 2003".

IN this respect, Mr. Abdelaziz stressed "the deep deception" of the Saharawi people in the face of the "betrayal" by the UN and the international community with regard to the resolution of the Western Sahara question.

He recalled, in this context, the UN’s engagement in 1991 to organise "in 8 months" a self-determination referendum, but, he regretted, "15 years later, this referendum did not see light, worst there is even no more mentioning of it".

Mr. Abdelaziz finally indicated that the Saharawi people "broke with the wait-and-see attitude" since last May 2005, and "launched into an Intifada and permanent protests, which are continuing despite of the fierce appraisal by the Moroccan forces of occupation". (SPS)

020/090/700/TRD 151115 Nov 06 SPS

SPS
SADR/MOROCCO/UN/DENIAL

SADR rejects new Moroccan allegations and warns about a close Moroccan appraisal campaign against Saharawi population

Chahid El Hafed, 15/11/2006, (SPS)The Government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) denied on Wednesday, "in the most categorical and formal manner", any link between Polisario Front and a pretended affairs "of confiscation of weapons" in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, spread by the Moroccan newspaper "Alahdath Almaghribiya" in its Monday edition.

In a written statement the Saharawi Minister of Information, Mr. Sid Ahmed Batal, underlined that the "goal behind spreading such kind of information is to tarnish the reputation of and the distinguished image of the Saharawi peaceful and civilised resistance that started since last May the 21^st 2005 to demand Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and to claim for the respect of the human rights and fundamental rights of this people".

Here is the full text of the statement translated to English:

Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic

Ministry for Information

15/11/2006

Statement of the Minister of Information

On Thursday the 13th November 2006, the Moroccan newspaper, "Alahdath Almaghribiya", published information under the title "seizing of weapons and arrest o 3 persons in El Aaiun". The newspaper pretends in this information that this alleged persons introduced weapons and ammunition following orders of Polisario Front’s leaders to assassinate, what the newspaper called, "some security officials in the region".

The Government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic denies, in the most categorical and formal manner, any kind of relation of Polisario Front to this subject, if this supposed information is true after all.

It should be further underlined that the goal behind spreading such kind of information is to tarnish the reputation of and the distinguished image of the Saharawi peaceful and civilised resistance that started since last May the 21^st 2005 to demand Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and to claim for the respect of the human rights and fundamental rights of this people.

Considering that the spreading of this kind of information can only be a prelude and a preparation by the Moroccan colonial authorities to justify a new reprisal operation against the Saharawi citizens, which can reach assassination, the Government of the Saharawi Republic calls on the United Nations, through its mission on the ground, to adopt all necessary measures and be vigilant so as to ensure the protection of the Saharawi population in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, especially with the increase of the Moroccan barbarous repression against the Saharawi peaceful demonstrators." (SPS)

060/090/100/TRD 151921 Nov 06 SPS