SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

El Aaiun (occupied territories), 16/07/2005 (SPS) Saharawi human rights activist, Aminetou Haidar, imprisoned since a month nearly in the Carcel negra (Black Jail) of the Western Sahara’s occupied Capital, answered questions of the special envoy of Spanish newspaper, ABC, Luis De Véga, thanks to the
collaboration of Saharawi activists, he underlines.

Here is the translation, by arso, of this interview publicised in the 13 of July.

"LUIS DE VEGA. Special Envoy, ABC, 13.07.05 [Translation from the original to English by arso collaborator]

El Aaiun. Human rights activist, Aminatu Haidar, is waiting for judgment in the Black Jail of El Aaiun. Everybody in the Western Sahara is awaiting for that trial, which date is not yet fixed.

ABC- Can you tell us how and why are you in detention?
Aminatu Haidar - I was in the occupied El Aaiun last June the 17th, where, with other Saharawi human rights activists, we were preparing a demonstration of solidarity with the victims of the "intifada". Moroccan forces of security violently intervened, led, among others, by the torturers Ichi Abou El Hasan and Hamid Bahri. Many among us were seriously injuried. We were transferred to the Belmehdi hospital. It was in this room of emergencies that I was abducted, with the complicity of the staff of the hospital. At the same time another Saharawi human rights activist, Hmad Hammad, was brutally tortured.

ABC - What are the accusations, Moroccan authorities advance against you?
Aminatu Haidar - They exercised on me all sorts of inhuman ill-treatments and intensive interrogatories so as to know about all my activities, especially regarding the question of Western Sahara. They tried, in vain, to implicate me in pretended acts of violence and in what they call « insults against sacred symbols of the State and threat to the security of the Moroccan State". They invented all kinds of accusations and they tried to force me sign revelation.

ABC - What is your motivation as a Saharawi human rights activist?
Aminatu Haidar - I lived the experience of detention in 1987, in my own flesh and blood, for more than 3 years and a half, beside many other Saharawis, male and female. Many of whom died under torture. After I was released this experience motivated me to struggle for the rights of the victims of these violations so as to stop it, to reveal the identities of the authors of the violations, to arise awareness on the situation and encourage all the Saharawi society to join the struggle.

ABC - What are the conditions of detention in the Black Prison in El Aaiun?
Aminatu Haidar - It is considered as one of the worst prisons, because it does not offer the minimal conditions of life. I am now in an isolation cell, with no fresh air nor light, with deep injuries in my head that I did not had the right to treat. I am deprived of visits and do not have access to newspapers, magazines or telephone and other facilities. All this is only a part of a vicious campaign led by Moroccan regime and its official press agency, MAP, to isolate us from the outside world.

ABC - What should be the role of Spain, in your opinion?
Aminatu Haidar - The position of the Spanish Government on the question of the Sahara is still ambiguous and lacks courage. I consider that Spain has got a full historical responsibility towards Saharawi people, since it is still the administrating power of the territory. Consequently, it is time for Spain to pressure Morocco.

ABC - What do you expect from the Parliamentarian delegation's visit to Sahara, Morocco and Spain want to organise?
Aminatu Haidar - We expect a lot out of these kinds of activities, if it is transparent. After the denial of entry to the territory to many groups and personalities, I think that the visit must have as a goal to realise its real objective, which is the role of a committee for investigation on the repeated violations and physical torture Saharawis undergo.

ABC - What do you expect from the UN?
Aminatu Haidar - Saharawis do not ask the UN anything but to implement its resolutions, which recommend the right to self-determination.

ABC - Why choosing this moment to start this "intifada"?
Aminatu Haidar - That was the decision of the Saharawi population that revolted because of this situation of "no war no peace", which is a favourable situation to the regime of the occupation while the Saharawi people is suffering”. (SPS)

010/090/666 160941 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
SPAIN/MOROCCO
Spanish left claims for an embargo on weapons to Morocco

Madrid, 16/07/2005 (SPS) The Unified Left (Izquierda Unida in Spanish) said i twill start a campaign to impose an embargo on arms Spain and European Union sell to Morocco because the latter "is a country in conflict that does not respect international legality", affirmed the Party’s General Coordinator, Gaspar Llamazares, quoted by Spanish press agency, Europa Press.

During a press conference concluding his meeting, Friday in the seat of his party, with the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, M. Llamazares added that his party will not accept that Morocco "represents or administrates interests that do not belong to him", and which are only under the competence of the Saharawi people, referring to negotiation between European Union and Rabat on fishing.

Mr. Llamazares described the meeting with the Head of the Saharawi State as "enlightening and importance" that would favour an impulsion to the mobilisation of the Spanish Government so as "to not abandon Saharawi people and so as it return to its commitment vis-à-vis of the international legality, Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and the implementation of human rights".

The Spanish political figure also blamed Zapatero’s Government for its position regarding Western Sahara, estimating that it should pay more efforts in the support of the "Baker Plan for the self-determination of the Saharawi people" (…) "to be in harmony with the international Law".

He underlined that his party would continue trying to "enter in the territories of Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation", through the travelling of social organisations, politicians and cultural figures so as to "denounce the situation lived by the Saharawi people in these zones". (SPS)

010/090/666/ALG/TRD 161215 Jul 05 SPS