|
|
|
SPS 71 persons between wounded and arrested in the occupied city of El Aaiun 18.05.05
|
El Aaiun (occupied territories), 18/05/2006 (SPS) 71 Saharawi citizens between wounded and arrested, this is the preliminary result of the Moroccan oppression of demonstrations that took place, on Wednesday afternoon in the occupied city of El Aaiun, claiming for the "immediate" organisation of a self-determination referendum and asking the UN to the "protection" of the Saharawi citizens from the Moroccan fierce repression in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.
On Wednesday afternoon, in the "Hay Maatalla" neighbourhood, "Smara" Street and "Sidi Mohamed dedech" Avenue, the Saharawi citizens get into the streets of the El Aaiun, calling for the "urgent" holding of a self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people.
The Moroccan forces of occupation, composed especially of GUS, police, gendarmerie, auxiliary forces intervened, making excessive use of violence against the Saharawi helpless citizens, causing three wounded at least and arresting 18 others, while they ransacked 12 Saharawi houses in the occupied capital of the Western Sahara, destroying the goods of their owners.
Saharawi human rights activists: Bachir Lekfauni, Daha Rahmouni and Mohamed Fadel El Hairech, were arrested for more than an hour directly after they have met with the members of the delegation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
It should be further stressed that the Moroccan authorities proceeded, since last Tuesday, to the deployment of agents from the different corps of police and paramilitary corps disguised in Saharawi traditional clothes in all the streets of the city, raising the Moroccan flags so as to "give the impression, to the UN delegation, that it is a question of demonstrations in favour of Morocco".
Informed by the Saharawi human rights activities on these repressive activities, the members of the UN delegation did not want to get out of the Hotel to investigate n the ground, it was regretted.
Saharawi human rights activists considered this attitude as "incomprehensible", in a statement of protest they sent to the delegation, which is present in El Aaiun since Tuesday to investigate on the human rights violations in the Western Sahara following recommendation of the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. (SPS)
020/090/110 181925 mai 06 SPS
Accoring to a preliminary list here are the arrested citizens:
01- Lekhfauni Salek,
02- Lekhfauni Abdellahi, ex-political prisoner
03- Bouchraya Elhairech,
04- Mohamed Bahia Rachidi, ex-political prisoner,
05- Taki Elhairech,
06- Akhreiriz Mahjoub,
07- Abaali Sidahmed,
08- Salka Salami,
09- Numria Hasni,
10- Elhalim Mohamed,
11- Mohamed Sleiman,
12- Boufous Faraji,
13- Tahlil Mohamed, ex-political prisoner,
14- Alouat Sidi Mohamed, ex-political prisoner,
15- Aziz Boussaula,
16- Jamal Mohamed Fadel Lehbib,
17- Said Derbal
18- Houssein Oum Lekhout.
The wounded Saharawis:
01- Cheikh Boussaula Ahmed Salem,
02- Mohamed Boutabaa,
03- Said Salek,
04- Ali Amaidan,
05- Maalainin Mahjouub Boutabaa,
06- Cheikh Maouloud Ali Salem,
07- Loumad Said,
08- Moussaoui Baka,
09- Karima Brahim,
10- Lemlih,
11- Lekmal Mohamed Bahiya,
12- Enaija Mohamed Hamiya,
13- Faraha Babait,
14- Ali Salem Lefkir,
15- Beilouna Ali Salem Lefkir,
16- Abdeslam Eloud,
17- Mahmoud Mohamed,
18- Salem Elili,
19- Salek Brahim Tounsi,
20- Eleza Soulaiman Mohamed Andala,
21- Fatma Lefkir,
22- Dahmani Cherif,
23- Larousi Sidahmed,
24- Taubali Hafed, ex-political prisoner,
25- Bourial Hamza,
26- Elbalal Salka,
27- Jenhaoui Khadijetou,
28- Jenhaoui Embaraka,
29- Ahl Hay Mahmouda,
30- Salmani Naser,
31- Oum Lekhout Laroussi,
32- Yaya Abdeslam Sarrakh,
33- Abderrahmane Mehraoui,
34- Dajla Dleimi,
35- Oum Elmoumnin Mahjoub Boutabaa,
36- Hana Maalainine,
37- Ali Beiba Chaibata,
38- Fatimetou Mhemed,
39- Ayach Lamina,
40- Maria Bhay,
41- Taghla Elbalal,
42- Mohamed Lamin Sid Ezein,
43- Ayach Mohamed Salem Ennabt,
44- Mahfoud Dahou,
45- Elgargar Moina,
46- Elgargar Zahra,
47- Bachir Bouchalga,
48- Soukaina Dadi Maouloud,
49- Haidani Ali Salem, ex-political prisoner,
50- Mariam Mohamed Eddah,
51- Lekhlifi Laroussi Mahmoud Haiba Elhaji,
52- Aamar Mohamed Ali Salama,
53- Zahra Ali Eddah,
54- Lakhiar Boujemaa Taleb Mohamed.
RansackedSaharawi houses:
01- Family of Ahl El Feqrawi
02- " of Ahl Bara
03- " of Ahl Hamdi Sabed
04- " of Ahl Mohamed Mahmoud El KAinan, ex- political prisoner.
05- " of Ahl Boutanguiza
06- " of Ahl Sid Mhamed ElMehna
07- " of Ahl Swayah
08- " of Ahl Zeghman Brahim
09- " of Ahl El Mukhtar Ould El Aamria
10- " of Ahl Mohamed fado Ould Lehbib
11- " of Ahl Laaroussi Mohamed Mouloud Aamar
12- " of Ahl El Haj Mahmoud
|
SPS Two Saharawis seriously wounded in reanimation in a hospital in the occupied city of El Aaiun
|
El Aaiun (occupied territories), 18/05/2006 (SPS) Two Saharawi citizens, who are seriously wounded, are in the department of reanimation, under intense medical care, since Wednesday evening, in the hospital of specialities in the occupied capital of the Western Sahara, El Aaiun, indicated sources from his family.
Mr. Boutebaa Mohamed Bachir, 36 years, suffers from brain haemorrhage and one of his eyes was completely damaged, while Boutebaa Abdelfettah, has got his nose broken and suffers from fractures in his front and jaws.
The tzo men were brutalised during a demonstration that took place on Wednesday evening in El Aaiun, by the Moroccan colonial forces which interved, helped by the auxiliary forces, to disperse a peaceful Saharawi demonstration caliming the independence of the Western Sahara.
On another, 6 other wounded persons were added to the list of the list of 53 so far named Saharawi victims of the confrontation between the Saharawis and Moroccan police.
The new victims are: Khadijetou Tahri, Abdallah Tahri, Khalifa Rgueibi, Ghaia El Beilal, Niya Ehel Abdelhaye an Zeina Ehel Abdelhaye.
The legendary popular neighbourhood, "Hay Maatala", the fief of the peaceful Saharawi resistance, and literally sealed by the different corps of the police and auxiliary forces to stop a demonstration that was planed Today at 18.00 GMT.
The Saharawi citizens appointed a rendezvous in the streets to denounce the human rights violations and the abuses of the fundamental freedoms i the Western Sahara, on the occasion of the visit of a UN Human rights mission that is present in the territory since Tuesday and which did not move from its hotel since its arrival, Saharawi human rights deplored. (SPS)
010/090/110/TRD 181830 Mai 06 SPS
|
SPS MR. Abdelaziz urges Mr. Annan for an intervention to protect Saharawi civilians "fiercely" repressed in El Aaiun
|
Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 18/05/2006 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, urged the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to "urgently" intervene to "protect the Saharawi civilian citizens" in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, of whom more than 50 were wounded and 22 others arrested during peaceful demonstrations that took place Wednesday evening in the occupied Saharawi capital".
"Starting from what happened with the presence of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the MINURSO and starting from the danger of the perilous games of the Moroccan Government to incite the Moroccan settlers against the Saharawi citizens, in addition to the deployment of the Moroccan army in Saharawi clothing" ... "I am forced again to ask you to find the adequate mechanism, through the Minurso, to guarantee the protection of the Saharawi civilians", the Head of the State wrote in a letter he addressed to Mr. Annan.
To Mr. Abdelaziz, what happened on Wednesday evening "is not an isolated act, it is in fact part of daily repressive actions perpetrate by the Moroccan authorities against innocent Saharawi citizens since May the 21st 2005" in a Non-Self-Governing territory that is under the UN’s responsibility as a subject to a decolonisation process.
He also warned that the situation in the Western Sahara is "explosive" and the consequences are "unpredictable", estimating that the causes of this degradation can be found in "the Moroccan rejection to respect its international engagements" and its refusal to decolonise the territory through "a self-determination referendum" of the Saharawi people, knowing that the UN "has, by the way, promised to organise".
"Your intervention is requested in emergency t protect the Saharawis in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara in order to avoid the loss of human lives before the witnessing eyes of the international community", he concluded. (SPS)
010/090/100/TRD 181824 May 06 SPS
|
SPS "Fishelsewhere" coalition warns the European Commission of possible legal procedures
|
London, 18/05/2006 (SPS) "Fishelsewhere" coalition warned the European Commission that it could face a legal challenge in the European courts if the fishing agreement is endorsed without the exclusion of the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, in a press release it publicised on Wednesday, of which SPS received a copy.
The coalition also asked its supporters to write, before this Monday, to their own Fisheries Minister to ask for the amendment of the EU-Moroccan Fisheries Agreement to exclude Western Sahara.
European Parliament members voted, on May the 15th 2006, in favour of a Fisheries Agreement that will allow European ships to fish off the coast of illegally occupied Western Sahara, despite claims that this violates international law.
The Agreement, between the EU and Morocco, which has occupied Western Sahara for 30 years, will now go into effect after being ratified by the Council of Ministers. A European-wide coalition is mounting pressure on EU member states to make a last ditch effort to exclude Western Sahara from the Agreement on Monday
Amendments by Green and left-wing GUE groups achieved close to 200 votes, but were voted down, despite support from campaigners and members states like Sweden, Finland and Ireland, and rebellions from within the Socialist (PES) and Conservative (EPP) groups.
Nick Dearden, of British anti-poverty campaign group "War on Want", said earlier “The European Parliament have voted today to flout international law simply because it suits European commercial interests to do so. We have to look to members states to place the human rights of the Saharawi people above profits".
Carlos Wilson from Western Sahara Resources Watch, said: “For 30 years 165,000 refugees have lived in camps in the Algerian desert because the international community has failed to act. Today the EU has compounded this failure, by happily stealing the resources of those refugees from under their noses”.
In 1975, Morocco invaded the Western Sahara against the express wishes of the United Nations and International Court of Justice. Tens of thousands of Saharawi fled for their lives into the Algerian Desert, where 165,000 refugees still live today, in some of the harshest conditions on earth.
Although the United Nations promised a referendum in Western Sahara in 1991, the peace process has been stalled. Since last summer, Morocco has harshly repressed Saharawi demonstrations in the Occupied Territory, where tens of thousands of Saharawi still live in a police state it should be recalled. (SPS)
020/090/000/TRD 181922 Mai 06 SPS
|
SPS The European Parliament condemns the Moroccan policy of repression in the Western Sahara
|
Strasbourg, 18/05/2006 (SPS) The European Parliament (EP) expressed its reprobation and condemnation of the policy of repression led by Morocco against the Saharawi civil populations, demanding from Rabat to put and end to "the mass violations of human rights in the Western Sahara", indicated Mr. Mohamed Sidati, Minister Councillor at the Presidency, in a press release SPS received.
The EP adopted, Thursday in Strasbourg a motion in which it "denounces the continuity of human rights violations against the Saharawi population" an demand "the protection of the Saharawi population and the respect of their fundamental rights, especially the right to free expression, movement and demonstration" in the Western Sahara.
It also renewed its demand of "a just and lasting solution to the Western Sahara conflict, based on the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, conforming to the UN Security Council’s pertinent resolutions, speciality the resolution 1495".
This European position intervenes at a moment when a human right mission is in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, and that the Moroccan authorities of occupation redouble the repression to stop the Saharawi population from expressing their aspiration to freedom and independence, Mr. Sidati said.
On another hand, the European Parliament expressed its support of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination through the implementation of the Security Council’s pertinent resolution, especially the Baker plan, which was qualified by the Secretary General as the optimum solution.
This plan, in fact, plans for the organisation of a self-determination referendum as a way to reach a just and peaceful solution to the conflict of the Western Sahara, the press release added. (SPS)
020/090/000/TRD 181935 Mai 06 SPS
|
>> Latest news << |
SAHARA PRESS SERVICE