SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

El Aaiun (occupied territories), 18/06/2005 (SPS) agents of the Group of Urban Security (GUS), mistreated a fifth Saharawi human rights activist, Mr. Mouthiq El Houssein, in El Aaiun, this night of Friday to Saturday, after having brutally beaten Mrs. Aminatu Haidar, Mrs. Fatma Ayach, Mr. Lidri El Houssein and Mr. Hmad Hammad earlier in the afternoon, reported our correspondent on the ground.

"Mr. El Hussein Mouthiq, member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) was beaten by agents of the GUS, while he was trying to enter the hospital ‘Ben El Mehdi’ to investigate on the situation of three Saharawi activists beaten in the afternoon during a peaceful demonstration in the Smara Street", indicated the same source.

On another hand, "Mr. Hmad Hammad, was in his turn savagely beaten by the Moroccan forces of occupation and was transported to his house by volunteers between life and death. He was trying to visit his colleagues in hospital. He is in a critical situation and loses consciousness from time to time. His family was unable to take him to hospital", he regretted.

Mrs. Aminatu, ex-political prisoner and Saharawi human rights activist is still disappeared after having been arrested from the hospital ‘Ben El Mehdi’ by Moroccan authorities. "Contacted by her family the criminal police denied her existence in their station", the same source said.

"The houses of the activists are all under close surveillance. Each house has got the right to a GUS car full of agents. A new act of intimidation or an introduction to new arrests to happen this night? We are not impressed by this or that", declared to SPS a Saharawi human rights activist. (SPS)

060/090/000 180227 June 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/PRESS/RWB
RWB denounces the news black out imposed by Morocco on Western Sahara

Paris, 18/06/2005 (SPS) Reporters without Borders (RSF) denounces the bad conditions of work journalists face in Western Sahara, calling Moroccan colonial authorities "to put an end to harassment of local and foreign media in Western Sahara and allow them to work normally".

"At least ten journalists have been attacked, arrested or even expelled from the city of El Aaiun, 1,263 kilometres south of Rabat, since the beginning of April 2005", indicated the organisation, underlining that it is crucial that Moroccan authorities "set out a clear framework for journalists covering Western Sahara, avoiding indirect control methods such as having to inform the interior ministry prior to their arrival in El Aaiun".

To RWB "the security argument is not enough to ban access to the city to reporters. This is a decision for the journalists and their editorial offices. Even in Iraq, the government does not ban journalists from the country or travelling to a particular region".

The organisation reported at least ten cases of journalists who were arrested, threatened or expelled from the Saharawi occupied capital, calling Rabat to allow Medias to do their job in good conditions. (SPS)

010/090/666/TRD 171113 June 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/SWITZERLAND/SOLIDARITY
More than 25 Swiss Parliamentarians asked for the constitution of an international Committee for investigation in Western Sahara

Geneva, 18/06/2005 (SPS) More than 25 Swiss Parliamentarians, among who the President of Parliament, Thérèse Meyer, claimed for the constitution of an "international Committee in charge for establishing the truth on the repression that strikes the Saharawi occupied territories", reported a press release signed by these Parliament Members, of which SPS received a copy.

Worried about "the seriousness of the situation in the territory of Western Sahara", the Swiss Parliament’s members called for the "the nomination of a Special Reporter on the human right situation", "opening of the Saharawi territory to international Medias" and the "implementation of the UN’s Security Council’s resolution 1495, according to which a plan for the self-determination of the Saharawi people must be enforced".

Recalling that "Moroccan authorities’ repression" was "particularly violent" since "non violent demonstrations against the Moroccan occupation and in favour of a referendum on self-determination" started last May the 21, 2005. The Parliament’s Members condemned "this wave of police violence, arrests and disappearances of Saharawi activists as well as destruction of houses".

They also regretted "the atmosphere of intimidation and harassment in which Saharawis under Moroccan occupation are living, the human rights violations as well as Moroccan Government refusal to organise a referendum for the self-determination as demanded by the UN ", underlined the text. (SPS)

010/090/666/TRD 181134 June 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/INTIFADA/UN
The President of the Republic: UN’s silence in front of human rights violations in Western Sahara is incomprehensible

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 18/06/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, expressed Saturday his unsatisfaction about the silence of the "United Nations and UN’s Security Council in the face" of the systematic human rights violations perpetrated by Moroccan colonial authorities against Saharawi citizens and Saharawi human rights activists since last May the 21st.

In then face of the systematic violations of Saharawi population rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, the Head of the State sent a letter to the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, criticising the passivity of the international organisation in the face of "this precarious situation that prevails in occupied zones", taking into consideration that "the Saharawi question is a responsibility of the UN, as far as UN’s General Assembly’s and Security Council’s resolution are concerned", underlined the text.

The Head of the State called on Annan and UN’s Security Council "to intervene in emergency so as to protect Saharawi population against the oppression of the Moroccan repressive machine and to guarantee them their fundamental rights". He underlined the need to oeuvre for the "immediate release of all political prisoners and to account for the reported missing".

On another hand, Mr. Abdelaziz called to the "breaking of the siege imposed on the occupied territory of Western Sahara through the exercise of pressures on the Moroccan Government to put an end to its intense and heavy military presence in the Saharawi streets and neighbourhoods".

He also exhorted Mr. Annan to guarantee "the international observers and press free access to the territory", considering that "the immediate enforcement of UN’s resolutions for the decolonisation of Western Sahara" remains the only alternative that will resolve this degrading situation.

The President of the Republic also denounced the Moroccan repressive strategy of targeting Saharawi human rights activists in their physical integrity. He named more than 32 activists and political prisoners who underwent tortures, arrests, imprisonment and ill-treatment.

Morocco seems to be disturbed by these eye witnesses who do not stop unveiling his crimes against Saharawi people. By targeting them physically, Moroccan authorities, want "to hide the truth and hide all the operations and violations" they are preparing in secret against the helpless Saharawi population in El Aaiun and in other occupied Saharawi cities.

In this respect, the President of the Republic unveiled information that affirms that "Moroccan authorities purchased thousands of Saharawi traditional clothes, for men and women, to distribute them on their administration and military agents so as to organise pro-Moroccan demonstrations" to counter any Saharawi demonstrations in the future.

"We call on the international community, through yourself, to assume its responsibilities and to immediately oeuvre to avoid the serious dangers of instability and insecurity Moroccan intransigence may cause", he underlined, warning against "possible massacres" that may be committed against Saharawi population in occupied territories of Western Sahara, especially against human rights activists. (SPS)

060/090/100 182228 June 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/REPRESSION
Arrest and torture of many Saharawi human rights in El Aaiun

El Aaiun (occupied territories), 18/06/2005 (SPS) Moroccan authorities continued Saturday their raids of arrests and tortures against Saharawi human rights activists in El Aaiun, after having beaten 5 activists on Friday, reported SPS’s correspondent on the ground.

"Colonial forces arrested Saharawi activist Mr. Abderrahman Bougarfa, 53 years and in charge of a family composed of 10 members, while Saharawi citizen, Mrs. El Ghalia Sbaai, was submitted to torture, besides Mr. Nah Tarek, who was beaten" by agents of the Group of Urban Security (GIS) during their participation to a demonstration organised yesterday by Saharawi activists in front of the hospital Ben El Mehdi.

Two members of the Committee for the Protection of the prisoners of the Carcel Negra, Moussamih Baba and Karroum Hamdi were arrested Saturday afternoon, while the President of the same Committee, Bazeid Salek, as well as the activists: Hmad Hammad and Sbaai Ahmed, were victims to an attempt of illegal arrest.

On another hand, the seat of the Saharawi Association of the Victims of the serious human rights violations committed by the Moroccan (ASVDH) was attacked by Moroccan agents. They confiscated the archive of the association, the same source reported. (SPS)

060/090/000 182320 June 05 SPS