SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 19/10/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, warned the UN’s Secretary General and the UN’s Security Council about the dangers of a possible Moroccan "military escalade", which threatens of "starting a general war in the region", calling the UN to intervene so as not to jeopardize peace in the region.

"We would like to address your Excellency, the Security Council and the United Nations, in order to draw your attention to what we see as the possibility that the Moroccan Government is preparing to engage in a dangerous adventure consisting in attacking militarily the Saharawi liberated territories", Mr. Abdelaziz underlined in a letter he sent to the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, which was handed over to the UN’s official Tuesday in the Manhattan Palace, according to official sources.

"We would like to call on you, Excellency, to intervene urgently " (…)to ensure that the Moroccan Government stop pushing towards tension, violence and war in the region, and disregarding UN resolutions especially those related to the decolonisation of Western Sahara", he said in this letter of which SPS received a copy.

In our letter addressed to your Excellency on 11 October 2005, we drew your attention to the fact that the “Moroccan Government was about to carry out a new outrageous act, incompatible with human dignity, that consists in driving ‘clandestine immigrants’ to perish in the middle of the desert as it had done of late, or forcing them out the Moroccan defensive wall that divides Saharawi territories.

We also called for an urgent action to be done so that “we all may ensure that the Saharawi territories are not converted once again into a terrain for committing crimes against humanity as those perpetrated by the Moroccan Government in the past as well as in the present against Saharawi citizens, and the ones it is about to commit against clandestine immigrants, especially those pertaining to our dear Africa.”

Indeed, what we warned against did occur and in the most outrageous and hideous manner. Since Wednesday, 12 October 2005, we have begun picking up clandestine immigrants who were found astray in the Saharawi liberated territories, all in bad shape, exhausted, starving and thirsty after they had been forced by the Moroccan authorities outside the military wall to face the danger of imminent death.

In the face of this tragic situation, I would like to address to you, Excellency, this letter to draw your attention to the Moroccan official statements that were circulated by the media on 16 October 2005. These serious statements aim to contradict the irrefutable facts about the operations conducted to save human lives that were left by the Moroccan Government to face death in the middle of the desert, as you may be witness to this.

Particularly serious are the implications of the statements of senior Moroccan officials, especially those made by the Prime Minister, Mr. Idriss Jetu. In addition to the fact that they were fraught with disinformation and falsification as well as denial of established facts, the statements were clearly betraying a threatening tone hinting to serious escalation.

In the face of these statements, we would like to address your Excellency, the Security Council and the United Nations, in order to draw your attention to what we see as the possibility that the Moroccan Government is preparing to engage in a dangerous adventure consisting in attacking militarily the Saharawi liberated territories. Besides that it would be a blatant violation of the cease-fire between the two parties to the conflict, Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, which is being supervised and guaranteed by the presence in the filed by MINURSO, this act will be an attempt to rectify a mistake by committing a more serious blunder that may have incalculable consequences on peace and stability in the region as well as on the credibility of the United Nations.

These statements, which imply the threat of waging a global war in the region, come at a time when everybody was expecting from the Moroccan Government to abide by international legality and cooperate with your Personal Envoy, Mr. Peter Van Walsum, who is now on a visit to the region, with a view to expediting the self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people as provided for in the UN peace plan.

They also come at a time when the entire world was expecting that the Moroccan Government would deal with the issues related to the clandestine immigration in line with the full respect for human dignity and rights.

We would like to call on you, Excellency, to intervene urgently to put an end to these practices carried out by Morocco against the clandestine immigrants, and to ensure that the Moroccan Government stop pushing towards tension, violence and war in the region, and disregarding UN resolutions especially those related to the decolonisation of Western Sahara.

SPS
SADR/SPAIN/VISIT

The President of the Republic starts a visit to Spain on Thursday

Madrid, 19/10/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, M. Mohamed Abdelaziz, will start a visit to Spain, on Thursday, to the Spanish regions of Islas Baleares and Basque Country, indicated a source close to the Saharawi Representation to Spain.

The Head of the State will have meetings with the Presidents of the governments of the two Spanish autonomous regions, Jaumé Matas and Juan José Ibarretxe, Representatives of Parliaments, political parties and movements of solidarity with the Saharawi people, as well as with the Saharawi communities in the two regions, it was indicated.

The aim of the visit, the same source adds, is to consolidate the historical, cultural ties and relations of friendship between the Saharawi people and the Spanish peoples, and to translate the sympathy and support Saharawi cause enjoys, within the Spanish societies, to a firmer position of Spain from Morocco aimed at compelling it respect the international legality by collaborating with the UN for the organisation of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara. (SPS)

060/090/700 192320 Oct 05 SPS

haut de page

SPS
MAURITANIA/MOROCCO/IMMIGRATION

37 African immigrants abandoned by Morocco in the desert, rescued and gathered in the north of Mauritania

Chahid El Hafed, 19/10/2005 (SPS) Mauritanian authorities saved 37 African immigrants, abandoned by Morocco to their fate in the desert near the Western Sahara-Mauritanian borders, from death and installed them in quickly built camps in Zouerate (the north of Mauritania), indicated French Press Service, AFP, quoting a Mauritanian security source.

AFP affirmed that according to the "stories of the immigrants, who were picked up by representatives of NGO’s, these 37 immigrants wondered in the desert after having been transported in trucks and deposed by their "Moroccan transporters" in the nowhere of the Sahara in a "lost area" near the borders of Mauritania" after they were forced to cross the Moroccan military wall that divides Western Sahara and its people in two since its construction in the 80ies, undergoing thus the risk of walking on mine fields or die from hunger and thirst.

The immigrants, AFP adds quoting the same sources, "left, only a week ago, the Moroccan city of Oujda in busses, passing by Ouarzazate and Smara, before been transferred in trucks and abandoned to their fate near the wall, with little food".

Polisario Front announced having found 2 African immigrants in the region of Mahbes (East Western Sahara) while Minurso found 20 others coming from Smara (300 Km to the east of El Aaiun), "all of them were expulsed by Morocco within the framework of a campaign of deportation Rabat undertook in the beginning of the week", according to a spokesperson of the Saharawi Army.

The two groups, from different nationalities, been far from one another of about 200 Km, the later (20 persons) are currently in the region of M’Hairiz (150 Km south-east Smara) under the protection of unities of Saharawi army and Minurso, while the 2 others joined their companions of this ordeal in Bir Lehlu few hours after they recuperated, in quickly built tents, from their long journey in the desert, the same source indicated underlining that they had had all the needed assistance.

These two groups added to another 92 rescued, were expulsed by Morocco and abandoned in the middle of the desert, and are now gathered in a single group in Bir Lehlu (East Western Sahara) and were visited Sunday by groups of international journalists.

These persons from different African nationalities affirm they were forced to march in middle of the desert under the threat of weapons by the Moroccan military forces in different points of the Moroccan military wall

In a letter he addressed to the UN’s Secretary General, the Head of the State deplored the fact that "since Wednesday, 12 October 2005, we have begun picking up clandestine immigrants who were found astray in the Saharawi liberated territories, all in bad shape, exhausted, starving and thirsty after they had been forced by the Moroccan authorities outside the military wall to face the danger of imminent death".

He recalled the UN’s official that he had already drew his "attention to the fact that the “Moroccan Government was about to carry out a new outrageous act, incompatible with human dignity, that consists in driving ‘clandestine immigrants’ to perish in the middle of the desert as it had done of late, or forcing them out the Moroccan defensive wall that divides Saharawi territories". (SPS)

060/090/000 192337 Oct 05 SPS

haut de page