SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

27 of February School(refugees' camps), 21/05/2004 (SPS) - The General Union of the Workers of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Oro (UGTSARIO), which works will end Friday, re-elected former Secretary General , Mohamed CHeikh Mohamed Lebib, to the same post in front of three other candidates, Labada Keziza, Hama Dedi and El Koria Ahmed Labeid, who challenged for the post, and also elected 6 members to the executive bureau, SPS has noted.

"The works of this congress run in an atmosphere of frankness and there was a focuss on the necessity of defending workers' rights in occupied territories", declared the chairman of the congress, Abba El Haicen, to SPS.

"The participants to the congress were unanimous to proove their willingness to pay more efforts and to deepen the struggle for our legitimate rights to self-determination and independence, calling the international community to intervene in order to stop the pillage of the Saharawi resources and to put an end to the systematic repression of our population in occupied zones", he added.

The meetings of Saharawi workers in this 5th edition were attended by many guests from European and African trade unions who focussed on the legitimacy of the Saharawi struggle for independence and affirmed their support to the cause.

The congress recieved many messages of support from the Union of Algerian Workers, German Union of Workers of Production, Canadian Work Congress, Italian General Confediration of Labour, and Belgian Chrestian Trade Unions Confediration.( SPS)

010/090/000/TRD 211056 May 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/WORKERS/CONGRESS
The trade unions present in UGTSARIO's congress denounces the obstacles erected by Morocco in front of the referendum in Western Sahara

27 of February School, 21/05/2004 (SPS) European and African trade unions that took part to UGTSARIO's 5th congress denounced the obstacles erected by Morocco in front of the enforcement of UN's resolutions relating to the organisation of a referendum in Western Sahara, considering Rabat's attempts to escape international legality "a contempt to the international community"

In a common statement signed by many participating European and African trade unions to the works of the congress, held from the 19 to the 21st May in 27 of February School, the forgoing mentioned unions strongly denounced "the obstacles and tergiversations erected by the Moroccan Government in front of the implementation of the accords it cocluded with Polisario Front under the auspices of the UN".

Moreover, they vigorously condemned "the serious humans rights violations and exactions commited against Saharawi civil population in occupied territories, in general, particularly against the workers, including forced disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture and inhuman and degrading treatments, as well as the lack of freedom of expression and circulation perpetrated particularly against human rights activists".

"We reaffirm our firm engagement with the Saharawi people and his fair cause and our support to its legitimate aspirations to free and democratic expression over its future, and we stress on the importance of peaceful resolution of the conflict in Western Sahara for the whole area of the Maghreb", added the communiqué.

The signatories exhorted the International Labour Organization (ILO) to "send a mission of investigation on the working conditions in occupied territories of the SADR".

They also called the kingdom of Morocco "to conform to the provisions of the International Conventions regarding to human rights, especially by revealing the truth over the fate of more than 500 Saharawi disappeared, and by immediately releasing all the political prisoners whom it still holds, without any conditions".

The communiqué also called UN "to be actively compromised besides the people of the Sahrawi Republic in its fight for self-determination, in accordance with the provisions of the UN's Charter and the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, by supporting the efforts of the UN Secretary general and his Personel Envoy for the application of the plan for the autodetemination of the people of the Western Sahara contained in the Security Council's resolution 1495 ".

They asked the African Union, observant party to the Settlemnt Plan, "to work to lead UN to more commitement to put an end to the Moroccan occupation of the territory of the Sahrawi Republic".

Concerning the European Union and European Governments and bodies, "to engage in the application of the United Nations' resolutions and the European Union in favour of the free determination of Saharawi people and to push the Government of Morocco to respect human rights of Saharawi civil populations in the territories it occupies and to allow the free access to the last to international press and to independent observers, as well as to guarantee Saharawi workers their syndical freedoms".

The text exhorted the Spanish Government "to fully assume its historical and legal responsibility with regard to Saharawi people , by proceeding to the recognition of the Sahrawi Republic as a clear response to the obstacles deliberatly erected by the kingdom of Morocco in front of the good course of the peace process in Western Sahara". (SPS)

010/090/000/TRD 211608 May 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/WORKERS/CONGRESS
UGTSARIO's 5th congress calls to the dismentling of the wall of shame

27 of February School, 21/05/2004 (SPS) The 5th congress of the UGTSARIO invited the international community to vigorously act to dismentle the Moroccan military wall, erected to protect colonialism and its interests in Western Sahara, and which devided Saharawi national territory and separated its people for more than two decades.

"We launch an urgent call to all the peoples who believe in peace and justice to show solidarity with Saharawi people in order to dismentle the wall of shame which tears sahrawi families (...) and which prevents the development of Western Sahara and all the area", underlined the final official communiqué that concluded the works of the congress on Friday.

Moreover, the congress invited trade unions all over the world "to denounce the repressive practices of Moroccan occupying forces", and called the citizens in occupied zones "to redouble efforts and to deepen the struggle for freedom and independence".

The congress particularly greeted "the position of principle of Algeria", which is expressed through "the support to the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence", as well as the movement of international solidarity with the cause throughout the world.

In addition, the congress, to which Saharawi workers from occupied territories indirectly participated through telephone interventions, adopted an action plan for the three next years, statutes, motions and elected the political direction of the Saharawi trade-union organisation. (SPS)

010/090/000/TRD 211529 May 04 SPS