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SPS Mr. Giraud talks about "problems" during the mission of the UN human rights delegation in the Western Sahara 21.05.05
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Chahid El Hafed, 21/05/2006 (SPS) The mission of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCDH) to the occupied territories of the Western Sahara was ''very short'' and faced ''some problems'', declared, on Sunday, the President of the delegation, Christophe Giraud, to the press after his first meetings with the officials of Polisario Front and of the Saharawi Republic, in the Saharawi refugee camps.
"The mission was very short. Three days is very short a period'', Mr. Giraud declared, adding that ''the people who wanted to meet with us had had sometimes difficulties that we had had to resolve" (...) "but, at least, that had enabled us to shape an image about the human rights situation in the Western Sahara''.
Asked if they had visited the Moroccan hospital of specialities in the occupied El Aaiun to meet two Saharawi wounded persons, reported in very serious health state because of the Moroccan repression, Mr. Girod affirmed that "effectively we met such persons".
Asked if he was able to witness demonstrations that took place during his sojourn in El Aaiun, the occupied capital of the Western Sahara, Mr. Giraud said that his colleagues and himself were not ''on the ground'', that is to say that they were not present to witness on the demonstrations.
The UNHCHR delegation, which was in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara from the 17 to the 19 May arrived on Saturday night to the Saharawi refugee camps.
On Sunday morning the delegation had had a meeting with the Saharawi Coordinator with the Minurso, Mohamed Khadad, the Saharawi Minister of Interior, Mohamed Lamine Deddi and the Minister of justice, Hamada Salma. (SPS)
010/090/000/TRD 211236 May 06 SPS
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SPS Three arrestees and dozens wounded during demonstrations in the occupied city of Boujdour
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Boujdour (occupied territories), 21/05/2006 (SPS) The Moroccan forces of repression arrested, on Friday, 3 Saharawi citizens and wounded 10 others during demonstrations that took place in the occupied city of Boujdour, on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the Saharawi people’s start of armed struggle for freedom and independence.
Demonstrators raised the Saharawi National flags and chanted slogans advocating "the immediate withdrawal of the Moroccan occupation" from the Western Sahara, as well as "the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination ".
The Moroccan forces of occupation, which redoubled their military deployment in this occupied city of the Western Sahara, "atrociously" intervened against the Saharawi civilians who were demonstrating peacefully for their rights recognised by the international law to self-determination and independence.
The three arrested citizens are: Mohamed Andour, Tarfaoui Fatah and Hassan Elmoussaoui, while the 10 wounded are: Mariam Boubite, Elaaza Boubite, Elmahjoubi Mabrouka ment Ali oueld Hammad, Ammaha Elmoussaoui, Mohamed Soudani, Khaya Khaya, Leila Laaroussi, Souad Laaroussi, Toumanna Elfater and Benta Elfanich, sources reported in a preliminary list.
Two of the wounded victims, it was reported, are in a very serious state mainly Elmahjoubi Mabrouka ment Ali oualed Hammad and Ammaha Elmoussaoui.
IN the occupied city of El Aaiun, 3 Saharawi citizens: a youth and his mother, as well as 7 years old boy were arrested by the Moroccan forces of repression.
The mentioned arrestees are: Najem Bebeit, who was violently aggressed and arrested for having "raised" the National Saharawi flag in the 'Chrif Radi' Street in company of his mother and of Marzoug Brahim (7 years old), arrested for having raised the Saharawi national flags in the 'Linaache' neighbourhood in El Aaiun, while Mrs. Hayat Bebeit, was seriously wounded while trying to protect her brother Najem from the Moroccan police. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 211115 May 06 SPS
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SPS Mr. Khadad: the denial of justice prolongs Saharawi people’s sufferings
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Chahid El Hafed, 21/05/2006 (SPS) Mr. Mhamed Khadad, Member of the Polisario Front’s National Secretariat, Coordinator with the Minurso, affirmed to the delegation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is visiting the Saharawi Republic, that "the denial of law and justice" are the main causes of the prolongation of the Saharawi people’s sufferings from both sides of the Moroccan military wall that is cutting the Western Sahara in two.
In a statement to SPS, Mr. Khadad did not hide his deception to se the aggressor and the aggressed treated "equally while they are clearly defined", referring to Morocco, which invaded and occupied the Western Sahara by force, and the Saharawi people the victim to this Moroccan aggression.
He wished that the UN mission, the first since 30 years, will participate "to break the medias and security blockage imposed on the territory" and to the creation of "mechanisms by the UN for the protection of the Saharawi civilians in the occupied territories" repressed by the Moroccan authorities during the peaceful demonstrations that took place last year, which resulted in the death of two Saharawis, hundreds wounded and many detainees.
Mr. Khadad also expressed the readiness of Polisario Front and the Saharawi Government to "fully cooperate" with the UN delegation, which "will visit, as it wishes, all the Saharawi refugee camps, institutions, and will have meetings with all the components of the Saharawi civil society" during its sojourn that will end this Tuesday.
Arrived on Saturday evening to the Saharawi refugee amps within the framework of a week visit to the region, following recommendations of the UN Secretary General, the delegation which is chaired by the Swiss, Christophe Giraud, had started last Tuesday its visit to the Western Sahara to investigate on the human rights situation in the territories under Moroccan occupation, which is the theatre, since May the 21st 2005, to Saharawi peaceful demonstrations advocating the holding of a self-determination referendum.
Saharawi NGOs in the occupied territories had expressed their "deception" to see that the delegation "remained confined in its hotel in El Aaiun, while the Moroccan authorities were repressing peaceful demonstrations few meters from the delegation’s residence". (SPS)
010/090/000/TRD 211157 May 06 SPS
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SPS Polisario Front’s representative in Paris denounces "France support to the Moroccan regime"
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Paris, 21/05/ 2006 (SPS) Polisario Front’s representative in Paris, Sadafa Bahia, denounced "the French successive Governments support to the Moroccan regime", insisting on "the Saharawi people’s peaceful uprising in the Saharawi territories under Moroccan occupation", during a day of solidarity with the Saharawi people organised on Saturday in Paris to pay tribute to the "peaceful and courageous" resistance of the Saharawi people, who are aspiring to their legitimate rights to the independence of their country.
The Saharawi diplomat deplored that "for more than 30 years, Polisario Front does noy only faces Morocco, but also the successive French governments, the Country which is a member State of the UN Security Council", reported the Algerian Press Agency, APS, on Saturday.
He added that "our action in France is very handicapped precisely because of this position by the French Government, which only argument is the stability of Morocco", estimating that the "the best action in favour of this stability is the search of the stability of the international law".
The interventions of the representatives of the associations, which organised this action of solidarity, including the Association of the friends of the Saharawi Republic, the Algerian Committee of solidarity with the Saharawi people, testified on the "atrocious" repression exercised by the Moroccan regime on the Saharawis because of their "peaceful and courageous civil resistance".
The same message of support was also expressed by the representative of the Algerian Committee of support to the Saharawi people in Europe, Mr. Boughalem Nacer, who asserted that the Saharawi people "are ready to assume their responsibilities as an independent State".
The Mayor of Vitry sur Seine (PCF), Alain Audoubert stressed on the solidarity of his community with the Saharawi people, who are, he said "one of the last peoples in the world still under colonisation".
"We are aware of our responsibility her in France about the pressures we can exercise on the French Government, which has always supported Morocco", he underlined asking to continue "with other associations of friendship with the Saharawi people, to exercise a strong pressures on the French Government, which can not play a role for a just settlement to the conflict in the sense of the Saharawi people’s right to self-governance in an independent State".
Mrs. Michelle Decastere, representative f the French association of friendship and solidarity with the peoples of Africa (AFASPA), also hailed "the courage and determination" of the Saharawi people, who "do not accept and will never accept to live under the colonial yoke", she said.
The silence of the French Medias concerning the Saharawi question was denounced by Mrs. Aline Pailler, Co-President of the Committee for the respect of freedoms and human rights in the Western Sahara (CORESLO). She considered that the French Medias had censured the "repression against the Saharawi population, who demonstrate peacefully to advocate their right to self-determination and independence". (SPS)
020/090/700/TRD 211125 May 06 SPS
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