SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Geneva, 21/06/2005 (SPS) The Saharawi Arab Democratic republic (SADR) recently informed the international organisation "Geneva Call" (GC) of its willingness to adhere the convention on mine ban and to destroy stockpiles of anti-personnel mines, reported a press release recently issued by the organization.

"The President of the “Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic” and Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, informed Geneva Call that the authorities were willing to commit to a total mine ban and to destroy stockpiles of anti-personnel mines", declared the press release.

Invited by the authorities of SADR to visit the mine affected areas in the Western Sahara, a delegation chaired by the President of the organization, Mrs. Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey, accompanied by Mr. Pascal Bongard, Programme Officer, and Mr. Martin Damary, Managing Director, visited the Saharawi refugee camps so as to meet with " Saharawi political and military authorities, the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO), NGOs and mine survivors ", emphasized the text.

In his meeting with the President of GC last June the 8, the President of the Republic expressed the determination of his country to "destroy all mines in its possession", calling the organisation to pay more efforts in the territory so as to disinfect it from millions mines implanted by Moroccan occupation.

"Geneva Call hopes that Morocco, a non-signatory State to the Ottawa Convention, will also support" the activities of mine clearance that the organisation is planning to realise in liberated territories of Western Sahara but also in the territories under Moroccan occupation.

The "wall of separation", the organisation added, "built by the Moroccan army, which are fortified with millions of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines. Tens of thousands of people live in mine affected areas on both sides of the berms", what causes victims everyday.

It is thus "urgent and crucial that Morocco adhere to the Ottawa Convention", the international organisation concluded.

Finally the organisation congratulated itself about the success of its mission "which is the culmination of several months of efforts by Geneva Call and the Saharawi Campaign to Ban Landmines ". (SPS)

060/090/000 211601 June 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/FRANCE/MOROCO
Mr. Chirac defends the resolution of the Western Sahara question "within the framework of the UN"

Paris, 21/06/2005 (SPS) The French President, Jacques Chirac, defended the settlement of the conflict of Western Sahara, which opposes Morocco to Polisario Front, "within the framework of the UN", according to the spokesperson of the Elysée, Jérôme Bonnafont, quoted by the Algerian Press Agency, APS.

Mr. Chirac, who received Moroccan Prime Minister, Driss Jettou, affirmed during this meeting that the conflict of Western Sahara must be resolved "within the framework of the UN", emphasised the Spokesperson, adding that President Chirac "confirmed that France is attached to the settlement of this question within the framework of the UN".

The Un continues to ask the parties to the conflict, Polisario Front and Morocco to implement the Baker Plan, "Peace Plan for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara", which is still rejected by Rabat while Polisario Front accepted its implementation. (SPS)

010/090/700/TRD 211905 June 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/GERMANY
Many German political parties condemns colonial authorities repression in Western Sahara

Berlin, 21/06/2005 (SPS) Many German political parties condemned the fierce repression which is now a feature of Saharawis daily life in the occupied territories and called to a political solution to the conflict on the basis of Saharawi people right to self-determination, according to distinct statements by these parties publicised recently in Berlin.

In this respect, the Socio-Democrat Parliamentary group (SDP) in the Bundestag expressed "a great preoccupation" in the face of the "violent interventions of Moroccan forces of security against citizens in Western Sahara". It estimated that the MINURSO, "is forced to draw light on this events and to pay all efforts so as they do not occur again".

To the SDP the Baker plan constitutes "a suitable basis for a solution that can satisfy all the claims of Morocco".

On his side the person in charge for the External relations in the German Democrat and Social Party (PDS), Wolfgang Gehrcke, called Morocco to "go back to the table of negotiations, to give international observers free access to the territory and to open the way for a new perspective for referendum that would decide on the future of Western Sahara". He estimated that "international law and the self-determination of peoples are inseparable".

He asked Morocco to "release all the demonstrators who were detained during the last weeks and who demanded the end of the policy of the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara".

The Parliamentary group of the German Christian Democrat (GCD) considers that the situation in Western Sahara "worsens this last period" and that "it is probable that the situation got more serious in the future. There is even a possibility of the starting of a real Intifada. Desperate persons can even adopt armed struggle". It considered that the solution of the conflict in Western Sahara "can no more bare more delays".

Finally, Mr. Ulrich Heinrich, Spokesperson for the African questions of the Liberal Party estimates that the European Union "must react to find a solution to the conflict in Western Sahara".

He recalled that during demonstrations that took place in many cities in the country and in some Moroccan cities, the Moroccan police and army "wounded dozens demonstrators and arrested more than 50 persons, violating thus the most elementary rights of Saharawi citizens". (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 212353 June 05 SPS