SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/SPAIN/SOLIDARITY
Mobilisation in the Balearic Islands for the release of Tamek and his compatriots

Palma de Mallorca (Spain), 21/07/2005 (SPS) An open mobilisation for the release of "symbol of the Saharawi resistance", Ali Salem Tamek, and his other compatriots detained in Moroccan prisons, was launched in July the 19th in the Balearic Islands by the Spanish associations of support to Saharawi people, reported a press release publicised in Mallorca by the Association of the Friends of the Saharawi people in the Balearic Islands (AAPSIB- in French).

The AAPSIB also called to "the urgent intervention of the United Nations to: stop the barbary perpetrated against the civil population in the occupied Sahara, release Ali Salem Tamek and all other Saharawi political prisoners and to impose the respect of their physical and psychological safety".

It also claimed for "an immediate adoption of a position by the Spanish Government in favour of the respect of the human rights in Western Sahara and the defence without mystification of the right to self-determination of the former Spanish colony", Western Sahara.

On another hand, AAPSIB announced that i twill organised a demonstration next July the 27th in front of the seat of the Spanish Central Government in Palma de Mallorca to defend these claims. (SPS)

010/090/666 211107 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/FRANCE/SOLIDARITY
A French association joins the international campaign for the release of Tamek and Saharawi prisoners of conscience

Paris, 21/07/2005 (SPS) The French Association of the Friends of SADR (AARASD- in French) launched an appeal, Wednesday, to the French authorities and to the UN’s Mission in Western Sahara, Miunrso, to "quickly intervene vis-à-vis of the Moroccan authorities and demand the release of all Saharawi activists, who were arrested because of their opinion".

In a press release publicised Wednesday, AARASD also called French Medias to "urgently pay visits to El Aaiun in Western Sahara so as to get an idea on the situation and break the isolation imposed on Saharawis".

In addition, the association renewed its "firm support" to "the courageous activists and associations of the occupied zones of Western Sahara" and expressed them its "sympathy and indignation in the face of the daily harassment and police brutality they are victims to".

Recalling that the Moroccan colonial authorities "are imposing since a month a state of siege in the main cities of Western Sahara to try, in vain, to stop the wide popular movement that claims, through peaceful demonstrations, the Self-determination and independence of Western Sahara", the association regretted the fact that Morocco "tries now to definitively quiet the Saharawi revolt" through repression.

AARASD, on another hand, felicitate itself of the creation, last July the 12th in France, of a "French Committee for the Release of Amintaou Haïdar and Saharawi prisoners of opinion", calling all human rights’ associations, political parties and French citizens to "join the committee and support its claims".

The mentioned Committee had recently publicised a press release in which it demands "the immediate and unconditional release of Mrs. Aminetou Haidar and Saharawi political prisoners, the withdrawal of the forces of suppression deployed in the Saharawi cities and the stopping of repression against peaceful demonstrations".

It also claimed for "the respect of freedom of expression, information and demonstration in the occupied territories and allow free access, and freedom of circulation and expression for journalists and foreign observers as well as the adherence of Morocco to the international legality starting with the implementation of the UN’s peace plan until the holding of a self-determination referendum". (SPS)

010/090/666/ALG/TRD 211211 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/SPAIN
Spanish Human Rights’ League calls for the release of Tamek and his compatriots

Madrid, 21/07/2005 (SPS) Spanish Human Rights’ League called Wednesday to the release of Tamek and all his compatriots, "imprisoned for having exercised their right to demonstrate in favour of the self-determination of the Saharawi people as the UN’s recommends", declared the League in a press release, of which SPS received a copy.

"We regret that the Spanish Government (the administrating power of the territory) did not undertake firm measures against the Moroccan Government, including ordering the Spanish Ambassador in Rabat to consultations and asking Morocco to implement the UN’s resolutions", the text added.

Estimating that the Moroccan authorities want to quiet Saharawi people, who wants to exercise its right to self-determination conforming to the UN’s resolutions", the League called the Moroccan social society to "demonstrate against the injustice and against human rights violations, to which Saharawi people is victim".

It called on the UN and the international community to "send observers on the grounds o as to put an end to the aggressions against the Saharawi people".

Addressing Spanish Parliament’s groups, the League exhorted them "to refuse to visit the occupied territories without the presence of the members of the Spanish civil society and the Minurso". (SPS)

010/090/666/ALG/TRD 211435 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/SPAIN
Many Spanish associations of solidarity with Western Sahara condemn the detention of Ali Salem Tamek

Madrid, 21/07/2005 (SPS) The Coordination of the Spanish Associations of solidarity with the Western Sahara (CEAS) and the Andalusan Federation of the Associations of solidarity with the Sahara (FANDA) condemned the arrest and arbitrary detention of Ali Salem Tamek, through which Morocco wants to "quiet the voice of freedom of expression of the Saharawi people".

In a joint press release publicised in Madrid, the President of the CAES, José Taboada, estimated that the suppression "can not imprison the Saharawi people nor to strangle his voice".

"Tamek can not be accused of the possession of any weapon but verbs", Mr. Taboada before adding that this is exactly why he was arrested, because "nothing can be more dangerous for Morocco but the freedom of expression after Rabat has tried, for three decades, to make the Saharawi people submit its will".

Mr. Taboada, recalled having met with Tamek during the last meeting of the social Forum in Barcelona. "He was conscious that he will be arrested upon his return, but this possibility did not scare him. Being a symbol to his people he accepted everything with courage and determination", he added. (SPS)

010/090/666/ALG/TRD 211732 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/FRANCE
A French Senator calls on Paris and Rabat to release Mr. Tamek

Paris, 21/07/2005 (SPS) The French Senator and Vice-president of the France-Morocco group of friendship, Robert Bret, called on the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, Douste-Blazy Philippe and Moroccan Ambassador to France to ask for the release of Ali Salem Tamek and all Saharawi political prisoners Morocco detains in its cells.

"I was surprised to know about the arrest of Mr. Ali Salem Tamek by Moroccan authorities upon his arrival to El Aaiun, Monday 18 July", indicated Mr. Bret in a letter addressed to the two officials.

"This arrest, he added, can but be subscribed within the framework of the state of siege imposed by Moroccan authorities since a month, in an attempt to put an end to the action of the Saharawi population that is peacefully claiming for self-determination and independence of Western Sahara".

"The situation is unacceptable. Saharawi political prisoners, including Mr. Ali Salem Tamek, must be released. This is why I address you in order that the French authorities intervene, urgently, vis-à-vis of the Moroccan authorities", concluded the Senator of "Bouches-du-rhône", Secretary of the Delegation of the European Union, in this letter of which SPS received a copy. (SPS)

010/090/666/ALG/TRD 211757 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/SPAIN/SOLIDARITY
Aragon joins the international campaign against the repression Western Sahara

Saragossa, 21/07/2005 (SPS) The association, "Um draiga", friends of Saharawi people in Aragon called for the "immediate release of Ali Salem Tamek and all Saharawi political prisoners" and announced having launched a campaign for the collection of signatures in favour of the stopping of all aid designated to Morocco because Rabat "represses without distinction the Saharawi helpless civil population".

The association also called on Morocco "to put an end to torture, to declare nul the iniquitous judgments of Saharawi citizens and to rise the state of siege imposed on the occupied territories".

On another hand, it called on the Government of Zapatero to "abandon the ambiguity of a discourse that only produce frustration and sufferings among Saharawi people", to assume its historical responsibilities, to honour its moral debt towards Saharawi people, who is "forgotten and many times betrayed" and to exercise "pressures on Morocco to compel it organise a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people". (SPS)

010/090/666/ALG/TRD 211822 Jul 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/INTIFADA/ITALY
Italian Parties "chocked" by the arrest of Mr. Tamek

Roma, 21/07/2005 (SPS) Italian Party of the Greens and the DS expressed, in a joint press release publicised Wednesday, their "concern and chock" about the arrest of Saharawi ex-political prisoner and Human rights activist, Ali Salem Tamek, by Moroccan authorities upon his arrival to the airport of El Aaiun last Monday the 18th of July 2005.

The two political parties considered the abduction of the Saharawi activist and his transfer to an unknown destination as "contrary to human rights and to political freedoms and the most fundamental rights ".

"While the UN’s Security Council pay efforts to activate the peace process in Western Sahara and the organisation of a self-determination referendum that would enable Saharawi people to freely chose their destiny conforming to the UN’s resolutions, Moroccan forces of occupation answered with a brutal repression against Saharawi population", the two parties underlined.

They further launched an appeal to international organisations and to all democratic forces so as to fully assume their responsibilities in "the defence and protection of Ali Salem Tamek and all Saharawi civil population".

The two political parties called on the UN and European Union to get from Morocco a firm engagement of the implementation of the UN’s peace plan, which was singed with the POLISARIO Front and to put an end to the "exactions and intimidations exerted against the Saharawi population, who do only demonstrate, peacefully, to claim its right to self-determination".

It should be noted that the two parities will receive, in the Regional Legislative Assembly’s seat, 80 Saharawi children who are spending their summer’s vacations in Emiglia-Romagna in Italy. (SPS)

010/090/666 211900 Jul 05 SPS