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SPS Opening of an international conference for the decolonisation of the Western Sahara in Madrid 22.04.05
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Madrid, 22/04/2006 (SPS) An international conference for the decolonisation of the Western Sahara was opened on Friday in the "Salon de Actos del Ateneo de Madrid" on the initiative of the Task Force (European Coordination of the Associations of support EUCOCO), the State Coordination of Spanish Associations of solidarity with the Saharawi people (CEAS-Sahara) and the Federation of the Spanish Institutions supporting the Saharawi people (FEDISSAH).
Invited as the guest of honour, the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, attended this conference in company of an important Saharawi delegation.
The conference was also attended by many European Parliament’s Members, local elected officials, Mayors, Spanish regional and municipal councillors and the President of the Algerian Committee of support to the Saharawi people (CNASPS), Mehrez Lamari.
The debates, which were closed in the evening, were marked by the direct intervention of a Saharawi human right activist, who exposed, via a phone call, the sufferings of his people under the Moroccan colonial occupation and the systematic human rights violations in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, where more than 36 Saharawi political prisoners remains in Moroccan custody.
The participants to the conference will organise a demonstration, on Saturday afternoon in front of the Moroccan Embassy, to condemn the Moroccan oppression and human rights violations in the Western Sahara and demand the release of the Saharawi political prisoners, the 151 Saharawi prisoners of war in Moroccan custody and to ask Rabat to account for more than 500 Saharawi reported missing, the organisers indicated. (SPS)
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SPS MR. Abdelaziz: "It is impossible to conciliate between the international legality and the colonial fait accompli"
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Madrid, 22/04/2006 (SPS) "It is impossible to conciliate between the international legality and the colonial fait accompli, been diametrically opposite", declared the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, in his intervention before of the International Conference for the decolonisation of the Western Sahara, organised on Friday in Madrid to the initiative of European Associations of support to the Saharawi people.
"To defend the Saharawi people in heir legitimate right to self-determination, to defend a free, just and transparent referendum is to support freedom and democracy", Mr. Abdelaziz underlined.
"The establishment of a Saharawi State on this basis is a threat to nobody because it will be a peaceful and open country that believes in the values of democracy, justice, equality of genders, freedom of thought, pluralism, peaceful coexistence and relation of good neighbourhood", he hammered.
On the other hand, the Head of the State noted that to "support those who recommend drastic solutions aimed to impose the colonial fait accompli managed on the basis of an illegal military occupation of a territory that is basically under the authority of the UN, such as the solution of autonomy, is to support injustice, autocracy and the violation of the Law and international legality".
Speaking about the UN’s Secretary General’s appeal to direct negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco to unblock the current impasse of the peace process, Mr. Abdelaziz praised negotiations in general if they are to enable peace via peaceful ways.
But, he added, "These negotiations, in the themes of decolonisation, can not be held without content, or on the background of the Moroccan colonial fait".
In the same context, the Head of the Saharawi State noted that Annan’s report to the UN’s Security Council established "a just diagnostic of the situation, but failed to give solution, which is not pertinent compared to this same diagnostic".
"We estimate that the UN’s Secretary General should have been clear, decisive and in accordance with the international legality in his recommendations. In the face of the Moroccan obstruction to the UN’s efforts for the last 30 years, he should have called the UN’s Security Council to impose sanctions against the kingdom of Morocco until it accepts the implementation of the resolutions 1495 and 690 approved by the UN’s Security Council", Mr. Abdelaziz underlined in a statement to the Algerian TV and Press Agency, in a press conference in the margin of the conference of solidarity with the Saharawi people organised in the Spanish capital, Madrid. (SPS)
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SPS "There is no solution out of the self-determination'', President Abdelaziz reiterates
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Madrid, 22/04/2006 (SPS) "There could be no solution to the conflict of the Western Sahara outside the respect of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, through a free and democratic referendum, via which Saharawis can decide over the future of their country", the President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, reiterated on Friday evening in Madrid.
The Head of the State, who was holding a press conference on margin of the International conference for the self-determination and independence of the Saharawi people organised on Friday in Madrid, asked the international community to ''defend the Saharawi people’s right to freedom and self-determination, at a moment, he adds, when Morocco and those supporting it are trying to by pass this right as it was done in 1975''.
''The Saharawi people will never surrender, will never accept the fait accompli and will defend their legitimate national rights", he declared.
In a first evaluation of the UN’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on the conflict of the Western Sahara, the President of the Saharawi Republic noted that this document "succeeded in giving a diagnostic of the problem, but failed in the formulation of adequate recommendations" to resolve the problem.
He underlined that the report includes points that are "positive in general", stressing that it confirmed the fact that the "question of the Western Sahara is an uncompleted problem of decolonisation, and that the solution passes through the respect of the principle of the right to self-determination and enumerated the different human rights violations perpetrated by Morocco in the occupied territories".
"The report also notes that Morocco is accountable for the failure of the UN’s Security Council’s plans, especially the Settlement Plan and the Peace plan for the self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara, since it did not cooperate with the United Nation for the organisation of a self-determination referendum", he added.
The report "rejects the thesis of Morocco on what it called "autonomy", by emphasising that the United Nations does not have the authority to tackle this question, since no country or organisation recognises sovereignty to Morocco over the Western Sahara", he added.
Yet, he said, "in front of the situation of stalemate (of the settlement process), about which Morocco is accountable, we estimate that it is necessary that the UN’s Secretary General asks (in his recommendations) for international sanctions against the Moroccan Government to compel it accept the UN’s Security Council’s decisions on the decolonisation of the Western Sahara and on the self-determination of the Saharawi people".
Asked about the "direct negotiations" the UN’s Secretary General recommends to be held between Morocco and Polisario Font, Mr. Abdelaziz underlined that the "problem is not a question of negotiations, it is instead a question of engagement of Morocco to respect what could be agreed upon after such negotiations".
In this respect, the Head of the Saharawi State recalled that the Settlement Plan of 1991, the Houston Accords of 1997 and the Baker Plan for the self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara are the "results of negotiations". "Consequently, what is needed is that the international community compel Morocco to respect the international legality", he said.
"POLISARIO Front is always ready for negotiations, but the latter must lead to the organisation of a self-determination referendum", he underlined.
He qualified as "unacceptable" the arguments advance by those who try to justify their refusal to support the self-determination referendum by "the fear of a destabilisation of Morocco".
"How is it that peace, democratic solutions, the respect of the international legality and of the UN’s Charter, be considered as sources of destabilisation of countries and regimes", he wondered.
The Saharawi President further warned that the Moroccan "intransigence" and the failure of the UN’s efforts for the decolonisation of the Western Sahara "can lead, as it was the case after the Madrid’s Accords -between Morocco, Spain and Mauritania in 1975- to war. A war to which we can see no limits, nor a number of victims and duration".
Asked about the state o mind of the young Saharawi generation in the territories of the Western Sahara under Moroccan colonial occupation, the Head of the Saharawi State said that these youngsters feel "a great deception and frustration about the role played by the MINURSO during these last 15 years and are facing oppression and show trials".
This deception and frustration is not only felt by the "young generation but also all the Saharawi population, and is so far expressed in peaceful ways", he noted.
He warned, however, that the "practices of the Moroccan Government, its pressures, its rejection of democratic solutions, the repression it exercises against the fundamental freedoms, will make it very difficult to control the reaction of the Saharawi citizens in the future".
"We are deeply preoccupied about the human rights situations in the occupied territories. We came to Madrid to transmit the appeal of the Saharawi people, victims to a brutal repression perpetrated by the Moroccan authorities of occupation, to a Medias black-out and to a complete state of siege that hinders the free access to the territory to the international press and observers", he concluded. (SPS)
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SPS Big demonstrations in the occupied city of Boujdour, rejecting the Moroccan occupation of the Western Sahara
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Boujdour (occupied territories), 22/04/2006 (SPS) Dozens Saharawi students organised, Thursda, two big demonstrations in the neighbourhood "Colomena" and in front of the institute of "Dar Attalib", both in the occupied city of Boujdour, to reject the Moroccan occupation of the Western Sahara and the plan of autonomy proposed by Morocco, reported SPS’s correspondent on the ground.
The young Saharawi students raised the flags of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and chanted slogans in favour of the independence of the Saharawi people’s to self-determination and independence.
Moroccan forces of occupation immediately intervened to disperse the demonstrators, making excessive use of force, and purchasing the students in the streets of the occupied city of Boujdour.
The Moroccan secret services also interpellated the families of the students, so as to force them "sign engagements aimed to compel them stop their sons from participating in future demonstrations or distributing tracts in favour of the independence of the Western Sahara", the same source indicated.
The correspondent of the SPS had elaborated a list of 17 Saharawi students, who were abusively fired from school by the Moroccan colonial authorities in the occupied city of Boujdour.
The students are: Abderrahmane Al Jamii, Kentaoui Kaouthar, Sidi Brahim Al Kharachi, Salek Ballahi Khaya, Aliya Jarfaoui, Tayeb Jarfaoui, Al Vatra Oumel Vadli, Mohamed Chaker Khayar, Safia Khaya, Fatma Babeit, Khirou Deyla, Brahim Hamd, Haboul Sidati, Ngueiguiz Ahmed, Ejwad Kaziza, Mohamed Saleh Hameidi and Mohamed Khaya.
On another han, 5Saharawi unemployed graduated, Khaya Ahmed, Hamina Ahmed, Lembarek Mohamed, Raha Mbarka and Khalfa Moustapha were arrested by the Moroccan colonial forces during a sit sit-in they organised to "denounce these repressive practises against the Saharawi students in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara", the same source added.
The victims were transported under torture to the police station of the occupied city of Boujdour, before been released five hours later, according to the same source. (SPS)
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SPS Abduction of a Saharawi citizen in the occupied city of Dakhla
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Dakhla (occupied territories), 22/04/2006 (SPS) The Moroccan forces of occupation proceeded last Thursday to the ransacking of the family house of Ejwad Kmach and the abduction to his son, Salouk Ejwad Kmach, and transported in a car driven by the Moroccan torturer, Abdellatif Bahri, accompanied by two of his assistants, the correspondent of SPS in the occupied city of Dakhla.
The Saharawi citizen, Salouk Ejwad Kmach, was transported to a police station in the cit, where he was submitted to "all sorts of physical and moral torture" by a group of Moroccan torturers, the same source indicated, adding that the house of Ejwad Kmach "is still under close Moroccan forces of occupation surveillance".
On another hand, the Moroccan colonial authorities of the occupied city of Dakhla designated a special group for the control of cyber-cafés usually frequented by Saharawis, the same source underlined.
In this respect, the Moroccan forces of occupation arrested 4 Saharawi youngsters in a cyber-cafe. The victims are: Talbi Fadili, El houssein Lahbib Ali Lahmar, Lembarki Sid'Ahmed and Labrass Ali Salem.
Moreover, the house of the Saharawi human rights activist, Miské Ahmed Zein, was submitted to "close surveillance by the Moroccan authorities, who are regularly tracking his movement and the houses he visits", after his arrival to the occupied city of Dakhla.
On their side, the Saharawi students in the secondary school "Lissan Eddine Ben Al Khatib", raised the flags of the Saharawi Republic and chanted slogans claiming for "the immediate withdrawal of the Moroccan occupation from the Western Sahara and reaffirming that Polisario Front is the legitimate representative of the Saharawi people".
They also expressed their "solidarity with their fellows in the city of Assa (Sout of Morocco), who are suffering a wide campaign of arrest and a state of security siege imposed on the city by the Moroccan colonial forces".
The Moroccan forces of repression arrested the Saharawi citizens, Al Mansour Lidrissi, Najii Bachir, Kharchi Wissi, what raises the number of the Saharawi arrested citizens to 7 in this southern Moroccan city, the same source added.
In M'hamid ElGhizlan (South of Morocco), the Saharawi citizens organised a sit-in in which they expressed their "rejection of the autonomy announced by the Moroccan Government and asked for the right of the Saharawi people right to self-determination, freedom and independence".
They also "affirmed their engagement to continue the peaceful struggle via the uprising of independence, calling or the immediate and unconditional release of all Saharawi political prisoners and reaffirmed their attachment to the political leadership of the Polisario Front", the same source concluded. (SPS)
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SPS US senators write to the US Secretary of State, Mrs. Condoleeza Rice
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Washington .DC, 22/04/2006 (SPS) Members of US Senate, including Edward Kennedy and Jim Inhofe, addressed a letter to US Secretary of State, Mrs. Condoleeza Rice, on April the 21st, to express their preoccupation regarding the situation of stalemate of the peace process in the Western Sahara, indicated Mr. Mouloud Saïd, Polisario Front’s Representative in Washington, reported by Algerian Press Service, APS.
We write you to express our concern about the subject of the Western Sahara on which the United Nations, the African Union and the International Court of Justice had already recommended Saharawi people’s right to self-determination", they wrote.
The signatories also recalled that in 1991, the UN constituted a mission for the organisation of a referendum in the Western Sahara, the MINURSO, to organise and supervise a referendum that will give the Saharawi people an opportunity to choose between independence or integration to Morocco".
"After many attempts to organise the referendum, Morocco changed its position and opposed the process of self-determination", the American Senators recalled.
They further noted in their address to the US Secretary of State that "credible information reported by Amnesty international, Human rights watch and US Department State, affirm that since May 2005, the Moroccan forces of security lead a campaign of oppression against the Saharawi people in the territories under Moroccan control".
We firmly believe that the right to self-determination is a fundamental right that must be respected in the Western Sahara, and that the United Nations should not be passive in front of such a situation", the writers of the letter wrote to Mrs. Rice, who also call the MINURSO to keep with its mandate to ensure the protection of the Saharawi people and the respect of their human rights.
To the Senators, by implementing the self-determination referendum in the Western Sahara, the United Nations and the international community have got the opportunity to prove that the democratic approach can resolve the most complicated cases such as the case of the Western Sahara".
On his side, the Saharawi Representative to Washington, denounced "the intransigence of Morocco" and asked for a peaceful solution, affirmed that there will be no solution to the Western Sahara question "without the respect of the will and free choice of the Saharawi people through a self-determination referendum".
It should be recalled that the President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, had undertaken a visit to New York and Washington, in the beginning of March, where he met with the UN’s Secretary General, M. Kofi Annan.
In the US Federal capital the Head of the Saharawi State met with Senators and Congressmen, representatives of the America civil society and of Associations of solidarity with the Saharawi people.
On another hand, a meeting by the UN’s Security Council on the question of the Western Sahara will be held in New York, this Thursday, announced the Saharawi Representative to Washington. (SPS)
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SPS The President of the CNASPS underlines the needed "attachment" to the international legality by the UN’s Security Council
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Madrid, 22/04/2006 (SPS) The President of the Algerian Committee of solidarity with the Saharawi people (CNASPS), Mahrez Lamari, stressed, on Friday in Madrid, the needed "attachment" to the international legality by the UN’s Security Council concerning to the settlement of the conflict of the Western Sahara.
"In this crucial stage (...), the UN’s Security Council can not abandon its attachment to the international legality", Mr. Lamari underlined during his intervention before the International Conference of solidarity with the Saharawi people, organised Friday in Madrid.
He noted that "the settlement of disputes can not be conceived in another framework other than Law", because, he said, the conflict of the Western Sahara is "a problem of decolonisation that remains within the strict and exclusive competence of the UN".
"Any solution that does not respect the inalienable right to freedom and dignity of the people of the Western Sahara and does not takes into consideration the defence of their interests is basically an unacceptable solution and is a violation to the international legality", he further affirmed.
"Our most ardent wish is to see the UN’s Security Council enabling the Saharawi people to decide over their future instead of deciding over their destiny", he added.
The President of the CNASPS also denounced "the negative and obstructionist attitude of the Moroccan colonial authorities, which continue to violently oppress of the Saharawi citizens, civil society and human rights defenders" in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. (SPS)
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SPS Demonstration for the decolonisation of the Western Sahara in Madrid
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Madrid, 22/04/2006 (SPS) The Spanish associations of friendship and solidarity with the Saharawi people and the civil platform for a self-determination referendum in the Western Sahara organised a rally for the "decolonisation of the Western Sahara and independence of the Saharawi people", on Saturday in front of the Moroccan Embassy in Madrid.
The demonstrators, who were raising the flags of the Saharai Arab Democratic Republic, denounced the human rights violations the Saharawi populations in the occupied territories are subjected to by Moroccan colonial authorities.
The participants to this demonstration also raised the pictures of the Saharawi human rights activists and placards in which one can read: "Justice for the Saharawi detainees and reported missing", "Stop to treasons", "Morocco genocide-perpetrator".
"Referendum now!", "Freedom for the Sahara", "Morocco culpable, Spain accountable", "Mohamed VI, Sahara does not belong to you", were some of the slogans chanted by the demonstrators.
In a manifest read in the end rally, the organising associations denounced the "arbitrary" to which the Saharawi population in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara are submitted "everyday" and the "human rights violations committed by the Moroccan invading regime".
They also underlined that the "plan of autonomy" announced by Morocco "aims to consolidate the illegal occupation of the Western Sahara and is contrary to all the international resolutions that stipulate the holding of a loyal and transparent self-determination referendum, with the independence of the territory as one of its option".
This plan "is no more than the re-edition of previous failing attempts", which pretended to "usurp the will and the representation of the Saharawis", the associations further affirmed.
They also called on the Spanish Government to "return to the traditional policy" of the Spanish State on the conflict of the Western Sahara, which consists in "the support of the holding of a self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people".
Similar rallies will be organised in many other Spanish cities, the organisers indicated. (SPS)
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