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SPS SOUTH AFRICA/AMINATOU HAIDAR/VISIT Aminatou haidar received by the South African Minister for FA in Cape Town 22.06.05
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(Special Envoy)
Cape Town, 21/06/1006 (SPS) The Saharawi Human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Aminatou Haidar, was received on Wednesday evening in Cape Town, by the South African Minister for Foreign affairs, Mrs. Dlamini Zuma, within the framework of the official visit of mobilisation the Saharawi activist is undertaking since Sunday morning in South Africa to inform about the human rights situation in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.
The South African Minister, who was to take part to a dinner offered by the South African presidency to the Chinese Head of State, insisted in receiving the Saharawi human rights militant and declared to Haidar that she wanted from all her heart "to be able to hear from you and to be informed on the situation, but also to express you my solidarity and admiration of your courage and determination to defend the right of your people to freedom".
The Head of the South African diplomacy reiterated "the principled position of her country in favour of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and independence. But also, the determination of South Africa to undertake all necessary measures and efforts to put an end to this problem" of uncompleted decolonisation.
On her side, the Saharawi human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, informed Mrs. Zuma about the nature of the Moroccan repressive practices in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, "characterised by the systematic violations of the human rights, the most fundamental rights of the Saharawi people, as well as the economic, cultural and political rights", Mrs. Haidar said.
"The Saharawi people, who are in peaceful popular uprising against the Moroccan colonialism and against the refusal of the Moroccan Government to subscribe to the international legality, are still struggling to impose the respect of their right to elf-determination and independence, as you did once", the Saharawi human rights activist said addressing the Head of the South African diplomacy.
"South Africa is a giant in Africa, which has experienced the same struggle we are waging, and can thus play a decisive role in the settlement of the political conflict, but can also play a determining role in the protection of the Saharawi women and kids, who are daily suffering the atrocities committed by the Moroccan colonial authorities in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara and in the South of Morocco", Mrs. Haidar added.
The meeting, which was very constructive and intimate between the two women, was also attended by the D.G of the South African FA Ministry, Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluba, and the Deputy Director of the Desk of North Africa within the same Ministry, Mr. Dion Seals.
It should be stressed that Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, had had a very deep and warm meeting for an hour with the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Sue Van Der Merve. The Saharawi human rights activist informed her interlocutor in this very touching encounter about the "very serious situation of the human rights in the Western Sahara".
"It is very dangerous to intervene so as to protect the Saharawi population under occupation. The Saharawi people opted for non-violence as a way of struggle for their legitimate rights, but the Moroccan authorities seems to be determined t face this peaceful movement with more and more violence, brutality and terror", Mrs. Haidar asserted to Mrs. Sue Van Der Merve.
Last Sunday evening, it should be recalled, the South African Director of the North African Department, Ambassadeur Delarey Van Tonder, had declared during a dinner he offered on the honour of Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, in Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria, that it "it is impossible to speak about the development of Africa while a member State of its Union is under colonisation".
Mrs. Haidar had in addition met on Monday morning in Johannesburg, with the Head of the South African National Congress Department of International Affairs (ANC), Mrs. Mavivi Myakayaka-Mannzini, who reaffirmed the commitment of her party "towards your legitimate right to liberation and independence".
On another hand, the Saharawi human right activist, whose visit to South Africa stirred up the concern of the national press, has been interviewed by the South African Satellite TV, SCBS Africa, and was able thus to inform the South African and international public opinion about the Moroccan human rights abuses in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. (SPS)
060/CAPE TOWN/000 212121 June 06 SPS
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SPS SOUTH AFRICA/AMINATOU HAIDAR/VISIT Aminatou Haidar received by the judges of the South African Constitutional Court in Johannesburg
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(Special Envoy)
Johannesburg, 21/06/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, was received on Wednesday morning in Johannesburg, by three South African Judges in the seat of the South African Constitutional Court, famous with its revolutionary architecture and symbol of the South African Union, Justice and supremacy of law in the country.
The Saharawi human rights activist informed the concerned South African Judges, about "the atrocities committed by the Moroccan colonial authorities, especially the violation of the right to fair judgments, to the physical and psychological safety in the detention camps and to the respect of the fundamental rights of the prisoners and accused before, during and after judgments".
"Saharawis are victims to abduction, arbitrary and illegal arrests, torture and ill-treatments, women, kids an old persons are not excluded, rape and sexual abuses exercised by the Moroccan colonial authorities are usual in the Moroccan prisons and inside the Moroccan centres of torture, not to forget that the Moroccan justice is completely under the orders of the Moroccan colonial services of security", she stressed.
Speaking about the "alarming" human rights situation, Mrs. Haidar called on "the South African institutions of justice, South African jurists and judges, to intervene so as to participate in the protection of the Saharawi political prisoners and human rights activists, but also to put pressures on Morocco so as to put an end to its policies of systematic violation of human rights in the Western Sahara, including its violation of the international legality and refusal to respect Saharawi people right to self-determination and independence", Mrs. Haidar added.
On their part, Justice T.H. Madala, Judge Bess Nkabinde and Justice Ngcobo Sandile, expressed to Haidar their deep preoccupation about the precarious situation of the Human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, and called Mrs. Haidar to keep in touch with the South African justice, which "will remain seized by this subject, and remains aware and concerned about the developments", Justice T.H. Madala indicated. (SPS)
060/JOHANESBOUGRGH/000 220925 June 06 SPS
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SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION Trial of four ex-Saharawi political prisoners in El Aaiun
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El Aaiun (occupied territories), 22/06/2006 (SPS) Four ex-Saharawi political prisoners, who arrested last Saturday upon their return to El Aaiun from Boujador, appeared on Sunday before the examining magistrate of the Moroccan colonial court of El Aaiun, according to a press release publicised by the Saharawi Association of the victims of the serious human rights committed by the Moroccan State (ASVVGDHEM).
The SG of the Saharawi Association of the victims of the serious human rights committed by the Moroccan State (ASVVGDHEM), Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbaai, Member of the Executive Bureau of the same, were accused of "constituting a criminal band, inciting to the participation to violence, destruction of public proprieties, insult against employees of the State, membership in an armed group and membership to an illegal association", according to the colonial judge in the Moroccan court of El Aaiun.
The two other victims, Mr. Heddi Mohamed Mahmoud El Kainan and his brother, Heddi Saleh, were accused "of having aggressed a Moroccan policeman", the same press release stressed.
It should be noted that the first two political prisoners are incarcerated in isolated cells, while the two brothers are incarcerated in another cell, the same text indicated.
ASVGDHCEM recalled that the four Saharawi activists are undertaking an unlimited hunger strike since they were arrested, last Saturday, calling to the opening of an investigation on the aggression and torture they were subjected to by the Moroccan forces of repression and asking for been gathered in a single cell, knowing that they are now incarcerated separately in three cell with criminals in the Carcel Negra in El Aaiun.
Another three Saharawi human rights activists and ex-political prisoners, Taoubali El Hafed, Hmeidat Ahmed Salem and Laroussi Lehbib, were arrested the same day in El Aaiun and were expected to be brought before the Moroccan examining magistrate of the colonial court in the occupied capital of the Saharawi Republic, but they were instead incarcerated in the Carcel Negra "without judgment", the text added.
On another han, two Saharawi youngsters were arrested in the locality "la Playa/Feim El Wad" and were led to a police station in El Aaiun so as to be submitted to "al forms of tortures and interrogatories" by the Moroccan colonial police.
In El Aaiun, two other ex-Saharawi political prisoners were arrested in the "Al Inaach" neighbourhood and were led to the station of the criminal police in the occupied city of El Aaiun.
The prisoners are: Mohamed Bahia Rachidi and Mahmoud Moustafa Haddad, who was brutally tortured and abandoned in the street by the repressive forces of security in a very bad state of health, according to his family. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 221030 June 06 SPS
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SPS SADR/AFRICAN UNION SADR signs three African Union’s conventions in Addis-Abeba
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Addis-Ababa (AU), 22/06/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi Ambassador vis-à-vis the African Union (AU), Lehbib Breika, signed on Tuesday at the seat of the African Pan African organisation in Addis-Ababa, the treaty making of African a zone empty of nuclear weapons (Pelindaba treaty), the Protocol of the African Charter for Human Rights and of Peoples relative to the Rights of the women and the Convention of the African Union Committee of Energy, indicated a Saharawi press release.
By adhering these Conventions, the Saharawi Republic signs thus the eleventh treaties and conventions of the 31 African Union texts, of which six were ratified by Parliament, the press release of the Saharawi Embassy in Ethiopia added on Wednesday.
The last convention signed by the Saharawi Republic, on "the Prevention of the struggle against terrorism", last May the 10th in Addis-Ababa, the press release recalled, adding that the Saharawi Republic "will be strengthened every day at an international level". (SPS)
010/090/100/TRD 220910 June 06 SPS
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SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION Big Demonstrations in the occupied city of Smara
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Smara (occupied territories), 22/06/2006 (SPS) Dozens of Saharawi citizens organised peaceful demonstrations, on Wednesday in the occupied city of Smara, to claim the release of the young Saharawi, Saaid Mohamed Baha, who was abducted by agents of the GUS, brutally tortured and led to the criminal police station, concordant sources indicated.
After the announcement of the news, dozens Saharawis organised peaceful demonstrations claiming for the release of the young Saharawi, Saaid Mohamed Baha, who was afterward released in a bad state and urgently transported to hospital.
Another Saharawi youngster, Khatar Mohamed Ahmed Abdallahi, alias 'Merzoug' was brutally tortured by the Moroccan forces of occupation, who abandoned him in a street in a serious state, the same sources added.
In another context, some Saharawi citizens saved Mrs. Mariem khatri, a Saharawi woman, from been stabbed by a Moroccan settler, the same source added.
The Moroccan colonial forces also ransacked Saharawis houses, including the house of Mr. Batal Salek, and aggressed his daughter.
Stocks Saharawi citizen Houssein Mneisir were set on fire by Moroccan settlers, according to the same sources, adding that the Moroccan forces of security "may be behind this affair".
In the occupied city of Bojador, five persons were seriously wounded during a sit-in of solidarity with the Saharawi political prisoners and human rights defenders.
The demonstrators are: Al iza Babeit, Waara Khaya, Noueina Khaya, Mariem Babeit and Khaya Sidi Mohamed (no more than 6 years old", who was brutally tortured by the Moroccan repressive forces in the street.
Another girl, Lamina Babeit, was also attacked by agents of the Moroccan GUS on a motorcycle, after she "participated to demonstrations in favour of independence" of Western Sahara, according to the same sources.
In the occupied city of El Aaiun, two Saharawi youngsters were arrested on Tuesday in the El Aaiun Beach (Feim El Wad) and led to the police station, while a third person, Hamadi Zaibour, was arrested and led to a police station where he was subjected to all forms of torture under the commandment of Ichi Abou Al Hassan, before been abandoned in a very bad situation in a street. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 221210 June 06 SPS
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SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/SOUTH MOROCCO/REPRESSION Saharawi students in Assa call to the liberation of all Saharawi political prisoners
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Assa (South Africa), 22/06/2006 (SPS) Saharawi students in the city of Assa in the south of Morocco, called to the liberation of the Saharawi political prisoners, on Wednesday, and to the lifting of the Medias and military siege imposed on the Western Sahara since its illegal occupation by the Moroccan Government in October the 31st 1975.
The Saharawi students’ movement in Assa expressed its support and "unconditional" solidarity with all the Saharawi political prisoners, especially the arrested students: Cheikh Benga, Oumar Bouragaa and Toubali el Hafed, as well as the SG of the Saharawi Association of the victims of the serious human rights committed by the Moroccan State (ASVVGDHEM), Brahim Sabbar and his compatriots.
The Saharawi students in Assa finally warned against "the repressive acts" the Moroccan State may commit against the Saharawi human rights activist, Mrs. Aminetou Haidar, upon her future return to the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, indicated a press release publicised on Wednesday by the students’ movement, of which SPS received a copy. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 221750 June 06 SPS
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