Madrid, 22/10/2006 (SPS) The Spanish NGO « Paz ahora » (Peace Now) denounced the ''the alarming human rights’ situation of the Saharawi population in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara illegally occupied by Morocco'' and expressed its ''solidarity'' with the hunger-striking Saharawi political prisoners.

In a resolution adopted during its recently held General Assembly, Paz ahora, one of the most active Spanish NGOs in the human rights defence, noted that the ''situation of the Saharawi people seriously worsen during the year 2006''.

This deterioration is the consequence of the decrease of the international humanitarian aid to the Saharawi refugees besides the ''permanent and increasingly brutal repression exercised by the Moroccan authorities against the Saharawis'' living in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, especially the human rights activists, the NGO stressed.

''The human rights violations are permanent: illegal detention of demonstrators in Smara, Bojador, El Aaiun, Dajla and other occupied cities, assassination attempts against Saharawi human rights activists in prisons, prevention of political prisoners from medical though they are in critical state of health, sequestrations, torture, ill-treatment and all kinds of abuses perpetrated by the forces of occupation'', the resolution underlined, the Algerian Press Service, APS, indicated.

In the face of such situation, many Saharawi political prisoners detained in the Carcel Negra (Black Jail) and other Moroccan prisons such as the local prisons in the Moroccan cities of Inzegan and Ait Melloul, have started a hunger strike to protest against ''the inhumane treatment and the hard conditions of sequestration they suffer from'', the same source recalled.

Through this hunger strike, it was further recalled, the Saharawi political prisoners demand the end of the human rights violations committed by the Moroccan State against their people and also demand their people’s right to self-determination through a regular and free referendum supervised by the UN, conforming to the pertinent resolution on the conflict.

Paz ahora especially expressed deep concern about the state of health of the Saharawi political prisoner, Said Loumadi, who is undertaking a hunger strike since last August 7.

The NGO launched an urgent appeal towards the Spanish organisations, institutions, public opinion and in particular the Spanish Central Government to express to the Moroccan authorities their ''condemnation of these human rights violations'' and to demand the immediate release of all Saharawi political prisoners.

It also asked for a "categorical rejection'' of the Moroccan so-called Autonomy Plan for the Western Sahara, and to support instead the United Nations reolutions that stipulate the exercise by the Saharawi people of their right to self-determination. (SPS)

020/090/700 221045 Oct 06 SPS

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