SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Chahid El Hafed, 23/06/04 (SPS) 330 Saharawi children, from the different Wilayas of SADR, took the flights to Madrid to spend their summer holidays within hosting families in Spanish different regions, indicated Saharawi organisers.

Within the framework of "holidays in peace" programme, some 8300 Saharawi children, from Saharawi refugees' camps, will travel these days to spend two months deserved holidays within Spanish people.

The first groups will head to : Basque, Andalusia, Castilla la Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia and Valencia, it was indicated.
 
In a first stage, these kids will fly to Madrid, where Associations of solidarity with Saharawi people will be in charge of taking them to their Spanish hosting families.

Each group of ten kids is accompanied by a Saharawi adult, who is charged to take care of them during the flight and the sojourn.

"far and deprived of their homeland, of its land and skies, of its beaches and tourist’s places because of Moroccan expansionist policy, this innocent kids travel to the outside world hoping to make new friends, to whom they can tell their dreams, and by the same occasion have fun, visit beaches and forget for a while the atrocities of exile", said UJSARIO’s delegate before the flight. (SPS)

040/090/100 231810 June 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/UN
De Soto: "Baker's plan remains" the reliable solution for a peaceful settlement to Western Sahara conflict

Madrid, 23/06/04 (SPS) Mr. Alvaro de Soto, asserted, on Tuesday in Madrid, that UN "will maintain the Baker Plan as a basis for the search of any peaceful solution to the conflict" in Western Sahara, considering that this plan "remains" the reliable solution to reach the mentioned objective, reported corresponding sources.

In a statement to the press, before intervening in a conference organised by the Foundation for International Relations and Dialogue (FRIDE), Mr. De Soto, asserted that Baker's resignation does not affect the effectiveness of his peace plan nor "the concern UN and its Secretary General have for this conflict".

"Baker's plan II is the optimal solution" to Western Sahara's conflict, indicated Mr. De Soto, recalling that "Security Council, have in fact reiterated that the mentioned plan is the exit and the political solution that will certainly lead to the organisation of a referendum of self-determination" to Saharawi people, stressing that UN does not have other alternative.

On another hand, SG's new Personal Envoy estimated that Spain "can contribute more sufficiently" in the search of a just and lasting solution to the conflict, due to its special relationships with the parties to the conflict, Morocco and Polisario Front.

Mr. Alvaro De Soto, UN’s secretary General new Personal Envoy, who is planning to hold his office in El Aaiun (SADR’s occupied Capital), is planning a visit to the refugees' camps and Rabat, as well as to the capitals of neighbouring countries, added the same sources. (SPS)

060/090/997 231151 June 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/UN
Ghali: "Baker's resignation does not question the validity of his peace plan”

Madrid 23/06/04,(SPS) "the resignation of former UN's Secretary General Personal Envoy, James Baker, does not question the validity of his peace plan", declared Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic representative to Madrid, Brahim Ghali, reported Algerian Press Service (APS).

Brahim Ghali declared that "James Baker's resignation does not question Saharawi people's right to self-determination in accordance with international legality", stressing that "Baker resigned, but he left a peace plan which is unanimously approved by Security Council in its resolutions 1495 and 1541".

On another hand, Mr. Ghali estimated that, "the success" of Baker's successor, the Peruvian Alvaro de Soto, depends of Security Council's ability to gather "conditions that will guarantee the implementation of its decisions", adding that Moroccan intransigence remains the obstacle in front of "the enforcement of the international agreement to organise the referendum on self-determination of Saharawi people", in accordance with UN's peace plan.

Answering a question about Spanish Government position towards Western Sahara's conflict, the Saharawi representative underlined that Madrid has reiterated its commitment to the UN's peace plan during the recent official visit of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Bernardino Leon, to the Saharawi refugees' camps in the 2nd June 2004.
 
He finally hoped that "Spain use its influence to convince the parties to the conflict, to adhere to the idea of self-determination", emphasising that the latter is the "only reliable solution to a just and lasting settlement" of the conflict.(SPS)

040/090/100/TRD 231035 June 04

SPS
SADR/MOROCCO/PRISONERS OF WAR
Saharawi Red Crescent delivers the 100 Moroccan POWs, Polisario Front released, to the ICRC

Chahid El Hafed, 23/06/04 (SPS) Saharawi Red Crescent's President, Yahya Bouhebeini, ICRC's Regional Delegate and officials of MINURSO, attended the handover ceremony of the 100 Moroccan prisoners of war Polisario Front released, Monday, in response to mediation conjointly undertaken by Ireland, the current president of European Union, and Spanish Government, SPS noted.

During his intervention, Mr. Bouhebeini thanked Ireland and Spain for their efforts in favour of peace in Western Sahara, calling ICRC "to pursue its mediations with Moroccan authorities to release the 150 Saharawi fighters still held by Morocco and to highlight the fate of some 500 civil disappeared".

ICRC delegate, Mr. Schmidt hailed Polisario Front "for this humanitarian gesture" and recalled that “this new group arises the number of Moroccan prisoners of war so far released by Polisario Front to more than 1840 ". He also thanked "all those who contributed to this release, especially the Republic of Ireland".

Mr. Schmidt also recalled that his organisation is aware of the dimension of tragedy caused by Western Sahara's conflict, regarding to the question of prisoners of war, disappeared and refugees. He reaffirmed, in this respect, his organisation's commitment to “save no efforts so as to draw light on the fate of Saharawi POWs and disappeareds" still held by Morocco.

It should be recalled that the 100 Moroccan prisoners of war, were unilaterally released by Polisario Front in response to mediation undertaken by Ireland, the current president of European Union, and following a request by the Spanish Government.

In this respect, Irish Minister of State for cooperation, development and human rights, M.Tom Kitt, in an official visit to Saharawi refugees’ camps, had underlined Monday that his "country, which support James Baker's peace plan for Western Sahara will continue supporting UN's efforts for a final solution to the conflict".

Captured by Saharawi soldiers during the war that opposed them to Morocco since it militarily invaded Western Sahara in 1975, the 100 Moroccan prisoners of war took a flight provided by ICRC, this morning, from Tindouf's airport towards Morocco. (SPS)

060/090/000 231025 June 04 SPS