SPS OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES/HUMAN RIGHTS Saharawis denounce the attempts
of Morocco to dissimulate the truth over its human rights abuses in
Western Sahara
23.12.04
El Aaiun (occupied territories),
23/12/2004 (SPS) Saharawi human rights activists warned on Tuesday
against "any media exploitation of testimonies and pictures of Saharawi
victims" by the Moroccan body, "Committee for Fairness and
Reconciliation" (CFR), in its attempts to save the Moroccan Government
from its responsibilities of the systematic human rights abuses in
Western Sahara.
In a communiqué publicised Thursday, of which SPS received a
copy, the Saharawi human rights' activists denounced the attempts of
this Moroccan body (CFR) that aims at using the testimonies and
pictures of some Saharawis victims of the atrocities perpetrated by
Moroccan colonial authorities against the Saharawi people.
"We warn against any media exploitation of the testimonies and pictures
of Saharawi victims, taken by the body (CFR) during the collection (by
its commission of investigation) of information about these victims
during its visit of the Sahara last October 2004", aimed at "helping
the Moroccan State avoid its responsibilities in the blatant human
rights' violations committed in Western Sahara since 1975", added the
text.
Noting with great regret the lack of transparency in the demarche
undertaken by this Moroccan body, the Saharawi activists declared that
the sessions of hearings of testimonies "must be followed by a process
that offers reasonable conditions for a fair settlement based on the
revelation of the fate of the Saharawi reported missing, the release of
the living persons among them, the deliverance of the bodies of the
Martyrs to their families, the divulgation of the places of the
collective graves and the sanctioning of the responsible of this
blatant violations", added the communiqué.
Saharawi human rights defenders recalled of the CFR rejection and
marginalisation of the petitions of more than 900 Saharawi victims,
declaring that "the investigation in the Saharawi collective memory
must reveal all the truth, baring into mind that any partial or full
dissimilation of this truth can but be considered as a new violation of
reality".
They also emphasised that the abstention of this body from "designating
the torturers and the implicated authorities in the perpetrated crimes
is an encouragement to these persons in their persistence in the
humiliation of the Saharawi population", underlining the need to answer
"the most urgent petitions of the victims such as petitions for medical
care and social integration".
The Committee for Fairness and Reconciliation is clearly trying to put
pressures on the victims by all means so as to paralyse the movement of
the Saharawi human rights activists by accusing them of certain charges
and by "imposing its unilateral approach for the settlement of the
dossier of the blatant human rights' violations in occupied territories
of Western Sahara", concluded the communiqué. (SPS)
SPS SADR/PARLIAMENT/SESSION Opening of the winter session of
the Saharawi Parliament
Aousserd (refugees' camps),
23/12/2004 (SPS) The winter session of the National Council (N.C-
Parliament) opened on Monday in Aousserd under the chairmanship of Mr.
Mahfoud Ali Beiba, President of the N.C, and with the presence of Mr.
Abdelkader Taleb Oumar, Prime Minister, and his Governmental team.
The President of the N.C indicated that the meetings of this session,
which was stopped until January the 4th 2005 after the end of the
municipal elections that are taking place since the 16th December in
the camps, would evaluate the Governmental programme of the year 2004
and study the new programme of 2005 and adopt it.
"These meetings - which intervenes one year after the 11th Congress of
Polisario Front held last October 2003 in Tifariti, and which coincide
with the end of the first year of the 6th mandate of the National
Council- will be an opportunity for the reinforcement of the relations
and complementarity between the two authorities, legislative and
executive, for the strengthening of the institutions of the Saharawi
State", underlined Mr. Ali Beiba in his speech, estimating that the
experience accumulated by his institution "will not be missing in the
evaluation of the work of the Government and the rooting of democracy".
On another hand, he indicated that his institution has started
constructive dialogue with Saharawi activists and symbols of Saharawi
resistance in occupied territories, as well as Saharawi youth,
"inviting them to contribute in the construction and in the
consolidation of our national institutions", considering that the
struggle for freedom should be led on all fields simultaneously.
On his part, Prime Minister, Abdelkader Taleb Oumar, exposed his report
on the evaluation of the programme of the year 2004 and the head line
of the programme of 2005, which will be axed on "the mechanisms of
execution" of the programme, the "relations with the legislative
authority" as well as "the development of the human resources and of
the material means".
The Government, he underlined, had also given great importance "to the
situation in occupied territories" and the ways to reinforce the
national resistance in the struggle for independence and freedom.
Besides the traditional fields of health and education, at a social
level, the executive wants "to ameliorate the life conditions of the
citizens", strengthen the social institutions and reorganised the
management of the resources of the Government for a better assistance
to the population.
Elected last November 2003, the National Council is composed of 51
members elected via direct vote, is composed of five committees and six
regional bureaux: Social Affairs; Political Affairs, Occupied
Territories and Diaspora, Foreign Affairs, Information, Economical
Judicial and Administrative Affairs.
The National Council is led by a Bureau composed of nine members, under
the Chairmanship of its President and a vice-President in addition to a
General Secretary, Presidents of the Committees and Judicial
Counsellor. (SPS)
SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE